In 2018, both Speckle Park International and the Australian Senepol Cattle Breeders Association upgraded the software used to manage their pedigree and performance database to ABRI’s new generation of breed registry software known as ILR2.

A consequence of the upgrade to the new software is the transition for both Speckle Park International and the Australian Senepol Cattle Breeders Association to conduct across-herd BREEDPLAN genetic evaluations. Previously breeders in these associations had their own within-herd BREEDPLAN analyses.  These upgrades have the advantage of allowing breeders to benchmark their animals relative to the rest of the breed (and not just relative to the rest of the herd as is the case in a within-herd analysis).

Furthermore, these upgrades mean that there is the opportunity for EBVs for additional traits to be published in the future. For example, neither Calving Ease nor Days to Calving EBVs are available in a within-herd BREEDPLAN analysis, but, with a sufficient number of records, are options in an across-herd BREEDPLAN analysis.  There will also be the potential to create BreedObject selection indexes for these breeds.

A second advantage of the upgrade to the new software is the production of enhanced BREEDPLAN herd reports. These, along with the opportunity to conduct across-herd BREEDPLAN analyses, will significantly enhance the BREEDPLAN service that is provided to members of Speckle Park BREEDPLAN and Senepol BREEDPLAN.