Simmental Enhances its Breedplan Service

The Simmental Society has introduced more stringent rules to ensure published Simmental Breedplan EBVs have a high level of industry credibility.
Simmental Breedplan has for many years provided a very powerful tool in assisting members and their clients to identify the genetic merit of animals for a wide range of important production traits.
The Simmental Society regularly reviews its Breedplan service to ensure the published EBVs can be relied on as having a reasonable level of accuracy based on records actually measured on the animal, its progeny and close relatives.
As part of this review, the Society has further strengthened the rules that determine whether an EBV will be published.
While Breedplan calculates EBVs on almost all animals in the Association’s database, not all these animals satisfy the minimum requirements to be reported. Usually this is due to insufficient accuracy of the EBVs and/or whether the trait has been actually measured.
For example, until now, if one of the weaning, yearling or 600 day weights was deemed to be reportable, EBVs were reported for all of the 200 day, 400 day and 600 day weight EBVs. However, if any of these individual trait EBV accuracy was below 20% it was not reported.
To be reported, any one of these traits either had to have been measured on the animal or its progeny or have a minimum accuracy of 50%, (based on EBVs calculated on relatives and from correlations with other analysed traits).
To enhance the integrity of Simmental Breedplan and the reliability of the EBVs reported, the Association has now strengthened these minimum reportability criteria.
Now, to be reported, each trait either has to have been measured on the animal or its progeny or have the following minimum EBV accuracy levels:

1. 60%      Gestation Length, Birth Weight, 200 day Wt, 400 day Wt, 600 day Wt, Mature Cow Wt.
2. 55%      Carcase Wt
3. 60%      Eye Muscle Area, P8 Fat, Rib Fat, Retail Beef Yield,
4. 75%      IMF%
5. 50%      Scrotal Size
6. 40%      Milk, Days to Calving
7. 35%      Calving Ease (Direct), Calving Ease (Maternal)

Also, the reportability linkage between 200 day, 400 day and 600 day weight EBVs has been removed. Each of these three traits will now be treated separately. For any of these traits to have an EBV reported there has to be an actual valid weight submitted for the animal or valid weights submitted on its progeny or reach a minimum accuracy of 60%.
The Association’s powerful Website Animal/EBV Search and Sale Catalogue facilities provide valuable tools for members and their clients to view EBVs on animals in the Association’s database.
A review of this service revealed that EBVs were being reported on some animals that had not been recorded in Breedplan herds, with EBVs calculated only from pedigree performance information.
Changes are being introduced to further enhance the integrity of these website search facilities and the EBVs displayed on animals. The main changes for animals to qualify for display on the Association’s website are:

1. An animal’s EBVs must satisfy the new “Reportability” criteria
2. All Accredited AI Sires with EBVs will be displayed but Base and Unregistered animals, (except SPR), will not be displayed.
3. The animal must have been bred by a Simmental Breedplan Herd or is currently or was previously owned by a Simmental Breedplan herd

In introducing these enhancements, the Association is confident that its Simmental Breedplan service will be of greater value to all users of Simmental genetics, while encouraging members to Breedplan record more traits on their cattle.