Angus Group Breedplan has been able to dramatically refine its measurement benchmarks with the submission of 3000 carcase records from Te Mania Angus.
Te Mania Angus director Tom Gubbins says the 3000 records – gathered through the stud’s Team Te Mania program – will also provide a significant benefit for the whole Angus industry.
Tom says the massive data collection program in 43 Team Te Mania herds across three states will help fast-track the next generation of Breedplan traits.
“Any measurement process can only move forward in parallel with the information it receives,” Tom says.
Angus Group Breedplan has pioneered objective measurement in the Australian cattle industry, giving stud breeders and commercial producers the science they need to boost their genetic profiles
The information we have just given Breedplan is its largest single injection of data since Beef CRC1 in the early 1990s.
And its benefits are becoming immediately obvious by proving, for example, carcase slaughter weights are heavier now than they were back in the early ’90s.
As a consequence of that, analysis of carcase traits is now compared as 400kg instead of the 300kg previously used.
The science shows that the genetic relationship between the level of marbling at 300 kg and at 400 kg is very high, so the comparison at 400kg will not change breeders’ ability to select animals to suit a range of carcase targets/market targets
This change will have very little, or no, impact on the ranking of the animals or change the pressure on mature weight in the index. But it does mean we are now using the correct baseline for benchmarking.
Tom said the new data also showed calving ease heritability is now higher than first thought.
Which means, he says, that genetics have more influence on calving ease and as a result the calving ease EBV has a greater spread.
The base has been changed – EBVs in the April 2014 Breedplan run cannot be compared with EBVs run before that.
With every advance such as this we learn more about genetics and their influence on the phenotypes of the animals which have inherited them.
And the relationship between recorded traits has been changed to better reflect the industry’s current understanding of them.
It is important for breeders to understand there has been no change to the economic weights on traits in the indexes.
Also these changes in the ranking of the animals in the indexes are due to changes to the science, through heritability and correlation between traits, and not economic assumptions.
Most crucially this quantum leap forward in data management for the breed and the careful and rigorous science behind it ensures Angus will remain at the forefront of objective measurement and in providing the food chain – from conception to consumption – with a more consistent product.
And in the end that’s what it is all about. The Angus breed delivering the consumer with that consistently high-quality product which has set us apart from other beef breeds.
