The Repronomics Project - Enabling Genetic Improvement in Reproduction in Northern Australia

Abstract

This paper provides a brief description of a large breeding and genotyping project currently being conducted in northern Australia using three tropically-adapted beef breeds. Intensive recording of early-in-life female reproduction phenotypes using real-time ultrasound on large numbers of females will significantly increase the size of the genomic reference populations for these key traits and breeds. This phenotypic data, along with high density SNP genotypes, will provide crucial data to enable the effective implementation of new BREEDPLAN genomic evaluations currently being developed for the Australian beef industry, and will assist in increasing the accuracy of selection, especially in young bulls. The project design will also allow investigations of GxE interactions for female reproduction traits; the potential development of new traits; and methodologies required for the implementation of across-breed genomic evaluations.