Experiences with breeding Experiences with breeding structures for genetic structures for genetic improvement of small improvement of small ruminants ruminants Joaquin Mueller National Institute for Agricultural Technology, Argentina 25-28 October 2010, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 5 5 th th All Africa Conference on Animal Agriculture All Africa Conference on Animal Agriculture 19 19 th th ESAP Annual Conference ESAP Annual Conference Commercialization of Livestock Agriculture in Africa: Challenges and opportunities
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Experiences with breeding structures for genetic improvement of small ruminants
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Experiences with breeding Experiences with breeding structures for genetic structures for genetic improvement of small improvement of small
ruminantsruminantsJoaquin Mueller
National Institute for Agricultural Technology, Argentina
25-28 October 2010, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
55th th All Africa Conference on Animal Agriculture All Africa Conference on Animal Agriculture 1919thth ESAP Annual Conference ESAP Annual Conference
Commercialization of Livestock Agriculture in Africa: Challenges and opportunities
No experience in Africa
Breeding structuresBreeding structures
No Conventional Single Open Nucleus
DispersedOpen Nucleus
∆G, lag and ∆F, properties and optimization summarized in text
“Local” breeds
“International” breeds
Within flock,group, village
Within village
Intervention strategiesIntervention strategies
Generate a breeding structure
Improve efficacy of breeding structure
Some experiences with sheep, alpacas and goats
Improvement of a conventional Improvement of a conventional structure:structure:
Merino sheep in ArgentinaMerino sheep in Argentina
• Separate visually best 40 females and 2 bucks• Mate nucleus and base first 20 days separately• During night keep in corral• During day graze or feed separately• After 20 days graze/mate together as usual
• At kidding identify nucleus progeny by date of birth• Castrate males in base• Replace worse buck on progeny test with best nucleus
born young buck• Use next best bucks in base• Avoid mating with daughters: circulate / exchange
Corral for nucleus mating at night
Sustainability - Results
• Cost per tribe:– Fence: once only, local government? – Barley or labor: yearly, decreasing– Fleece samples: yearly, research?
• Expected results:– Response as in woolen sheep– Cashmere suitable for yarn making (dehairing issue)– Improved raw cashmere for export (= chinese, 25%)
• We have the tools to estimate progress, lags and inbreeding to design optimum breeding structures.
• In practice we usually work with an existing or evolving breeding structure and will need tactical optimization.
• The important point is to discuss the logic of a structure with the farmers and analyze options for implementation.
• Open nucleus systems are particularly useful when selection objectives are not clearly expressed and when data collection is difficult.
• Breeding structures usually lead to other collective actions such as joint marketing of products.
Some experiences and Some experiences and commentscomments