Alpaca, Alpaca Breeders, Flowerdale Estate Alpacas, Alpaca farming and alpaca investment opportunities

ALPACA RESOURCE CENTRE FLOWERDALE ESTATE ALPACAS

Across-herd Genetic Evaluation

Introduction

Flowerdale Estate Alpacas has been an early participant in the AGE Program. We now have two years of data available to us and are starting to identify alpacas with special breeding potential. The Alpaca Breeding Values (ABVs) for our animals are assisting us to make breeding decisions that will potentially accelerate our genetic improvement 3 - 4 fold. These objective assessments will also assist with decisions in the selection of females for our ET programs, again accelerating our progress. So how does it work?

In 2003 the Australian Alpaca Association implemented a service for all AAA members to assist them in achieving their individual breeding objectives. It is called the Across-herd Genetic Evaluation (AGE) Service. The primary aim of the service is to assist members to maximise their herd's genetic improvement. A broad range of traits is catered for to ensure all members' breeding objectives will be assisted. Private and Public reports will allow both breeders and commercial fleece producers to take advantage of the information produced by the AGE service. Whilst involvement of breeders in the AGE service is strictly voluntary, the success of the AGE will play a major role in ensuring prosperous development of the alpaca industry.

At Flowerdale Estate Alpacas, our breeding philosophy is based on being able to demonstrate accurately, the genetic superiority of our stock, relative to an accurate industry benchmark.

The Benefits

The key benefits to our buyers :

• Accurate selection of genetically superior animals
• Selection of sires for purchase with specific breeding values
• The ability to select animals objectively based on the traits that are most important to them in their breeding program
• Purchase of services from sires proven to be superior in their ability to passon desirable traits such as fineness and density

Our Aim

At Flowerdale Estate Alpacas, we are breeding to reduce fibre diameter, increase fleece weights and softness. Therefore our key ABVs are fibre diameter, staple length, fleece weight and CV.

As the data accumulates on our herd, we will be in a sound position to provide buyers with the decision making tools they will be seeking, to make objective breeding decisions, just as highly regarded breeders do in the cattle and merino industries. The AGE offers us (and our clients) far greater predictability and proof of performance.

Future Indexed Values

In time, as more data is accumulated, the new AGE service will be able to provide an Indexed Value to be used in selecting stock that will meet our breeding objective. This index will combine the ABV performance of a number of recorded traits into one value. Rather than trying to weigh up fleece weight, fibre diameter, body weight and possibly many other traits in your head and then apportioning the correct value to each when selecting alpacas, it will be possible to combine these measured traits and present them as one figure.

In addition to making the job of selecting alpacas much easier, it will be possible to place more emphasis on one particular trait over another when calculating the index. This way you can push your alpaca herd in the direction you want it to go much more easily and quickly.

Maximising your breeding and marketing outcomes

Like all livestock breeders, alpaca breeders are constantly striving to improve their breed. Improvement is generally seen as a better "product", and in the alpaca industry, different people may see a better "product" as being different things. For most it will be larger quantities of more valuable fibre, incorporating such things as fineness, softness, lustre, and evenness of colour. For others the emphasis may be on better conformation, higher fertility, bigger body weights, or resistance to disease and illness.

The role of genetics

Wherever improvement is sought, genetic factors are likely to play an important part in determining that improvement, and different alpaca vary in their ability to deliver that genetic improvement to their offspring. It is the job of geneticists to measure that ability across a range of characteristics (traits), and report to breeders which animals are most likely to pass on their genetic improvement in any given trait to their progeny. They do so by gathering performance and pedigree data, collating these records and applying genetic analysis. Whilst improvement may still occur without this process, the rate of genetic gain is likely to be much slower, and much less certain.

AGE Service

Breeders are invited to measure and collect performance data for their alpacas on traits important to them from a broad range of traits considered to be important to genetic improvement of the breed. The data collected is used to calculate the genetic performance values for individual alpacas and their relatives. The genetic performance values account for the effects of such variables as climate, management, sex and age. Breeders can compare any two individual alpacas evaluated in the AGE, or any individual alpaca with the industry benchmark. They can be also used to benchmark a herd or the industry on a yearly basis, thereby indicating the annual rate of genetic improvement. The traditional method of making genetic improvement through breeding decisions has, in the past, been based on show results, on-farm appraisal, and the comprehensive pedigree and colour records included in the International Alpaca Register (IAR). The IAR is a database owned by the AAA, but independently managed and administered by the Agricultural Business Research Institute (ABRI), University of New England, Armidale NSW, on their behalf. The AGE database is similarly owned by the AAA but administered and managed by a professional breeding service (Advanced Breeding Services, Orange NSW), and is linked to the IAR, thus combining two powerful databases with a high level of connectivity. The result is an extremely powerful genetic selection tool that is revolutionising the way in which genetic improvement is progressed in the Australasian alpaca industry.

Small Cost

Members are invited to enrol their alpacas in the AGE service and submit initial data. Members pay a small fee (currently A$5.50 for each enrolled alpaca, regardless of the amount of data entered). For each enrolled alpaca, owners are invited to measure and record any of up to about 30 selected traits according to strict protocols. Those traits and protocols are defined with input from breeders, geneticists and other scientists.

Large benefits

After breeders supply their alpacas' performance records, the AGE service provides reports to breeders for each enrolled alpaca indicating its performance in each of the assessed traits, and also a comparison to the industry benchmark. By measuring those same values in relatives and progeny, geneticists can define what is called an Alpaca Breeding Value (ABV) for each trait that an alpaca is evaluated. An ABV is a measure of that alpaca's ability to pass on improvement in that trait to its progeny. The value will be reported as a positive or negative value relative to the industry benchmark. ABV are equivalent to EBV used in other livestock industries.

The rate of genetic improvement in alpaca by traditional breeding selection is likely to be about 1% to 1.5% per annum. Experience in other livestock suggests that, if alpaca breeders utilise the AGE service, breeders' herd genetic improvement can be increased to
4 or 5% per annum.

The sales prospects for stud males and females described by genetic performance values are also greatly improved because buyers can select the most suitable animals more accurately and easily. As well, with emerging technologies to extend Artificial Insemination and Embryo Transfer, a sound understanding of the genetic performance values of animals included in these breeding programs is essential to maximise the advantages of these technologies.

Improved Accuracy of Breeding Decisions

An alpaca's ABV for a trait is more accurate than its measured performance alone, as it accounts for the following effects on performance which, if not taken into account, will mask an alpaca's "true breeding value":

• Early age effects. Age of the dam and date of birth of the alpaca must be accounted for so that, for example, an animal born late in the season is not penalised relative to an earlier born animal.
• Pedigree. Pedigree records allow the performance of relatives of an alpaca to be used to more accurately describe the performance that animal will pass on to its progeny. For example, it is known that an animal whose relatives all have well above average performance for a trait will breed progeny that also demonstrate above average performance, notwithstanding that the animal itself may demonstrate only average performance. Pedigree records also provide the benchmarks that allow different mating groups, different years and different herds to be combined in the AGE so that all alpaca ABVs can be directly compared.
• Heritability and Correlations between traits. Once known, the heritability of a trait (how much of an animal's superiority is passed onto offspring) and correlations between traits (the effects of one trait on another) can be accounted for by the AGE analysis. The heritability of a trait's performance can change with age, which is why it will be important to record an alpaca's age and fleece growth at the time of assessment. The degree of constancy of some traits over time (eg. fibre diameter and fibre length) will also be valuable.
• Multiple assessments of a trait. Breeders often obtain several assessments of a trait (e.g. fibre diameter) over the life of an animal and commonly the best estimate of genetic performance is a combination of all assessments for the trait.
• Variation in trait performance. Variation between and within different groups is an effect of the environment and feed the alpaca is subject to, as well as other influences such as prior selection. To obtain accurate ABVs the assessed records need to be standardised to remove the effects of unusually high or low variance in the group resulting from the environment and prior selection.

AGE Reports

Two kinds of reports are currently available. The Alpaca Breeding Value Report and the Phenotypic report.Alpaca Breeding Values (ABVs).

An "ABV" describes the best estimate of the genetic performance of an alpaca for a trait being reported. ABVs are expressed as deviations in performance from the AGE benchmark value. The benchmark value of each trait is maintained at the same standard so that the value of the genetic currency used by the industry remains constant over time, thus allowing the true relative value of improved alpacas to be correctly expressed. An alpaca with a benchmark performance for a trait is described as an ABV of "0.0" (zero). Alpacas that have a higher value than 0.0 have a higher performance than the benchmark. Alpacas that have a value below the benchmark have a negative sign and have a lower than average performance. For example a Fleece Weight ABV that has a negative sign is lower than the benchmark fleece weight while a negative value for fibre diameter is finer than the benchmark.

FW is the ABV for fleece weight, expressed in kilograms (kg).

FD is the ABV for average fibre diameter, expressed in micron (µm).

CV is the ABV for coefficient of variation of fibre diameter, expressed as a
percentage (%).

BW is the ABV for body weight, expressed in kilograms (kg).

The four traits above are the only traits that currently have sufficient genetic information to allow ABVs to be produced. As more information and analysis becomes available it is planned that ABVs can be provided for all the optional listed traits.

Future Reports
The following reports will become available as they are progressively developed for alpaca:

• Genetic Performance Report: All traits recorded in the AGE can be reported, including both recorded performance (expressed as deviations to the group average) and genetic performance for the traits where the available knowledge permits the calculation of ABVs. The breeder's comments (up to 20 characters) on an alpaca can be included.
• Breeding Objective Value Report: All alpaca can be assigned a Breeding Objective Value (BOV) for the Breeding Objective defined by the breeder, and then can be reported in rank order of BOV for the objective, or listed in tag order.
• Breeding Objective and Likely Genetic Progress Report: An Index to match the selected Breeding Objective can be developed, and the likely genetic progress that will result from its use in the participant's herd can be described.
• Genetic Trend Report: The genetic progress that is achieved each year for the traits that are evaluated can be defined.
• Mating Recommendation: Based on the genetic performance values and pedigree records of the herd, mating allocations can be made to maximise genetic progress and minimise inbreeding.

We would be pleased to discuss your involvement in AGE. Call us on 03 9593 2185.

 

 

ACROSS HERD GENETIC EVALUATION

 

 

This special female, Flowerdale
Tulip Queen, is for sale.
She has above average ABVs
in 3 of her 4 measured fleece traits.

 

 

RATE OF GENETIC IMPROVEMENT SAID TO
BE 4 - 5 TIMES NORMAL

 

 

Flowerdale Valentino (curently for sale)
is a special junior stud male with an ABV
for fleece fineness that is significantly
superior to the industry benchmark

 

 

FLOWERDALE ESTATE ALPACAS

AAA CERTIFIED

FIVE STAR AGE BREEDER

 

 

 

 

This special male, Flowerdale Class Act, is for sale. He has above average ABVs for fleece weight and diameter.