Graphical Modelling of the Relationship Between Body Reserves and Yearling Reproduction in Maternal Sheep

Abstract

The underlying causal relationship between traits associated with energy reserves and yearling reproduction is often a cause of conjecture within the sheep industry in part due to anecdotal evidence often mistaking phenotypic associations with genetic. The use of graphical models to disentangle the underlying causal relationships between traits associated with energy reserves and yearling reproduction showed that selection for sires with high post-weaning fat and muscle will have little impact on the reproductive performance of the resulting progeny as yearling dams.