Guide to Livestock Performance Testing and Progeny Testing

The livestock performance testing on individuals and on brothers and sisters is used to determine which animal will be selected for breeding purposes. These male animals are then progeny tested as the final test of breeding value.

One of the most important consequences of performance testing is that it leads to the scrutinization of the relative importance of the different traits for which we select.

This not only applies to measurable but also to immeasurable attributes. In pigs for instance, performance testing has highlighted the importance of good legs and the enormous problem the pig industry has in this respect.

The same applies to excessive folds in Merino sheep in harsh environments. Animal breeding is extremely complex in the sense that different characteristics, some positively correlated, some negatively correlated and others un-correlated, some very important, others less important, make up the total economic and breeding worth of an animal.

Without figures it is virtually impossible to select sensibly for such a very complex combination. Also bear in mind that the economic value and the breeding value of an animal is not necessarily the same thing, as some traits are readily passed on to the offspring while others have a low heritability.

Livestock Performance Testing

Performance testing today forms the basis of breed improvement of nearly all kinds of livestock in all the developed Western countries of the world. In South Africa, too, performance testing is being accepted readily as an indispensable aid in animal improvement.

In fact, as far as methods and techniques are concerned, South Africa can be regarded as a world leader in many aspects.

The obvious reason for the success obtained by using performance testing is that it leads to more accurate selection of superior breeding stock. This, however, is only part of the whole story and it must be stressed that performance testing merely supplies data and that breeders differ in their ability to utilize these data in the same way that they differ in their ability to select animals efficiently without objective measurements.

Given the best measuring technique and data processing system, the incapable breeder could still make a terrible hash of his breeding enterprise. Performance testing invariably has, as a first consequence, the formulation of breeding objectives which are sensible, realistic and based on fact.

Without performance testing the stud breeder could easily fail to appreciate the exact needs of his final customer, the commercial producer.

An example of how easily this can happen is the fact that many beef cattle breeders insisted on selecting for traits such as coat colour, shape of horns, etc., while the commercial producer’s needs shifted to economically important properties such as fertility and growth rate.

Livestock Performance Testing Procedure

The performance testing procedure in Irish Cattle Breeding Federation is as follows;

The bulls are made to enter a pre-entry isolation where they are clipped, dosed, treated for lice and sorted into pens based on breed and weight.

For IBR- Irish Breeding Research, the pre-entry isolation period is 30 days and during which the bulls are weighed if they meet the testing requirements.

The bulls are housed primarily indoors and they also have access to outdoor pen.

The bulls are fed ration at a less than ad lib rate until such time as they have become acclimatized to the meal. This is very important to maintain the health of the animal with a change in diet.

They are thereafter moved to ad lib feeding, and also given a ration of hay twice a day. They are however provided with ad lib water.

Health checks of the entire herd are carried out three times daily.

Bulls are provided with vitamins and mineral lick, and a mineral revitalize dose if required‟

During the test the animals are weighed on a three-weekly basis to assess their growth rate.

The bulls are washed every four to six weeks during the test, depending on weather.

Bulls are exercised on an open pasture paddock twice a week for a three-hour period each time if deemed necessary.

All the traits that the animals are been tested for are measured, combined at the end of the test and stored in the ICBF database‟

A: Advantages of Livestock Performance Testing

The results allow a genetic profile of all animals with records and related to be computed.

When performance test commence on the bulls, their new information can help to improve their indexes in an equal measure.

B: Disadvantage of Livestock Performance Testing

Despite the test being carried out under favorable environmental conditions, the average genetic merit of the group tested generally remained similar before and after the performance test.

Livestock Progeny Testing

Progeny testing is a process by which a sire’s genetic merit is measured through the performance of his progeny. When the progeny are evaluated, the genetic merit of the sire is more accurately assessed and which provide the opportunity to use the high-ranking sires in the breeding programmes with confidence.

The basis of breeding programmes is the identification of superior individuals and their widespread use within the population. It is a two-stage operation in which the superior individuals are first identified and are then used as seed stock for future generations.

Pre-selection of candidates for progeny testing can be done by means of individual performance testing which might increase efficiency and reduce costs in breeding programmes

Progeny testing in animal breeding is used to determine the true breeding value of an animal especially males which are used extensively for propagation of best germplasm. The extensive use of artificial insemination in domestic animals has helped in increasing the selection intensity on the male animals.

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This selection tool is usually used for characters that are sex-limited, expressed after death (meat characteristics) and usually with low heritability, for example milk or egg production in females.

A bull for example cannot be assessed for milk production, however the performance of its female offspring’s can be used to determine the use of the animal for future crosses.

A progeny test is performed by mating the male with a number of females to produce many progenies in different environment and over a long time period involving different seasons to nullify the impact of season, management, environment in breeding value estimation.

The average performance of the offspring is then found, giving a measure of the male’s respective value to the breeder.

In animals the progeny testing could be conducted in a large herd or involving associated herds or in the field in farmers place. The field based progeny testing is highly required when the selected bulls are to be distributed in a large area, to many farmers in different environments.

Livestock Progeny Testing Procedure

A typical breeding design for a Progeny Testing Programme that can be implemented in smallholder production situations as researched and documented by the National Dairy Development Board is as follows:

A certain number of young sires produced using the very best dams and sires are put under test. Adequate number of test doses of bulls put to test are distributed in selected herds/villages to ensure that at least 80 to 100 complete first lactation record of daughters per bull in as many herds/villages as possible are made available for estimating breeding values of bulls with a very high reliability.

The very best 1-10% of progeny tested bulls and the very best 1 to 10% of recorded cows are used for producing the next generation of young bulls. The young bulls are again put to test and the cycle is repeated. The top 10 to 15% of the progeny tested bulls are used for producing replacement heifers.

Production (through contract mating’s) or identification of young pPP bulls of high predicted genetic merit.

Factors that Affect the Usefulness of Livestock Progeny Testing

On the standpoint of genetic progress expected from selection using progeny testing, the usefulness of progeny testing can be greatly influenced by some factors and the most important of them are: Age and Rate of reproduction.

These two factors have been reported to have their effect on the generation interval of the results from the use of progeny test and which can offset the advantage of more accurate selection and reduce the rate of improvement obtained.

Advantages of Livestock Progeny Testing

Genetic merit of sire is more accurately assessed.

Provide opportunity to use high-ranking sires in the breeding programme with confidence.

Disadvantages of Livestock Progeny Testing

Progeny testing programmes are very long-term.

It involves high cost.

It requires high level of technical and professional skills.

Strong field artificial insemination and quality semen production infrastructure are needed.

Could only be entrusted to institutions having requisite experience and skills and financial resources.

In summary, conducting a field based performance and progeny testing especially in small holder production systems of Asia and Africa require huge resources both financial and infrastructural – a large AI network, robust and dynamic data collection and analysis system.

Usually the breeding companies conduct progeny testing of their bulls so that they can be commercially promoted. But when the breeding organizations are Government controlled (e.g. India), the onus of conducting the testing also lies with them if required genetic improvement is to be achieved.

Performance and progeny testing are very crucial to any meaningful animal breeding programmes and leads to more accurate selection of superior breeding stock.

Preselection of candidates for progeny testing can be done by means of individual performance testing which might increase efficiency and reduce costs in breeding programmes.

The trait to evaluate depends on the breeding objectives for example, beef cattle breeders may select for traits such as coat colour, shape of horns, etc., while the commercial producer’s focus will be on economically important traits such as fertility and growth rate.

The progeny test is needed most for traits which cannot be expressed in one sex and for traits which are but slightly hereditary.

The bases for estimating breeding value are pedigree, own performance, and progeny test. As fast as some selection is practiced on one of these bases, the possibilities for further progress by additional selection on the same basis rapidly diminish and correspondingly increased attention should be given to one of the other bases.

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