Performance Recording during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

Update: 20th May 2020 - Scanning to resume for clients within 125 miles of a Signet Technician

Article posted 31st March 2020

The current situation with Coronavirus doesn’t mean performance recording has to stop, and you are encouraged to continue to send in weights. We have been in this situation before; in 2001 we faced the challenge of Foot and Mouth Disease and flocks/herds continued to record on a “weights only” basis.

At the moment, Signet are not able to provide ultrasound scanning services to sheep or beef producers. This decision is under constant review and as soon as it is safe to do so on farm scanning will resume. We understand CT scanning services at SRUC are also temporarily suspended.

 

Helping ram and bull buyers locate Signet Recorded Breeding Stock

Where restrictions influence the movement of people and livestock, the ability to source breeding stock locally and new sections of the Signet website have been used so that commercial producers can locate their nearest flock or herd – and find sheep and cattle currently for sale. In fact, over 100 more sheep went onto the “Sheep for Sale” section of the website within 24hrs of the suspension of breeding stock sales.

 

Keeping the flow of data into breeding evaluations

The main message for breeders is that where you are unable to ultrasound scan your lambs or cattle, please continue to supply additional “scan” weights for inclusion within the analysis.  A robust and useful analysis can still be produced because:

1. Many of the EBVs are not based on muscle and fat depth measurements. In sheep, traits like maternal ability and litter size are unaffected, as are breeding values for eight week weight, scan weight and mature size. Likewise for cattle, ease of calving, maternal and growth traits can still be assessed.
2. Information from relatives will aid predictions of performance for EBVs like muscle and fat depth, particularly where breeding lines have been scanned for many generations and parents already have high accuracy values for carcase traits.

Hill Sheep Recording Schemes

In hill flocks, later lambing dates and the retention of large numbers of replacements may mean that we will look to scan lambs later in life. If hill lambs cannot be scanned at the normal time, winter scanning is a consideration. Understandably, this is an ever changing situation which Signet will constantly review to deliver the best service and advice.

 

How are EBVs calculated in the absence of ultrasound scanning or CT data?

To predict breeding potential for muscle and fat depth, scanning measurements are important, but not essential – as they take into account not just an animal’s individual performance for that trait (and correlated traits), but also that of its relatives. When animals aren’t measured for a trait, the analysis will calculate an EBV using all the available information that it has – including information on correlated traits that have been measured.

EBVs that are calculated for traits like muscle and fat depth have the advantage that large numbers of animals have already been scanned in previous years. A large proportion of the national recorded flock will have parents, grandparents and older siblings that have already been scanned. This data will be used in the analysis to accurately calculate EBVs for this year’s lamb crop, as is the case in some large flocks that only scan a proportion of their lambs at present.

How accurate are the EBVs produced?

EBVs are always the best prediction of genetic merit that is possible based on the data available. In well recorded breeding lines they provide a robust indication of breeding potential – which will be further enhanced in the future when progeny data becomes available. They provide a much more accurate guide than a total absence of records and the selection of breeding stock “by eye”.  

The degree of confidence you can place in an EBV is determined by the Accuracy Value published for that trait. Accuracy Values determine how close an EBV prediction might be to the true genetic merit of the animal.

On this basis breeders should use more caution when using EBVs to assess:

• Progeny produced by unrecorded or poorly recorded parents
• Progeny from flocks with poor genetic links to the rest of the recorded population
• Animals where EBVs have very low Accuracy Values

 

How do I continue to supply data to Signet?

Supplying lamb weights

At ultrasound scanning time a ‘scan weight’ is collected. This weight is used to calculate the economically important Scan Weight EBV. Although there will be no on farm scanning this year, breeders are still encouraged to record the scan weight (typically taken between 18- 21 weeks of age) for lambs. In groups of fast growing lambs, weights may need to be taken earlier so that every lamb has a measurement before some are sold for slaughter.

How to submit scan weights:

Record the scan weight (in kg), weigh date and any management groups for your lambs and submit the data to Signet in one of three ways:

• Online - Log onto Signetdata.com where you can enter all the flocks information including weights in the data section.
• Electronic data (such as Excel spreadsheets) - If you are using on farm software or like using Excel then we can take weights submitted electronically, with clients sending weights to [email protected]
• Paper - Clients can either log on to Signetdata.com and print a weigh sheet or ask for one of the Signet team to send them a weigh sheet as a pdf. Whether you use our forms or simply write down a list of weights, the fastest way to get the data back to Signet is to either scan the information into your computer and send it – or take a good, high resolution photo of each page with your phone and send it to [email protected]

Supplying cattle weights

Clients with cattle can continue to weigh them as normal and as with sheep clients, this data can be submitted in three ways.

• Online – Log onto the database and click to the link for cattle weights
• Electronically – Simply send through a spreadsheet with your weight data to [email protected]
• Paper - Clients can either log on to Signetdata.com and print a weigh sheet or ask for one of the Signet team to send them a weigh sheet as a pdf. Whether you use our forms or simply write down a list of weights, the fastest way to get the data back to Signet is to either scan the information into your computer and send it – or take a good, high resolution photo of each page with your phone and send it to [email protected]