MLA’s Michael Crowley

MEAT & Livestock Australia has released a series of timely tips and tools for wool, sheep meat and commercial beef producers looking to buy high-performing sires to improve productivity in their flock or herd.

With the spring ram and bull-selling season underway, producers can access several videos and a webinar through MLA’s online genetics hub.

A suite of animated tutorials, focussing on ‘How do I shop for a high-performing ram?’ or ‘How do I shop for a high-performing bull?’ have been developed to help producers put breeding values into practice.

A webinar recording is also available, demonstrating how producers can find bulls that meet their breeding objective on the BREEDPLAN databases.

The videos have been produced for Merino and prime lamb producers, and temperate and tropical cattle enterprises. The video and webinar tools continue its roll-out of genetic resources designed to inform producers about the role of genetics in helping to improve on-farm productivity and profitability, MLA said.

MLA general manager – producer consultation and adoption, Michael Crowley, said visual and structural assessments of potential sires remain vitally important, and using genetic selection tools including Estimated Breeding Values and Australian Sheep Breeding Values is just as critical.

“Shopping for a high-performing sire involves factoring in what you can and can’t see. Hard to measure traits such as fertility and eating quality require tools such as breeding values to help make progress in improving profitability.

“This means creating a shortlist of high performing sires that meet your targeted breeding outcomes using objective selection, then on sale day, choosing sires from that shortlist that meet your physical assessments and budget,” Mr Crowley said.

“Over recent months, MLA has been communicating the benefits of improving selection of sires assisted by using breeding values through producer case studies, Pick the Performer ads and animated videos showing how to get started with using breeding values.

“MLA now has videos to share on how producers can put breeding values into practice in the lead up to bull and ram buying.”

To view the latest videos, click on the following links:

• How do I shop for a high-performing bull? – video for tropical cattle producers
• How do I shop for a high-performing bull? – video for temperate cattle producers
• How do I shop for a high-performing ram? – video for prime lamb producers
• How do I shop for a high-performing ram? – video for Merino producers

How do I shop for a high-performing bull?  – webinar recording, featuring a live demonstration of finding high-performing bulls on the BREEDPLAN databases