Page 12 - National Poultry Newspaper

NFF president Fiona Simson.
National Farmers’ Fed- eration president Fiona Simson said, “Right now is a moment in time in which we can change for the better how as Aus- tralians we value the natural environment and how we recognise and support farmers who are stewards of 51 percent of our nation’s landmass.”
across the country are taking real climate action and are primed to play an even larger role in Aus- tralia’s lower emissions future,” Ms Simson said.
“This will include en- suring we use the best science and measurement tools available.”
Page 12 – National Poultry Newspaper, November 2021
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Australia can’t afford to get this wrong
Crossbreeding is the practice of mating animals from genetically distinct purebred lines to pro- duce crossbreds and is widely adopted in pig and poultry breeding.
How to optimise genomic selection
IN pig and poultry breeding programs, the animals that pro- vide food for consum- ers are usually cross- bred, while genomic selection takes place in their purebred pa- rental lines.
However, purebred and crossbred perfor- mance are not perfect- ly correlated, raising questions such as do we need to collect data on crossbred, can we improve the statistical model and what do the answers to these ques- tions depend on?
Researchers from Wageningen Univer- sity and Research have written a review paper on how genomic selec- tion can be optimised for the improvement of crossbred animals. Genomic selection
Researchers from Wageningen Univer- sity and Research have summarised answers to these questions in a review paper that was recently published in the Journal of Animal Science.
Livestock popula- tions are continuously improved by a process called selection.
Optimising genomic selection for cross- bred performance
With selection, breed- ers decide on which animals are allowed to reproduce, based on es- timates of the animals’ genetic value.
The authors found that the optimal strat- egy was likely to vary across species, breed- ing programs and traits.
Nowadays, such es- timates are obtained from statistical models that describe the rela- tionship between the performance of ani- mals – that is their phe- notype – and the ge- netic variation in their DNA.
However, some gen- eral trends could be ob- served.
This particular meth- od of selection is called genomic selection, which requires phe- notype and genotype marker data on a large number of reference animals. Crossbreeding
Second, genomic selection for cross- breeding may benefit from using crossbred instead of purebred data, but only when the genetic correlation between purebred and crossbred performance is lower than about 80 percent.
Crossbreeding is the practice of mating ani- mals from genetically distinct purebred lines to produce crossbreds and is widely adopt- ed in pig and poultry breeding.
Finally, even though genotyping is costly, it is advisable to collect genotypes of crossbred animals that are phe- notyped.
Genetic progress is re- alised in the purebred lines based on purebred phenotypes and geno- types, while the aim is to improve performance of the crossbreds.
An important argu- ment for this advice is that a single crossbred record can contribute to genetic improvement in all three or four paren- tal lines, justifying the required investment.
First, when purebred data is used, the statis- tical model can be im- proved by accounting for genetic dominance effects.
Estimates are obtained from statistical models that describe the relationship between the per- formance of animals – that is their phenotype – and the genetic variation in their DNA.
THE bright and pros- perous future of farm- ers and regional Aus- tralians depends on the government getting its climate change commit- ments right.
An important part of this is to provide a just and supported transition.
sector.
“Everyday farmers
reward improved biodi- versity – that help build and maintain sustainable soils and a sustainable ecosystem services re- gime,” she said.
“We can’t afford to squander this opportu- nity.
Ms Simson welcomed existing government ini- tiatives to reward farm- ers for the work they do in managing biodiversity and remnant vegetation and in improving soil health.
“Australia must get this right.”
The NFF backs an economy-wide aspira- tion of net zero emis- sions by 2050 with two important caveats – that an economic pathway is identified and that farm- ers aren’t burdened by unnecessary red tape.
This represents a trans- formational take on the intersection of farming and natural resource management.
“Farmers have learnt from the painful lessons of the past,” Ms Simson said.
“The NFF has been crystal clear and stead- fast in discussions with the government – climate change policy must chart a course for agriculture and the bush to not only survive but thrive in a re- duced emissions future,” Ms Simson said.
“We urge the govern- ment to go further and explore market-based solutions that connect farmers and their carbon sequestration capability,” Ms Simson said.
“Agriculture cannot and will not, be treated as the globe’s carbon sink.
Farmers are at the fore- front of climate change.
“The outcome of these negotiations should rep- resent a major reset and an unmistakable oppor- tunity to back in Austral- ian farmers and the rural and regional communi- ties they support.
Agriculture both emits greenhouse gases and has an enormous capacity to sequester carbon.
Ms Simson said the NFF supported the work led by Emissions Reduc- tion Minister Angus Tay- lor in this space.
The government’s cli- mate change policy must recognise this.
“It’s time to position Australia as leaders on climate change, with a policy and commitment farmers and all Austral- ians can be proud of.”
It must acknowledge the major progress that has been made already in reducing emissions, es- pecially by the livestock
“For farmers this means ongoing invest- ment in measures that enable and assist us to engage in markets that
“But we need support, investment and innova- tion by the government on behalf of the com- munity.”
Ongoing investments are needed by govern- ment to support the de- velopment of innovations and technology to allow farmers to take advan- tage of the opportunities for emission reduction within production agri- culture.
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A shift from a stick to a carrot approach, will see both farmers and the environment benefit.
“In moving forward, farmers want past in- justices addressed and fixed.
“To do this effectively farmers need the tech- nology, systems and knowledge to establish recognised and consist- ent baselines.”
“Farmers are the back- bone of rural and re- gional Australia, keep- ing supermarket shelves stocked and the economy ticking, during the ongo- ing pandemic.