Use in genetic evaluation
Meat & Livestock Australia May 10, 2024
DNA information can also be used in genetic evaluations. This is often referred to as genomic selection by industry.
BREEDPLAN genetic evaluation
In recent years, some BREEDPLAN analyses have undergone significant development to allow the use of DNA information in their evaluations. This is known as Single-Step BREEDPLAN. Australian breeds that are currently using DNA information in their BREEDPLAN analyses (as of June 2024) include:
Breed
Released
Brahman
April 2017
Hereford
October 2017
Angus
December 2017
Wagyu
April 2018
Santa Gertrudis
March 2021
Speckle Park
July 2023
Simmental
September 2023
Droughtmaster
October 2023
Brangus
November 2023
Limousin
November 2023
Charolais
January 2024
A number of other breed societies are working towards incorporating DNA information into their BREEDPLAN analyses in the future. The release of new Single-Step BREEDPLAN analyses will be announced via the BREEDPLAN website.
Implementation of Single-Step BREEDPLAN analyses requires a critical mass of animals with both DNA (genotypes) and performance information (phenotypes). Animals with both DNA and performance information are referred to as a reference population.
Many industry-funded projects have contributed to the large-scale collection of both DNA and performance information. These include the Repronomics project and the Southern Multi Breed project. Breed societies and individual producers have also been involved in the collection of DNA and performance information. Any breeder submitting both genotypes and phenotypes to Single-Step BREEDPLAN are part of the reference population. Their data will help to drive the accuracy of their breed’s genetic evaluation.
DNA is an additional source of information for the BREEDPLAN analysis to use. It does not replace the need for the collection of performance information. Instead, in Single-Step BREEDPLAN analyses, EBVs are calculated from pedigree information, performance information (collected on both the animal and its relatives) and DNA information. The addition of DNA information increases the accuracy of the BREEDPLAN analysis and is particularly informative for traits that are:
- Difficult and/or expensive to measure (e.g. feed efficiency)
- Recorded later in an animal’s life (e.g. fertility)
- Recorded in one sex (e.g. mature cow weight)
- Recorded once the animal is dead (e.g. abattoir carcase traits)
The increase in EBV accuracy once genomic information is included in BREEDPLAN EBVs is not uniform across animals. In general, animals with lower starting EBV accuracies experience a greater lift in EBV accuracy compared to animals with higher starting EBV accuracies.
Overall, the inclusion of DNA information in BREEDPLAN analyses allows beef producers to make more informed decisions on animals at a younger age, which reduces generation interval and increases rate of improvement (Module 1 – Concepts of animal breeding and genetics).