In a move to further strengthen its genetic evaluation service for all producers, the British Limousin Cattle Society has now increased its number of genetic evaluations from three to six each year. This comes hot on the heels of its recent development incorporating the slaughter records from six national processors, reported in July of this year.
This important development means that EBV (Estimated Breeding Value) and GEBV (Genomic Estimated Breeding Value) results are as accurate as they can be at any given time. In turn, this enables timely marketing by breeders and, crucially, ensures the information is fully up to date for commercial producers using it in the breeding decisions they need to make.
The Limousin Society and its members are committed to genetic improvement for the benefit of commercial producers. The work is part of a larger body of activity all laid out in the Society’s 10 Year Breed Improvement Plan, which aims to provide a nationwide population of Limousin genetics that remain market-ready for all types of commercial producer at any given point in time.
As business pressures come into sharper focus the interest in Limouisn cattle and performance information, through EBV’s and GEBV’s, on both sides of the sale transaction is intensifiying. Providing evidence of this, the Society’s website which hosts its on-line herdbook (www.taurusdata.co.uk) has had well over a remarkable one million page views since the start of the year.
Speaking of the increased number of genetic evaluations BLCS Technical Manager Alison Glasgow said “Increasing the frequency of our evaluations is an important development for the Society to bring tangible benefits to pedigree and commercial producers alike. The EBV and GEBV evaluations are now based on the performance records of over 590,000 pedigree cattle and a further 310,000 abattoir records from Limousin-bred cattle beyond that. Providing the most robust and relevant breeding values for the UK in as timely a manner as possible are key principles of the Society and are serving pedigree and commercial producers well”.
In addition to the Taurus website access to performance information at pedigree sales has been made all the more easy with an innovative development by the Society at the turn of the year, the Limsale app. This downloadable app, available to most types of devices, helps users interrogate sale catalogues and find the animals they are looking for. It has proved a very popular marketing and purchasing tool with more than 4,000 catalogue downloads in the past 12 months.
The next genetic evaluation update, following the most recent release in September, is scheduled to be published in the first week of November. In 2019 genetic evaluations will then run in January, March, May, July, September and November.
Limousin EBV’s in Numbers
- Six updates of results per annum
- 590,473 pedigree records
- 310,082 abattoir records
- 6,309 genotypes
- Over one million website page views
- 4,000 Lin Sale catalogue downloads
