Identification of climate-resilient Merino sheep using satellite images

Title
Identification of climate-resilient Merino sheep using satellite images
Publication Date
2023-07-26
Author(s)
de las Heras-Saldana, S
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8665-6160
Email: sdelash2@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:sdelash2
Suarez, L A
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4233-2172
Email: lsuarezc@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:lsuarezc
Wahinya, P K
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4268-6744
Email: pwahiny2@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:pwahiny2
Bunter, K L
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5587-4416
Email: kbunter2@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:kbunter2
Brown, D J
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4786-7563
Email: dbrown2@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:dbrown2
Editor
Editor(s): Hatcher, Sue
Type of document
Conference Publication
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics (AAABG)
Place of publication
Armidale, Australia
UNE publication id
une:1959.11/55799
Abstract
This study aimed to evaluate the potential use of data from Landsat 5 TM, 7 ETM+, and 8 OLI and meteorology SILO databases to characterise variation in environmental conditions across farms and identify resilient sheep with a low response in performance to changes in the temperature-humidity index (THI) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). A total of 44,848 Merino sheep from 27 farms across Australia were used in this study. The dataset included sheep with complete pedigree and measurements for weaning weight (WWT) and post-weaning weight (PWT). The average NDVI and THI values during the 9 months prior to the phenotypic measurement were used in a linear reaction norm (RN) model with heterogeneous residual variances. The results revealed genotype by environment (GxE) interaction for WWT and PWT between extreme environments with reranking of sires' estimated breeding values along the NDVI gradient. Higher heritability and genetic variances were estimated in favourable environments. Accounting for GxE interactions could lead to a more accurate selection of resilient sheep to changes in climatic and vegetation variables in Australia, and existing environmental data is enabling for this purpose.
Link
Citation
Proceedings of the Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics, v.25, p. 394-397
ISSN
1328-3227
Start page
394
End page
397

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