World first trial testing sire performance hosted at Urana

Hosted on-property at Tom and Sophie Holt's Coonong Station, Urana, Merino Sire Evaluation executive officer, Ben Swain, said this trial was unique in the sense that the data it produced was going to two different analyses - Dohne and Merino - but also included a lot of raw, visual observations.

Overall, the trials also included input from sheep at 10 sites across the country and with a significant number of sires represented, gave some interesting insights into the industry's genetics.

"We measure hundreds of traits every year from a huge range of sires entered for the sire evaluation trials," he said.

"It is a big program and it's the longest continuously running progeny testing program in the world and in operation since 1989."

Mr Swain noted the trials are largely funded by the stud breeders, who have paid to have their ram's genetic potential evaluated, as well as by Australian Wool Innovation and Meat and Livestock Australia and the breeds' societies.

He said there were many traits collected and more were being added.

"If you can think of a trait in a Merino or a Dohne which is of economic importance, we are probably measuring it or recording it, and new traits are always coming along," Mr Swain said.

"Five years ago if someone had said you will start measuring teeth decay in your sire evaluation sheep I wouldn't have believed it, but here we are - it is fascinating stuff and now obviously udders and teats are a new focus as well."

Mr Swain said one of the common misconceptions about sire evaluation and its ability for relative comparison was that it was all about figures.

"Actually about 70 per cent of the traits we record in sire evaluation are visual traits," he said.

"We obviously measure all the important things, but there is a huge component of sire evaluation which is about visual assessment and that includes an independent classer's grade of progeny of these rams.

"We focus on the visual traits because running Merinos or any animal in an environment like we do in Australia because if they can't eat, they can't walk, they can't breed - they are not much use to the sheep producer."

Mr Swain said the data from this trial was going both into the MerinoSelect Australian Sheep Breeding Values, as well as the Dohne ASBVs.

"It is a really unique trial because the data is going to two different analyses which is great because it allows us to compare these rams in both the Dohne world and in the Merino world," he said.