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Merinos to Match – The Right Sheep for Your Environment

The potential for wool producers to increase productivity through genetic improvement can be great, but there has been little comparative information about studs to help Victorian

By Department of Primary Industries - 20th December 2006 - Back to News

producers select where to go with any confidence – until now!

Five years ago DPI and the Victorian Stud Merino Sheepbreeders Association, developed a project called Merinos to Match – the right sheep for your environment, to evaluate merino studs over a number of environments.

The final across-site report for the Merinos to Match project is now available.

Project leader and Wool Extension Officer with DPI, Ms Jane Court, is very excited about the release of this report.

Ms Court said, "The Merinos to Match project is an industry first as it was specifically designed to evaluate studs, not rams or commercial flocks in a number of locations. Evaluating the performance of sheep in different environments is a big concern for producers".

Twenty- nine Victorian studs participated in one or more of four sites, many of these not involved in trial evaluations before. Sites were run at Elmore, Hamilton, Dookie and Stawell.

Ms Courts said, "The results from all sites were combined using link teams and this final report is for the all of the 29 participating studs. Reports for each site have been published separately. Where studs participated in more than one site they performed similarly, relative to others, in different environments".

This report provides comparisons for most fleece and carcass traits for all studs. There was quite large variation in bodyweight within stud teams indicating that pre-trial nutrition may still have had some effect. This indicates that trials, unlike Merinos to Match, that source sheep from one flock to represent a team, may measure bodyweight differences between teams that are not due to genetics.

The potential improved returns, depending on the breeding objectives, for an ‘average’ flock of 3000 medium merino wethers was estimated at about $4000 to $5000 per year. Indexes were used to put dollar figures on the potential gains from using particular studs. These were made up of a number of traits with economic weightings to distinguish between different breeding objectives. These included a dual purpose index and two wool indexes, one focussed more on fine wool production. The results emphasise that the best choice of stud depends on the individuals breeding objectives.

Ms Court said, "For some commercial producers there are significant opportunities to change studs. For others, there may not be the same potential benefit from changing studs, but the large variation that exists within studs can still provide big benefits".

To obtain a copy of the Merinos to Match Across-Site Final Report please contact Jane Court at DPI Seymour on 5735 4351 or Gary Hallam at DPI Horsham on 53 620 757.

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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