Meeting Breed Objectives for Profitability
BreedObject is a selection indexing system utilized in Australia to help breed cattle for future profitability.
“Change is constant,” said Brad Walmsley of the animal genetics and breeding unit at the University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia during the online Beef Improvement Federation Symposium and Convention. “Over time, markets and production systems evolve. All of that involves improvement.”
The idea of consistently improving the industry is what BreedObject, a selection indexing system utilized in Australia, is all about, Walmsley said. The system is a part of Breedplan, a genetic evaluation system for beef cattle that is based in Australia, and sets out to help improve profitability in the country’s commercial operations.
Walmsley said Breedplan is a multi-trait evaluation tool that in 2015 added $5 per cow per year in some of their better herds. Program administrators continually look for ways to help increase this profit gain. Walmsley added that BreedObject is one of their best endeavors to help commercial producers make mating decisions to add to future profitability.
Research for BreedObject began in the 1980s and was released to the public 10 years later. The system looks at the entire commercial production system — from birth to slaughter — and treats each new mating as a new and unique combination of genes, Walmsley said. “These genes play a crucial role in the success of the beef industry in developing a quality product for our customers at the end of the supply chain.”
The driving force of this indexing system is the profit equation, which Walmsley said is simply income minus costs.
While this may seem like a simple math problem, Walmsley said, the complexity comes with the numerous traits that affect profit to varying degrees and diffe for each individual cattle operation. He lists calving ease, growth, feed intake, fertility and calving ease as a few of these traits. Each trait comes into play multiple times during the production chain, complicating the profit equation further.
Across Australia producers rely on various methods of finishing cattle, creating a real need for a system like BreedObject to help produce animals capable of increasing profitability or each system. To help producers navigate this diversity, Walmsley said BreedObject has broken traits measured in cattle into two different groups: (1) object traits, which are those producers wish to improve and increase profit; and (2) selection criteria, which include those measurable traits related to the seedstock industry.
Even though BreedObject has been utilized for Australian cattle producers for nearly 30 years, Walmsley said the system is constantly being improved to better meet the needs of the cattlemen and women utilizing the program.
With feed costs being one of the leading expenditures for producers, he said the system is focused on providing a better description of these expenses by including all feed costs in their calculations.
“To achieve the inclusion of all feed costs, we’ve enhanced the feedlot phase modeling for pasture feedlot systems, cow weight value and cow condition score at the point of mating,” Walmsley explained.
When it comes to cow weight, Walmsley said economic value encompasses three attributes: feed for maintaining weight, feed for changing weight and return from surplus weight. This development allows for the effects of genetic improvement to be examined, he added.
Walmsley said one of the most exciting additions to BreedObject is the plan to further the index to where it could be applied across breeds to better fit the needs of all users.
While Walmsley said indexes are complicated, BreedObject is designed to help breeders predict future profitability. Since change is inevitable, he said the faces behind BreedObject will continue to embrace that change and improve the system.
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