International Livestock Resources & Information Centre Ltd

The ILRIC Sales Barn is an online livestock genetic trading post listing Australian live seedstock, semen and embryos.

To search or browse click SalesBarn in the menu above.

HerdMASTER software is a general purpose package for on-farm recording of information on livestock pedigree and performance, access to veterinary treatments, stock movements, sales and purchases and client databases. It is an ideal tool for producers seeking to increase herd productivity and profit through improved management. It is designed as an on-farm companion product for ILR2 and BREEDPLAN.

The advantages of using HerdMASTER are:

• Most input information can be electronically collected on-farm and sent by email or disc/CD. This creates considerable economies in cattle breed society administrative costs.
• HerdMASTER also operates on pocket PCs for collection and/or retrieval of information in the field. Where field conditions are adverse, a more robust version of HerdMASTER uses large touch-sensitive screens coupled to rugged data capture/PC devices.
• Web version gives breeders access to an advanced herd/flock management system without the up-front outlay for a licence.

Free trial of HerdMASTER

Through ILR2, ILRIC can provide access to large-scale databases for diverse recording needs of a range of livestock species.  ILR2 provides a central database that is the repository for records of pedigrees and animal performance, integrating these with an accounting interface for a range of livestock species across many countries.  ILR2 is customised to the needs of particular client organisations, including individual breed associations and national umbrella groups (spanning a number of livestock species) through to corporate breeding and livestock producers wishing to centralise their activities and deliver whole-of-life traceability and tracking procedures. 

Using state-of-the-art molecular and quantitative genetic technologies, researchers are conducting the world's largest sire progeny evaluation program for beef quality.  The 14,000 progeny are drawn from pedigree seedstock herds of Hereford, Angus, Shorthorn, Murray Grey, Brahman, Belmont Red and Santa Gertrudis.  The cattle breeding program has identified sires that will produce cattle which:

• eat less to produce more
• excel in the traits which directly affect profitability, growth, carcase quality, boning room yield, beef quality and net feed intake
• perform in specific environments under different production systems (pasture or feedlot) for specialist markets (domestic, Japanese or Korean)
• achieve eating quality excellence

ILR2 provides:

• A modern central repository of pedigree and performance data
• A seamless interface to software for data input (including that from HerdMASTER and HerdMagic) and transparent links to BREEDPLAN genetic evaluation and Internet Solutions systems
• Comprehensive reporting and certificate registration facilities
• A robust interface to internet distribution of information
• Comprehensive membership system
• Maintenance of historic herdbook records for registered and non-registered animals, including full ownership/transfer system (including leases and syndicates)
• Integrated embryo and semen rights tracking systems
• Data integrity checks for sire/dam ownership, mating clashes for dams and grading tables
• all customised according to association rules and regulations
• Data recording schemes for AI approved/royalty sires
• Full batch processing system for processing ASCII data files submitted by breeders via email or disk, from various on-farm herd management systems, using standard data formats
• Sale cataloguing system. Such a comprehensive tool is invaluable to those producers who seek to enhance output within the modern cattle market.

ILR2 is a replacement for ILR1. ILR1 is currently used by more than 80 breed associations across numerous species world-wide.  ILR2 has undergone two years of development and will be available to ILRIC clients in 2005.  ILR1 has been incredibly successful. In 2004 it is expected that at least 562,000 registrations will be processed.  Breed societies and/or recording groups from 12 countries are using ILR1 software in 2004, namely; the United Kingdom, Namibia, South Africa, Hungary, Thailand, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA, Uruguay and Argentina.  ILR1 software is currently interfaced with performance recording systems for beef cattle, dairy cattle and alpacas and interfaces for sheep and goats are being designed. 

The databases maintained by ILR1 include well over 30 million pedigree animals of which performance information has been recorded for over 10 million animals.

For more information contact us

BREEDPLAN is the world's most advanced and widely used genetic evaluation system for beef cattle.  It offers bull breeders the potential to accelerate genetic progress in their herds, and to provide objective information on stock they sell to seedstock and commercial breeders.

The use of BREEDPLAN has resulted in substantial genetic improvement for genetic traits of commercial importance for many industry producers across the globe.  The performance evaluations using a full multitrait model can be run for a wide range of traits.  Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs) are generated for up to 19 traits for each animal, including growth, fertility, carcase characteristics, feed efficiency and temperament.  Included in the calculation of EBVs are the animal's own performance, the performance of known relatives, the heritability of each trait and the relationship between the different traits.  BREEDPLAN provides a world class genetic evaluation model that combines all traits in one analysis.

The equivalent packages for the sheep and pig industries are OVIS and NPIP-PIGBLUP, respectively.  They use Best Linear Unbiased Prediction (BLUP) to estimate breeding values for all the animals in an analysis and are also available through ILRIC. 

BREEDPLAN is currently used by 42 beef breeds around the world.  It has been adopted as the national beef recording scheme in Australia, New Zealand, Hungary, Thailand and the Philippines.  Other countries to use BREEDPLAN are the USA (for 12 years) Canada, Argentina, Uruguay, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Namibia.  No other genetic evaluation system for beef cattle enjoys this spread of usage.

• WEIGHT - Birth weight - 200-day weight - Milk - 400-day weight - 600-day weight - Mature cow weight
• FERTILITY - Scrotal size - Days to calving - Gestation length - Calving ease - direct - Calving ease - daughters
• CARCASE - Eye muscle area - Fat thickness (rib) - Fat thickness (rump) - Carcase weight - Meat yield % - Intramuscular fat 
• (Plus Docility and Net Feed Intake)

BREEDPLAN is being used by the Thailand Department of Livestock Development (DLD) to monitor, in particular, valuable genetic resources of the indigenous cattle and buffalo.  The DLD develops, monitors and supports the breeding structure of the cattle and buffalo herds to improve village income and reduce the flow of young people seeking employment in the city.  Ongoing support of the DLD and its project comes through the provision of advice and genetic evaluation services.

Yodchai Tongthainan, Director of Tak Livestock Research and Breeding Center Thailand, commented that 'the recording system under BREEDPLAN can help government farms to improve their ability to step forward into modern beef cattle breeding and development practices.'

Dr Sawat Thummabood, a previous Director of the Animal Husbandry Division, Department of Livestock Development commented 'Using the Australian developed BREEDPLAN, farmers across Thailand have the opportunity not only to increase livestock production levels, but also to improve the genetic value of the country's breeding stock.'

Breedplan Homepage

BreedObject is an online genetic selection aid for breeders, buyers, and sellers of beef seedstock that interfaces with BREEDPLAN.  It assists the targeting of beef breeding programs by calculating the optimum mix of EBVs for any given situation.  The program is designed for stud and commercial breeders and anyone else making selection decisions to improve the quality and accuracy of those decisions.  It provides a simple and effective way for breeders to represent their seedstock to the commercial industry through the creation of indexes that are tailored to specific markets.

In the BreedObject program, the available BREEDPLAN EBVs on a line of animals are given economic weightings.  These are generally customised for each user and situation, e.g. for a breed society or an individual bull buyer.  The weighted EBVs are combined into a single EBV, the $INDEX, which is the best estimate of the animal's contribution towards a particular breeding objective e.g. producing feeder steers.  In this way, a group of animals (sale bulls for example) can be ranked for a variety of uses.

BreedObject can deliver:

• Ranking of bulls for selection in seedstock herds
• Ranking of sale bulls of seedstock herds, for different purposes, as a service to clients
• Bull buyers ranking available sale bulls
• Selection among potential AI sires
• Assessing trait importance for different production environments and markets
• Managing genetic trade-offs (e.g. growth vs. calving ease, meat yield percentage vs. marbling, growth vs. mature cow size, fertility vs. carcase)
• Breeds and/or breeders identifying potentially elite young sires for further testing
• Gaining an indication of the differences in price justified between bulls

BREEDOBJECT Homepage

Producers need accessible, accurate, up-to-date information about the stock they are preparing to purchase.  Through Internet Solutions the information derived from the ILR2 database can be analysed and made accessible as a user-friendly powerful decision-making tool covering the range of needs for producers wishing to assess individual animals, design breeding programs, or trade in genetic stock. 

Through the Internet Solutions program ILRIC is able to offer a number of interactive internet applications for breed societies and individuals such as:

• Electronic herdbook enquiry service
• Animal/membership enquiry system allowing enquirers to undertake detailed research on pedigrees and sort animals by various criteria (eg location, EBVs for particular traits), research progeny etc.) providing an efficient method for members to make enquiries about seedstock at their convenience
• Auction and private treaty sale catalogue displaying the pedigree, EBVs, accuracies, vendor details, sale notes and photos
• Mating predictor (of EBVs). Members can enter mating programs and the EBVs of progeny will be predicted
• Frequent Internet-based performance data and inventory updates allowing breeders to update their inventories of active animals on-line
• They can also have pre-built worksheets populated with active animals to make the on-farm recording of performance data fast and accurate
• Performance and pedigree reports can also be downloaded using the Internet.

Internet Solutions has proved to be such a useful tool to the producer that the enquiries to Internet Solutions has risen from 10,000 per month to over 1 million per month demonstrating the importance of this technology for breed recording and promotion.  A recent Brahman bull sale at Rockhampton, Australia recorded 35,008 internet enquiries prior to and during the auction. Around 90% of Angus seedstock offered for sale in Australia are now listed using this service and most other breeds are expanding their use of this technology.

For more information please contact ILRIC.

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