Michael Aldridge - Postgraduate Scholarship

Summary

​B.STU.0295: Genetic improvement of Australian meat goats was a PhD project supported by MLA through the University of Adelaide. The project was focused around animal breeding and genetics and minimising kid losses between birth and weaning with linkages to kid survival utilizing traits in KIDPLAN. Findings from this work undertaken by Michael Aldridge are summarised below:

Based on KIDPLAN data, the kid survival trait for Australian Boer goats evaluated had a mean of 0.72, phenotypic variance of 0.14 and a heritability of 0.09.

Heritabilities and genetic correlations for production traits in KIDPLAN have been updated.

There was some evidence that genetically, survival of singles, twins and multiples should be treated as separate traits but this is difficult to implement.

Industry surveys showed that there was strong agreement between the seedstock breeders, commercial producers, and rangeland harvester groups. The key priorities were for increasing growth and weaning rates, and decreasing internal parasites.

Economic values were calculated using production and market values from industry, which showed weaning weight and reproductive traits to be the most important traits economically.

A new balanced selection index, "Kid Plus" was developed. It uses updated parameter estimates, industry requirements and economic values. It is a balanced index placing emphasis on growth, reproduction and health, while maintaining leanness.

To ensure ongoing genetic progress there needs to be an increase in the number of producers using KIDPLAN, an increase in the producers submitting data on carcase and health traits, and better recording practices of reproductive and pedigree information.