Which Selection Indexes will be published?
As a part of UltraSELECT, a fertility and a terminal selection index will also be made available to breeders. Fertility Index and Terminal Index are both bio-economic indexes that consider 6 traits a-piece, selected and weighted for both heritability and economic importance in a self-replacing breeding operation and a terminal, feedlot finished system, respectively.
Indexes published in the UltraSELECT evaluation are expressed in standard deviation terms, which may be difficult to apply, therefore it is recommended to evaluate animals using their index percentile rank.
Fertility index (FI) prioritises the following traits (in no specific order)
- Milk
- Fat
- Scrotal Circumference
- Heifer Pregnancy
- Number of Calves
- Mature Cow Weight
Currently UltraSELECT does not publish all fertility EBVs that are generated in the IBBA evaluation, such as Number of Calves, Stayability and Breed Back. These EBVs will continue to be assessed and incorporated into UltraSELECT over time, however they are incorporated into the Fertility Index.
Terminal index (TI) prioritises the following traits (in no specific order)
- Birth weight
- Weaning weight
- Yearling weight
- Milk
- Rib Eye Area
- Fat
- IMF
SELECTION ADVANTAGE
The selection advantage of using each index is displayed below. The selection advantage is indicative of the relative response that will occur in individual traits if selection is based on each index. The actual response that is observed will vary depending on the features of the individual breeding program. It is calculated by ranking 2022 born sires within the UltraSELECT evaluation, and comparing the average EBVs of the highest 10% with the average EBVs of all 2022 born sires from which they were selected.
Fertility index (FI)
Terminal index (TI)
