Entering Animal Selection Criteria

Having entered the sale selection criteria, the next step is to enter the animal selection criteria. A range of options are provided to assist users to identify animals that possess genetics that are most aligned with their breeding goals and objectives. Animal selection criteria can be entered by simply specifying fields of interest and/or entering cutoff values on one of four tabs in the Animal Selection Criteria screen. Criteria can be made on any one of the tabs (shown below), or combined from across the tabs that display basic animal details, to breeding, genetic tests and EBVs.

In the Animal Details tab, users can refine their selection criteria by nominating only animals of a particular sex, registration status, one or a range of calving years, plus a few other attributes.

In the Breeding tab, bloodlines can be selected by entering particular Sire or Dam IDs. In this screen, users can also exclude a particular bloodline. So, for example, if your herd has been heavily influenced by one particular sire, and you would like to avoid this animal’s genetics in future purchases, you can exclude him as a sire or grandsire in your search so that your results return animals that contain unrelated genetics.

In the Genetic Tests tab, users can enter particular criteria regarding the status of animals for different genetic traits and genetic conditions. So, for example, sale animals can be selected that are known to be free of all recognised genetic conditions.

In the EBVs tab, animals can be selected that fall into a particular range for any of the EBVs. EBV values can be set either by typing in Minimum and Maximum values for an EBV, or by using the slider to choose animals whose EBVs fall into a particular percentile range. Minimum accuracy for any particular EBV can also be nominated.

On this screen, you also have the option of specifying a Sort order. More information on sorting the search results is provided later.