The Leading Sheep Central West group is setting up a new sire evaluation site at Longreach in the Mitchell grass downs country to complement the existing Queensland site at Bollon in the Southern Inland region.

The new evaluation site will be based at the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries’ (DPI&F) Rosebank Research Station, providing an opportunity for Merino studs to assess and benchmark the performance of progeny from a specific sire to understand how their genetics are performing in the Central West’s semi-arid environment.

Leading Sheep Central West committee member Rick Keogh said the evaluation would provide local producers with an opportunity to observe and understand some of the tools and technologies that studs are using to benchmark and improve their genetics.

The new site will be run in partnership between the Australian Merino Sire Evaluation Association, DPI&F, Australian Agriculture College Corporation (AACC) Longreach and stud sheep breeders who choose to have rams genetically evaluated at the Rosebank site.

Benefits of this sire evaluation include:

• Individual ram genetic performance measurement will be able to be benchmarked in a summer rainfall, semi-arid Mitchell grass downs situation and

• DPI&F sheep extension officers, managerial staff and AACC students will have responsibility for, and exposure to, the latest genetic benchmarking system.

Mr Keogh said information from the benchmarking would be made available in the Central Test Sire Evaluation database where individual sire information could then be ranked against sire progeny performance from other sites throughout Australia.

“This ability enables ram breeders to gauge their own performance and select for improved genetic gain relevant to regional needs,” Mr Keogh said.

An 850 ewe artificial insemination program will kick-off the project in the middle of October.

A committee is currently being formed to oversee the implementation and management of the new program, with contacts including Leading Sheep committee member and ram breeder Rick Keogh, DPI&F Longreach sheep extension officer Ian McConnell, Australian Merino Sire Evaluation Association executive officer Ben Swain, AACC Longreach campus director Peter Scott and DPI&F Rosebank site manager Doug Allpass.

Leading Sheep is an innovative, regionally-based project working to boost the profitability of the Queensland sheep and wool industry. The project was initiated by Australian Wool Innovation and operates in partnership with the DPI&F and AgForce.