Case study: early adoption drives accelerated progress at Centre Plus
Cooperative Research Centre for Sheep Industry Innovation
Website: sheepcrc.org.au
A willingness to try something new and to adopt technology early has dramatically changed the Mortimer family’s sheep breeding operation for the better in Central West NSW. The Mortimers, based at ‘Devondale’ at Tullamore in Central West NSW, run the breeding nucleus of 1200 ewes for the Centre Plus Ram Breeding Group.
Centre Plus has always been open to new technology and virtually all the technology in use was adopted very early. In the early days it was as simple as micron testing of the ewes. Now they use Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs) and routine DNA testing. Whenever the latest genetic tools come on the market the Mortimers are looking at them and itching to be involved in using them early.
By incorporating advanced genetic measurement tools including DNA testing into the business, the Mortimers have been able to introduce proven genetics to the nucleus flock a full year earlier than under traditional management systems. In order to put selection pressure on objectively measured traits some of the visual selection pressure has been reduced.
The breeding objectives for Centre Plus have always been focused on the ‘all purpose Merino’. At the beginning it was growth rate, fertility and lowering micron, while holding fleece weight steady. Over the last decade the focus has moved from reducing micron to increasing fleece weight and improving other traits such as worm egg counts, eye muscle and staple strength. The Mortimers willingness to adopt new technology opened the way for Centre Plus to be an early participant in the Cooperative Research Centre for Sheep Industry Innovation (Sheep CRC) Genomics Pilot Program. The early results of that program revealed the potential gains on offer from DNA testing and as a result Mr Mortimer has since tested 20 per cent of the male drop each year for traits aligned with Centre Plus’s breeding objectives.
At weaning time about 20 of those 100 ram lambs are selected to be potential sires, and they are taken out and fed to reach breeding weight at six months. At that stage, six of those young rams will be chosen to go out into the mating program. Mr Mortimer was also an early user of the Sheep CRC’s DNA test for parentage to give a clearer picture of the genetic make-up of young animals. The Mortimers are using genomic information to select rams at six-months of age and are impressed with how close the performance of the progeny are to the ASBV predictions. By using six-month-old rams the genetics are also getting into the flock a whole year earlier and allowing them to speed up their genetic gain considerably.
There is an understandable wariness in the industry about new technology because it is human nature to be hesitant about relying on a technology when you do not know exactly how it works. The Mortimers’ philosophy is that you have to force yourself to make changes, and back it up with measurements to make sure that it worked as expected.
As the Mortimers’ look for the next technological advance to improve their genetic gain they will be keeping a close eye on the improving DNA technology and the Sheep CRC’s work in full sequencing. DNA technology is very exciting because it opens up completely new ways of doing things in sheep breeding and selection.
More information on objective selection tools, ASBVs and DNA testing is available at sheepcrc.org.au.