Are genomic evaluations reliable enough yet to bank on?

摘要

Reliability is the measure which gives farmers confidence that the sires they choose will deliver the anticipated improve-ment in the traits they want. "But in the quest for increased genetic progress, farmers may be tempted to choose bulls that look promising but which initially have a low reliability, and this is a higher risk strategy," warns Genus ABS' Stephanie Whittaker. "The whole objective of bull proofs is to help identify those sires that will convey improvements in the desired traits and while PTAs (Predicted Transmitting Abilities) are an indicator of the bull's merit, just how good an indicator they are depends on the data used to calculate them," she explains.