While it has been shown that on average, EBVs for a group of sires do not change significantly over time, it is important to examine how EBVs of individual animals behave, as more comprehensive progeny performance data is added to the Angus database.
Two projects assessed the EBVs of individual sires entered into cohorts 1 to 3 and 5 to 7 of the ASBP to analyse whether the EBVs for individual sires, when initially joined in the ASBP program, differed considerably from the sire’s EBVs at the end of the program, by which time their progeny has been comprehensively performance recorded.
Results demonstrated that while for some individual sires, the EBVs did change, there was, on average, minimal change, and very little re-ranking of sires. Also, even though some initial sire EBVs were of low accuracy, they still described the genetic merit of sires well. Further, the number of sires for which the EBVs did change considerably, and the magnitude of the change in their EBVs, was within expected ranges.
These resources were created as a result of a collaboration between Angus Australia and Meat & Livestock Australia Donor Company (MDC) (Project P.PSH.1063).
