The importance of good data
THE Teagasc National lowland sheep conference was recently held in Killarney, where researcher and geneticist Noirin McHugh outlined how data from commercial sheep farms can help to increase the rate of genetic gain being made in Irish sheep flocks.
The introduction of national genetic indices are crucial to enable farmers to make more informed breeding and selection, decisions to ensure that they have the desirable combination of genetics for their flock.
Genetic gain has been clearly seen across the dairy and beef sectors with the EBI and Eurostar Indices.
Previously a large proportion of the data generating the sheep genetic indices was originating from pedigree flocks.
However, in recent years there has been a large emphasis placed on the collection of data from commercial flocks.
This data allows for pedigree rams to be evaluated in a real, commercial environment, thereby ensuring rams with positive attributes are identified for the commercial farmer.
The Sheep Ireland €uro-star indices were introduced in 2009 with the aim of providing sheep farmers with an additional tool for the selection of breeding animals.
The genetic indices aim to identify a low-cost, easy-care sheep with good maternal characteristics, but that also produces a good-quality lamb that reaches slaughter at an early age.
This is being done using two indices, which are the Terminal and Maternal Indexes.
Again, this is similar to the beef sector, where a bull has a Terminal and Replacement Index value.
The Data Quality Index (DQI) is an index that ranks each flock based on the quality and quantity of the data recorded on the flock over the previous year.
This index can be used to help commercial farmers to identify pedigree flocks that are recording a large amount of data as accurately as possible.
Although €uro-star indices are generally only available on pedigree rams, Sheep Ireland has placed increased emphasis in recent years on data generated on these pedigree rams on commercial flocks.
There are a number of national commercial recording programmes ongoing currently, but the overall aim is to increase this number to generate more accurate indexes.
In commercial flocks, rams from different breeds are mated to a central group of commercial ewes, and their progeny performance is recorded. Information on the progeny, managed in a commercial environment, feeds back into the genetic indices of the pedigree rams used and also all his relatives.
Currently, 10,000 ewe and 15,000 lamb records are produced annually, with known ancestry and detailed information such as lambing, lamb growth, health or ewe fertility performance.
This data feeds directly into the evaluations of the rams that are evaluated on these commercial flocks, but also on close relations of these rams.
Data from commercial grassbased flocks now makes up approximately 50per cent of all data entering Sheep Ireland each year.
This ensures that pedigree rams are tested in a pure commercial environment, and should ensure that the genetic indexes of any pedigree rams are more reflective of how that ram would perform in a commercial flock.
Sheep Ireland now provides a service and the tools for commercial farmers to monitor flock performance.
This information can be used by individual commercial farmers to assess the whole flock performance and doesn’t necessarily need to include information on dam or sire of individual lambs.
This includes detailed management reports on pregnancy scan data, ewe and lamb weights and health data.
The €uro-star indices are an important tool now available to sheep farmers to allow them to make a more informed decision prior to buying a ram for use on their flock.
The large amounts of commercial data now feeding into the €uro-star indices ensure that rams are ranked on their potential performance in a commercial environment.
Teagasc and Sheep Ireland will continue to work closely with industry partners to ensure that continuous improvements are made to the €uro-star indices. Support from commercial flocks in terms of recording data will be a key factor in the future if the rate of genetic gain is to be increased within the national sheep flock.