Effects of selection accuracy, risk and young ewe fertility on breeding program design

Title
Effects of selection accuracy, risk and young ewe fertility on breeding program design
Publication Date
2014
Author(s)
Newton, Joanna E
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2686-3336
Email: jnewto22@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:jnewto22
Brown, Daniel
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4786-7563
Email: dbrown2@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:dbrown2
Swan, Andrew
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8048-3169
Email: aswan@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:aswan
Dominik, Sonja
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8539
Email: sdomini2@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:sdomini2
Van Der Werf, Julius H
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2512-1696
Email: jvanderw@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:jvanderw
Type of document
Conference Publication
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
American Society of Animal Science
Place of publication
Champaign, United States of America
UNE publication id
une:17585
Abstract
Selecting breeding animals at younger ages reduces generation interval, but also increases risk for long term profit because selection is less accurate and for management decisions because there is more variation in early reproductive performance of ewes. This study simulated different flock age structures and young ewe fertility levels in Merino breeding programs and compared average genetic gain and variation in genetic gain. Genetic gain increased by 18% when ewe fertility at 1 year of age increased from 10% to 90%. Age structure mainly influenced the risk of a particular breeding program design, as measured by increased variation in outcomes. Early selection in one or both sexes increased risk due to low accuracy of selection. The recent advent of breeding values utilizing genomic information presents opportunities to increase selection accuracy at younger ages and reduce the risk associated with early selection.
Link
Citation
Proceedings of the 10th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production (WCGALP) (Species Breeding: Sheep and goats (Posters)), p. 1-3
Start page
1
End page
3

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