Do you already have pedigree records for your flock?
YES
Awesome, if you have a few generations, then you will have a good headstart How about birthdates (or an estimate) for at least the current crop of lambs?
NO
Are you prepared to start tagging lambs at birth and recording birth dates and litter size?
NO
YES
NO
YES
NO
YES
Great, we have parentage and birth details sorted. Can you keep track of basic non-genetic variables such as which mob each ewe is in?
YES
We need to know both parents for performance recording.
Yes, parentage sorted
NO
I need more help with parentage
The genetic prediction won’t be very accurate if the data can’t be adjusted for lambs that are getting special treatment
Are you prepared to spend $30-35 to DNA test every lamb, ewe and ram?
YES
Ok, let’s find a way to estimate birthdate. Here are your options:
1
3
Foetal aging at pregnancy scanning will give you an estimated birthdate and litter size.
Crayon markings at mating can give you some idea of lambing date for each ewe.
Don’t care
Chemistry
Stop the bus, I want off
2
Let’s tag the lambs at tailing and use science to work out which ewes raised which lambs. There are a couple of options:
NO
Technology
Don’t care
Performance recording is not a priority for you. But there still may be gains to be made from genetic testing.
NO
Are you keen to record your traits of interest? (e.g. weaning weight, post-weaning weight, wool etc) in all the lambs not just the good ones.
You can rent smart collars to attach to ewes and lambs for 48 hours. These will report who is hanging out with who.
YES
Do you aim to use a variety of sires each season and reuse at least one ram between seasons?
Are you prepared to pay an annual flock fee (~$120) and around $2/head fee for each new animal added to the database?
YES YES
Do you use more than one ram per mob of ewes at mating?
NO
Been using fancy rams?
Have you been using rams with known performance enhancing mutations e.g. Myomax? You could spend $30-35 to see if your favourite lambs have inherited these mutations.
NO
Performance recording is great at telling you (after the fact) which daddy had the better genetics. If you are only using a couple of rams per season. This might be a lot of work for not much info. Shall we keep going?
YES
NO
So close, but yet so far...
The science for determining genetic breeding values is a little more advanced for Romneys, Coopworths and Perendales. Texels are coming soon. This might help choose between rams that look the same on paper. i.e. twin rams with identical parentage.
Been using fancy rams?
Great, you are good to go. Choose a bureau and register your flock with SIL. If you got here without genetic testing, you probably don’t need it. But, you might want to check it out if either of these statements is true.
Your flock is a common breed