Modelling the economic benefit of utilising genomic information to the wool and meat sheep industries

Summary

In 2011, the first genomic research breeding values have been released. To further adoption of such new technology for genetic improvement, it is important to provide breeders with an understanding of the benefits they can gain and how that relates to the cost of this particular technology. 
 This study evaluated 21 case studies across Merino, maternal and terminal sire sector for the economic benefits that can be gained from using genomic information of varying accuracy and how much they can afford to pay for the technology. All sheep breeding sectors benefited from the inclusion of genomic information. The main influencing factor on the benefit was the increase in accuracy that can be achieved by adding genomic information. Therefore, the benefit was the highest for the Merino sector, because maternal and terminal breeding operations generally have high index accuracy. Merino indexes however include life time production traits, like adult fleece characteristics, that are not actually measured, which reduces index accuracy. Such indexes benefit greatly from the inclusion of genomic information. 
In addition, Merino breeders can consider early ram selection at 8 months of age, because genomic information on rams own performance is available as soon as birth. This decreases the accuracy compared to later selection, but is overall beneficial due to the reduced generation interval. Further research is needed to ensure successful implementation of genomic technology on-farm. The results of this study have been presented to the participating breeders in a workshop setting.