MLPAO Pingelly wethers Stage 1

The objective of this project was to add value to the Merino Lifetime Productivity Project through extra measurement of wether progeny. These data will be used to inform an economic evaluation of the profitability of different genotypes and the importance of lifetime productivity. The accuracy of the evaluation of whole-flock-value-of-production will be improved by direct measurement of the production of wethers and subsequent collection of production and classing information, from weaning until 18 months of age, of F1 wethers born to the Pingelly flock in 2016 and 2017. The data collected has been added to the national MLP database to increase the accuracy of sire means and within flock breeding values for MLP sires used at Pingelly. Growth rates of wethers differ significantly between sires, which will have a significant impact on product pricing and time to finishing. Economic analysis of the production data shows marked variation in the value of production from the highest income sire group compared to that of the lowest sire group. If this analysis of the wether component of a flock translates into a similar variation in profitability per hectare of the whole flock, there would be a significant financial return.