Next wave of progress found in genetic gain
Unruly and wild screeds of data in spreadsheets to maintain and make sense of breeding decisions is the reason Hawke’s Bay deer farmer Richard Hilson now swears by Deer Select. Words Sarah Perriam-Lampp.
The engine room of Richard and Karen Hilson’s Takapau deer operation for the past three years has been the Deer Select database, which has helped them move beyond spreadsheets and identify opportunities for their breeding programme.
After 25 years of collecting data on velvet, parentage, weaning and yearling weights, they were able to import it all into Deer Select rather than starting from scratch, which has been the foundation of their intergenerational insights.
Deer Select is a database based on pedigree records and performance data collected from performance-recorded animals in participating stud deer herds. Deer Select uses the SIL (Sheep Improvement Limited) genetic engine to calculate how much of the performance variation between individual animals is genetic. It then ranks these animals in order of their genetic merit for particular traits. The Hilsons have around half of their 650 hinds on Deer Select from their Tru-Test weigh scale files TSI data. Richard is surprised how many options they have with the Deer Select data that assist them to cull the correct yearling hinds, spikers or hinds.
He’s found that he’s focusing less on the top or bottom end but rather what opportunities lie in the middle. “We have gone from having a good idea of the better performing hinds but not knowing much about the middle in the bell curve, which was about 67%. We can now work out who is better than who in this category. Our culling and replacement selection decisions are also now about more than just the sire too,” he explains.
“The opportunity for growth rates will come if more deer stud breeders use Deer Select. Look at the dairy industry and the huge commercial decisions they make by selecting their annual genetics based on breeding values.” – Richard Hilson, Takapau deer farmer
Richard sees the opportunities for commercial deer farmers to achieve genetic gain by using breeding values (BVs) as the next big shift in potential of the deer industry.
A BV is an estimate of the genetic merit of a deer relative to the average of all deer from 1995. The pedigree and performance of the animal itself, its relatives and its progeny are all taken into account. When farmers buy stags from a breeder who is making genetic gain every year, they will make the same rate of gain as them.
“The opportunity for growth rates will come if more deer stud breeders use Deer Select. Look at the dairy industry and the huge commercial decisions they make by selecting their annual genetics based on breeding values,” Richard stresses.
He believes that culling the non-performers off the bottom is the low-hanging fruit and in the long-term it will deliver an improvement in the rest of the national herd. “With the pressure to produce more velvet from less animals and commit more hinds to venison we need to look at performance data more closely,” Richard encourages. “Stockmanship will not be lost, as you still buy on eye what you like the look of, but science will take us to the next level.”
