Herdbook breeding - Facts instead of guesswork

The registration in the USA as well as in Australia is connected with much more effort than in Germany. A lot of data of different nature has to be reported to get a comprehensive picture of the animal to be registered.

Today, the information from the so-called 50 K SNP is decisive for the values of the animal. Based on an extensive database in Australia, gEBV's are now being created - genomic breeding values. These can show the breeding progress resulting from this mating. For example, I can comprehend that my bull Trent Bridge F F0115 has produced offspring with different dams that are on average 14% better than the values of the parents! In other words, Trent Bridge F F0115 is producing breeding progress! Of course, these values can also be supplemented with information over time, which then provides the values with a higher accuracy.

Basically, the Australian herdbook divides into two areas:

To refer to the past once again: the Japanese wanted to increase the phenotype of their breeding by importing bulls from abroad at the end of the 19th century - to generate more mass. However, they quickly realized that the genotypic traits such as marbling were severely affected. So at the beginning of the 20th century, they closed the herdbook - since then, no foreign blood has been inserted into the bloodlines of black and red Wagyu.

For economic success with Wagyu, it is still important today to achieve reliable and thus to a certain extent predictable results. Genetic traits play an important role in this - but at least as important is the right feeding. However, if the desired genetic traits are not really present, it is almost impossible to correct them through feeding. Conversely, of course, the best genetic conditions can be ruined by incorrect feeding.

For breeders it is important to have genetics that reliably produce the desired traits. For this, the Australian breeding values can be used very well!