A NEW software license agreement for Breedplan, the genetic evaluation system for beef cattle, has been announced to ensure greater accessibility for seedstock producers and improve transparency and accountability in the system.
Breedplan analytical software is used to produce Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs) of recorded cattle for a range of important production traits, and is owned by Meat and Livestock Australia, the University of New England and NSW Department of Primary Industries.
Research and development of the analytical software is undertaken by the Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit (AGBU) funded by MLA, while the Agricultural Business Research Institute (ABRI) is the Breedplan licensee.
MLA General Manager Producer Consultation and Adoption, Michael Crowley, said following a commercialisation review of Breedplan, a number of significant changes have been made to the software license agreement as part of a reinvigoration strategy.
“Breedplan has been available to the Australian beef cattle industry for over 30 years and has made a significant contribution to genetic improvement across the Australian beef cattle industry,” Mr Crowley said.
“However, there are a number of opportunities to improve its commercialisation that have been identified through extensive stakeholder consultation that will deliver greater program innovation, improve future delivery of services, drive greater adoption of Breedplan and enhance the value proposition of genetics to increase the rates of genetic gain.
“The previous license was in place for many years and in line with the commercialisation review recommendations, the license has now been reviewed as part of the broader reinvigoration strategy.
“The Breedplan owners have been working to develop a new license agreement for the analytical software and have agreed that in order to maintain a single source of truth for breeding values, a single licensee is required.
“ABRI has been selected as the licensee for the analytical software; however, it is a non-exclusive, performance-based license ensuring a high quality and uninterrupted service for the industry.
“It is based on ABRI meeting a range of KPIs and is aimed at making Breedplan more accessible to all breeders or groups of breeders. It also opens up opportunities for new commercial breeding value delivery models to evolve over time.”
