ANNUAL OUTCOMES REPORT
2024-2025
Welcome to the Annual Reports where we highlight achievements throughout the year
Welcome to the Annual Reports where we highlight achievements throughout the year
Welcome to the Sheep Genetics Annual Outcomes Report for 2024-25. This report highlights the achievements, activities and impact of Sheep Genetics over the past year, showcasing the collective efforts of our members, service providers, industry partners and team. Through the continued delivery of LAMBPLAN, MERINOSELECT and KIDPLAN genetic evaluations, Sheep Genetics remains committed to providing reliable, industry-leading tools that support informed breeding decisions and drive long-term productivity, profitability and sustainability across Australia's sheep and goat industries. We thank all participants for their ongoing support and contribution to the success of the program.
Sheep Genetics provides genetic evaluation services for Australia’s sheep and goat industries.
Assisting producers in breeding or purchasing animals by offering Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs) through
As well as Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs) via
Since its establishment in 2005, this service, operated by Meat & Livestock Australia, has been providing tools and information to help improve animal breeding.
Sheep Genetics run LAMBPLAN and MERINOSELECT genetic evaluations bi-monthly, which involves a significant amount of data from pedigree information, on-farm phenotypes, genotypes, as well as research data to calculate Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs) for multiple trait groups.
Click the more information link below to access information on:
Some key highlights of engagement the Sheep Genetics team has had with clients, Service Providers, and the greater industry over the past twelve months.
High quality data is significantly correlated with higher rates of genetic gain, due to increased accuracy of ASBVs and therefore a higher selection accuracy. Sheep Genetics members have access to a Data Quality Score (DQS) Report which highlights important aspects of data quality.
Meat & Livestock Australia currently has over 30 projects contracted for research and development (R&D) in Livestock Genetics, including projects in both sheep and beef. The projects and outcomes of livestock R&D investments are managed by the Genetics team, who sit alongside the Sheep Genetics team. This means that R&D investments into sheep genetics projects have a clear commercialisation stream, from project investment to industry education, adoption, and implementation. Some key sheep genetics projects that MLA have current investments include: the Resource Flock and the OVIS Consent Project, which includes a significant focus on the Combined LAMBPLAN analysis, a shedding sheep genetic selection project, Flock Profile accuracy, and sustainability and welfare projects.
Sheep Genetics clients and service providers have been busy in the last year working hard to communicate the importance of genetics and how people can improve their productivity and profitability using genetic selection. A whole suite of media articles and publications were released across the past 12 months on genetics in the field, including:
The Sheep Genetics team has written, developed, and updated several resources over the course of the last 12 months which are aimed at helping producers understand ASBVs and the Sheep Genetics analysis, as well as how to get the most out of genetic selection.
Good genetics: the backbone behind Ricky’s flock in dry times