Software allows breeders to customise

AbacusBio scientist Neville Jopson and South Canterbury ram breeder Robert Peacock try out the RamFocus software.

05-12-2008 | Gerard Hall

Ram breeders should find it easier to match rams to clients' flocks with the help of a new software package.

The technology has been developed by AbacusBio for Sheep Improvement Ltd (SIL). It allows ram breeders to customise breeding indexes to meet the objectives and production demands of each client's farming business.

RamFocus is one of a suite of services AbacusBio has developed for ram breeders as part of its ‘Accelerator' breeding package.
The package uses SIL records to increase rates of genetic gain in ram breeders' flocks. That then flows into their clients' commercial sheep flocks.

AbacusBio's Neville Jopson says the idea behind the development of RamFocus is recognising every farming business is unique and has its own goals and aspirations.

Jopson says most sheep breeding indexes have been tailored to the industry's production averages, or to the average of a segment of the industry.

While they do a good job for an average situation, the goals of some ram buyers are sufficiently different that a customized index is worthwhile. Some are looking for rams with high genetic worth for one or several specific traits and not others.

RamFocus has been designed to go this next step and allow breeders to customise the ranking of rams for individual ram buyers. This means buyers are able to match the genetic merit of the ram team they buy each year more closely to their farming goals and expectations.

Easily navigated, the software is simply installed on to the breeder's laptop. They then work directly with their clients.

Clients are asked a list of 24 short questions about their property, including the performance of their sheep flock, future breeding objectives and business direction. RamFocus develops economic weightings for each of the traits under selection and builds them into a customised breeding index.

"This identifies for the ram breeder the key drivers that are required to move the genetic merit of a client's ewe flock to the next level. It takes the breeding values and develops a customised index for their clients to use at ram selection time."

Rams are then simply re-ranked in order of their new index. Those that best match the client's needs are ranked from number one downwards.

Jopson says the economic weightings given to a specific trait are not necessarily the same for each buyer as their sheep flock may have different performance levels.

When it comes to buying rams, there is no one size that fits all. For example, some farmers are very concerned about drench failure while some are less concerned because there may be a low risk of a drench failing on their farm.

"Having a high or low risk of drench failure can alter the ranking of the rams."

This means farmers in a high risk situation are now able to place more weighting on drench resistance when customizing a selection index.

Jopson also gives the example of the additional profit that may be gained by increasing lambing percentages. It will differ from property to property depending on the lambing performance already being achieved within the flock.

"On properties where the number of lambs born per ewe is low and there is the potential to increase lambing percentage, the profits from producing an extra lamb is high. However when lambing percentages are already high, the marginal value of an extra lamb born can be less because of the poorer survival of multiple-born lambs, especially triplet borns."

On some properties the economic value of increasing lambing percentages may be negative.

Rams can therefore be re-ranked to identify those that will return the highest dollar return to their buyer.

RamFocus is simple to use and has obvious benefits. Adding it to the toolkit allows ram breeders to match their clients with rams that have the best genetic merit for the specific traits they are seeking to improve.

The design allows ram breeders to use it as part of their client management system.

Ram breeders can focus on what is important to each of their clients and assist them when setting the future direction of their breeding programmes. As well as displaying all the breeder's rams, the details of each ram sale can be recorded. This includes who purchased it, the price paid and any general comments.

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