Evaluating Australian bulls on indexes of other countries and international bulls on Australian indexes

Abstract

This paper briefly describes a new facility, developed within 'BreedObject on the web', where Australian seedstock (eg. bulls, semen) are able to be ranked on overseas and Australian indexes as well as overseas seedstock ranked on Australian indexes. The development was at the request of Australian and overseas breeds, who agreed to share the availability of their indexes. Through the ability of ‘BreedObject on the web’ to calculate indexes on-line, and through its on-line access to breed databases, results for the indexes of different countries are able to be reproduced, on demand, for any selection of animals from the databases. The facility has the potential to assist the export of superior Australian seedstock, and to expand the gene pool for Australian breeders by increasing the effectiveness with which animals with desirable genetic merit are identified in overseas populations.