New ASBVs bare all on breech traits

摘要

Breeding animals with better natural resistance to breech flystrike is now easier with the development of Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs) for breech attributes. The Breech ASBVs will help Merino producers select rams that produce plainer-bodied progeny and their development is a significant step towards breeding sheep that are better able to withstand breech flystrike. Breech wrinkle is the most important factor for determining an animal's susceptibility to breech strike and reducing the proportion of high wrinkle sheep in a flock will lead to more flystrike-resistant sheep.