Quantifying the linkage between genetics represented in the Southern Multi-Breed project and the wider Australian beef populations

Abstract

<p>Southern Multi-Breed (SMB) is a landmark five-year project, collecting high-quality phenotypes and genotypes on animals from six breeds, managed in multi-breed groups at five NSW Department of Primary Industries research herds. Data collected will enhance genetic evaluations and facilitate the development of a multi-breed genetic evaluation. The project design focussed on selecting foundation cows and sires to represent the breed's populations. This paper aimed to quantify the linkage between the genetics represented in the SMB project and the breed populations. Within each breed, the average relationship coefficient of each animal to SMB foundation cows and sires and all animals in the breed was calculated and plotted to form a visual metric of the linkage. Regression slopes between 1.11 and 1.37 and correlations between 0.86 and 0.99 were calculated from the plots. The visual and quantitative metrics indicated that the genetics in SMB represent the breed populations. Therefore, the reference data collected as part of SMB will benefit the broader industry.</p>