After seven years, the Merino Lifetime Productivity project at Pingelly in WA has reached its conclusion.
One of five national sites to have undertaken long term dedicated research as part of the Merino Lifetime Productivity (MLP) project, it was wrapped up at a final field day at University of WA's (UWA) Farm Ridgefield site late last year.
The overall MLP project is tracking the lifetime performance of 5,700 ewes as they proceed through four to five joinings and annual shearings.
Murdoch University Senior Research Fellow and MLP Pingelly Site Manager Dr Bronwyn Clarke said the ewe progeny born in 2016 and 2017 from 29 diverse Merino sires have now been evaluated for their lifetime productivity.
"Ewes were visually classed each year and had measurements taken for weight, condition score, wool quality, fleece weight, fat and eye muscle depth," Dr Clarke said.
"Additionally, the ewes have been naturally mated each year and had their reproductive performance evaluated in terms of conception rate, number of lambs weaned and the weaning weight of their lambs."
A full suite of assessments will continue to be undertaken including visual trait scoring, classer gradings and objective assessments of a range of key traits and index evaluations.
The unique and extensive dataset which results will be used to enhance existing Merino breeding and selection strategies, for both ram sellers and buyers, to deliver greater lifetime productivity and woolgrower returns.
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Along with Pingelly, there are sites at Temora, Trangie and New England in NSW and Balmoral in Victoria.
The AWI-funded MLP project is a $13 million,10-year venture between AWI, the Australian Merino Sire Evaluation Association (AMSEA), nominating stud Merino breeders and site partners.
At Pingelly's final Field Day, about 80 researchers and farmers attended to hear preliminary results from the project and get one last look at the sheep involved in the trial.
Of special note at a previous Pingelly Field Day were the sires' number of lambs weaned results when reported as within-site and within-drop flock breeding values (FBV).
These FBVs were based on results from the first two and three reproduction cycles (2017 and 2016 drops respectively) and, in the 2016 drop, displayed a 45 per cent variation between the trait leading and lowest sire progeny groups.
The sires at Pingelly showed that despite a known negative correlation, it is possible to select for ewes that are both productive for fleece weight and reproduction.
This variation translates through to the individual ewe productivity, and is being observed across all five MLP sites.
At the time of the 2021 Field Day, there were two 2016 drop Pingelly ewes who had each weaned nine lambs across four joinings.
In direct contrast, two other 2016 drop ewes had not yet weaned a lamb.
The 2016 drop average is 4.7 lambs weaned per ewe across the four lambings.
Of course, all producers know that one or two ewes do not make a flock.
However, once the full dataset for this drop and the remaining nine other MLP drops nationally are complete, an analysis using the full project data set will be undertaken to examine the implications of these top performers and their variation.
Dr Clarke said ewes were not culled from the project except for welfare reasons.
"They were classed each year but not culled so we can see what there lifetime performance has been like even though they may have been classed as cull or top in the first year," she said.
"Even though the project is coming to an end, the wool industry can look forward to the analysis and presentation of the results of such an important project continuing over the next four years," she said.
MLP data nationally would impact breeding value estimation and the review of MERINOSELECT Indexes.
Dr Clarke said the Pingelly site still has a few ongoing projects associated with breeding for footrot resistance, measuring whole body energy and feed efficiency and also teeth eruption and age and genetic differences.
"It's time to answer the industry questions in the analysis of the data from the MLP project," she said.
"We will be looking at the Pingelly data - but we are part of a larger project.
"At the last field day we looked at relationships between measurements and breeding value estimates at different age groups.
"For wool traits - such as fleece weights and fibre diameter we can get good breeding value estimates with one or two adult measurements.
"However, for traits with lower heritability like reproduction traits - more measurements and records are going to really help with the accuracy of the breeding values"
Further results will come to hand once all five sites have completed their projects.
The final two sites at Macquarie and New England will be complete in 2023 and 2024.
