Sire nominations are now open for the next round of the Angus Sire Benchmarking Program in order to produce the cohort 11 progeny.
Nominations for the cohort 11 sires will remain open until Monday August 3rd, for a September joining. The joining program expected to involve over 2,000 Angus cows across five co-operator herds.
Angus Australia Strategic Projects Manager Christian Duff encourages Angus producers who may be considering nominating sires for the program to go through the nomination process, highlighting the benefits of entering bulls in the program.
"The ASBP contributes greatly in the building of the genomics reference population of Angus cattle, which assists Angus producers by providing important data for research projects and, most importantly, providing more accurate estimated breeding values on Angus animals for selection," he said.
"ASBP sires are generally at the cutting edge of the research such as being the first group of animals to be provided with Research Breeding Values. Recent examples include the coat type and immuneDEX breeding values."
The benefits of bulls entering the ASBP include:
- . Close genetic linkage to the Angus Australia genomics reference population ensures research outcomes will be highly relevance to your herd.
- . Be involved in world leading research in areas such as genomics tools, eating quality image technology and testing for immune competence.
- . Receive high accuracy EBVs, particularly for hard to measure traits such as feed intake, abattoir carcase data and female reproduction.
- . Receive progeny average values and sire rankings from within the ASBP, including traits such as MSA Index and MSA Marble Score.
- . Involvement in Australia's largest and longest running beef cattle progeny test program including large contemporary groups.
Approximately 40 bulls will be selected for the 2020 joining program with the aim to join each bull to at least 50 cows by fixed time AI. The bull selection criteria will be based on genetic diversity, breeding values, selection indexes and their relationship to sires already used in the ASBP. Preference will also be given to early nominations.
For all questions in relation to the nomination process or the ASBP in general please contact Christian Duff, Angus Australia Strategic Projects Manager M: 0457 457 141 or email: christian@angusaustralia.com.au