NEW technology could help Western Australian sheep producers identify so-called 'super sires' in their flock and boost the success of artificial breeding programs.
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In 2019, the University of Sydney started trialling a new data capture system, designed by Graham Innovations, Victoria, to compare the causes of successful and unsuccessful artificial insemination (AI) procedures.
Three Australian stud operations have been involved in the trials including Manunda Poll Merino stud, Tammin, facilitated by Westbreed Animal Breeding Services, Northam.
University of Sydney animal reproduction associate professor Simon de Graaf discussed the future of sheep artificial breeding at The University of Western Australia this month, as part of the Alan Sevier Memorial Lecture.
Mr de Graaf anticipated initial trials of the system would wrap up by the end of this year, after the pandemic delayed its progress last year.
He said the interface was developed to utilise new hardware Graham Innovations had designed to improve management of pregnancy scanning data and related equipment such as drafting gates for eID.
"Graham Innovations developed the system to improve pregnancy scanning workflow, enable better data capture and provide more useful information to producers for their flock management," Mr de Graaf said.
"They are testing that system around Australia now, but my current focus is the artificial breeding side of things.
"So we worked together to develop the interface to utilise the system for the capture of all data pertaining to AI."
Mr de Graaf hopes more testing will be done, involving more breeders, and that a system will be available by the end of this year when hardware and software testing had ended.
He said by determining the causes of successful and unsuccessful AI results, breeders could eliminate or dramatically reduce cases of only 30 to 40 per cent fertility.
"We would be able to look at things including the time of AI, the dose of hormones and analgesia used, what the tone of the uterus looks like, the internal fat score and even the weather around that time.
"The device has a GPS, so we can link the time and location of the AI program to relevant local BoM (Bureau of Meteorology) data.
"You combine all of that information, which is collected at AI, and then by using the same device at pregnancy scanning that information can be married up with the fertility data we have."
Mr de Graaf said that would provide "a really great set of female and environmental factors" to help understand the success or failure of AI.
He hoped it could be developed to have predictive values and identify whether or not certain weather conditions were linked to or impacted fertility.
"Imagine if you received a warning that said 'if you go ahead with your artificial insemination program now, based on what the forecast is, you are going to have 20pc lower conception rates'," Mr de Graaf said.
"That could be a useful tool for the future.
"Overall we are hoping to enable more consistent high fertility following AI, which means greater uptake of AI and more lambs being born from the elite genetics."
Mr de Graaf said it was a "very quick process" in storing the data for each sheep and it could be saved locally or backed up in a cloud data base.
He said once the system was out of beta testing and available to the broader industry, with good uptake it could make such data collection "very much a commonplace".
"Imagine if you were collecting data on the 250,000 or so inseminations that happen in Australia each year in sheep," he said.
"You could very quickly start to determine whether or not there are factors controlling fertility that we otherwise haven't picked up on before."
The University of Sydney has also been working on a related project with the Australian Merino Sire Evaluation Association (AMSEA), supported by New South Wales Merino Stud Breeders' Association Trust.
As part of the project, all semen used in the AMSEA sire evaluation trials this season and the next will be tested to link sperm parameters or traits with subsequent fertility.
Mr de Graaf said testing the semen used in these sire evaluation programs would be like competitions between males and would set new semen standards.
"There are various things we test for, but basically it is a test of numerous sperm traits such as motility, DNA integrity, morphology to see if any of these factors can predict the fertility of a male," he said.
"With this knowledge, not only can we add this to our ability to predict the success of AI, we can also set a new and improved set of semen quality standards for the sheep industry."
Breeders participating in the evaluation program entered their rams and paid a small fee, before providing semen for insemination.
The University of Sydney are given an extra couple of semen straws, to test the same semen used for insemination and to match the vitro traits of this semen with fertility.
"It will be a while before we finalise our results because of the fact sheep are seasonal breeders and we want to ensure that we get quite a bit of data," Mr de Graaf said.
"AI is a key part of facilitating rapid genetic progress within any animal industry.
:What AI does is it allows you to utilise the genetics of an elite male across a broader part of the industry.
"Say there's a really incredible ram over in NSW, rather than him only being available on that one property, semen can be sold and shipped to different parts of the country and he can be used in somebody else's breeding program where they can utilise those elite genetics.
"So we refer to AI as enabling the widespread dissemination of the genetics from elite sires.
"It accelerates genetic progress and production progress for any breeding objectives you have for your sheep, so you're able to meet those goals faster by using artificial breeding such as AI.
"All our research is focused on boosting the success of these technologies and as a result the production gains of the Australian sheep industries."
