Sire comparison program update
Embracing industry initiatives has meant new information is included in Merino Superior Sires (MSS) 12, which has just been released, providing the wool industry with a reliable tool with which to compare the performance of sires.
The latest publication has adopted the new common language for describing breeding values. Previously MSSBVs (Merino Superior Sires Breeding Values) were used to compare sires, but sires are now compared using Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs), which have been generated using all Merino data from Sheep Genetics Australia (SGA).
Featuring data from individually recorded Merino flocks, MSS sires are also now directly comparable with Merino data reported by SGA.
Anne Ramsay, AWI’s project manager for sheep breeding genetics, says that in most cases, the results in this edition of MSS 12 have greater accuracy than previous editions, due to the increased amount of information known about some sires. "The SGA-based analysis is able to account for the wide variety of environments in which Merino sheep are managed across Australia and the wide variation of genetic performance of Merino sheep," she says. "In this report, ASBVs are reported for each measured trait. As each sire or dam only passes half their genes to their progeny, the difference in progeny for a particular trait will be half the value of the ASBV."
ASBVs are complemented by visual classing summaries, with the number of tops and culls generated by each sire reported. A summary of conformation and wool quality performance is also available.
"The indexes reported differ from those used in the past and have been selected by the Australian Merino Sire Evaluation Association executive to reflect current breeding directions in the Merino industry," Ms Ramsay says.
In order to make MSS more applicable, only sires that have entered the sire evaluation since 2000 will be listed in the printed document. The performance of older sires will remain available via the MSS website.
More information: Merino Superior Sires is distributed to all registered ram breeders and is available free of charge by calling the AWI Helpline on 1800 070 099. To view a more in-depth version of MSS go to http://mss.csiro.au
Return to Beyond the Bale Issue 27 index page.