News

A major milestone in deer genetic evaluations was passed this week with the calculation of Deer Improvement's first Breeding Valules.

The process began in late 2003 with the identification of studs actively involved in selection for venison growth rates. Deer Improvement then examined within-herd data to identify the most promising animals representing a wide variety of bloodlines. These were purchased at auction and used in Artificial Insemination (AI) to mate hinds across multiple herds. With every stag, hind and fawn DNA tested to establish pedigrees, weights are being taken to enable calculation of Breeding Values (BVs).

The whole process reflects that used in dairy, beef and sheep evaluations, and is designed to strip out management and environment effects, exposing true genetic merit.

Two progeny weights have already been collected, one in early January when samples were taken for DNA testing, and another at weaning in late February. This data has enabled the calculation of reliable Weaning Weight BVs.

Deer Improvement geneticist Jake Chardon explains that raw data can be misleading. “Sale day weights are almost worthless in judging genetic merit. Progeny testing is expensive and time consuming but we now know what we have got”.

Chardon says that the genetic variation is surprisingly large given that all of the stags were highly ranked within their own stud of origin. “There is a twelve kilogram difference in genetic merit at the weaner stage. We have yet to get a measure of the genetic merit of the average commercial hind, but it would appear that big gains are there to be made by using genuinely elite stags. And of course we’ll produce much better stags in future because we have accurate information to drive our embryo programme”.
 
“The top group of stags includes a range of bloodlines including Yugoslavian, German, English and Romanian so we are very pleased with the genetic diversity. Deer Improvement clients will benefit immediately as only the best of the stags will be used for AI over coming weeks”.

Farmers interested in the rankings can find the full list on the Deer Improvement website (www.deerimprovement.co.nz).