Ani-Mate: The easiest method to minimize inbreeding

Penned sheep for inspection

People involved in this project

How do you monitor inbreeding on farm? How do you measure the genetic gain in your livestock? How do you decide which animals go into each mating group? If your current process requires multiple spreadsheets, trawling over pedigree trees, and many hours, then you are doing it the hard way!

Let our skilled geneticists and data scientists help you out!  AbacusBio’s Ani-Mate service can analyse your animal records directly from your performance recording database (e.g. SIL, Breedplan, Deer Select etc). Are you in need of an animal database? Our Dtreo genetic database could be just what you need.

We use the data you have already collected in your records to calculate the relationship between each animal on your farm. From there, our breeding experts will calculate the best mating groups to maximise your breeding goals while minimising inbreeding.

No more headaches. All you need to do is choose the sires and verify the available dams for the coming season. Then, sit back and let our scientists and mathematicians work out the best mating groups to meet your goals. If you need some extra help with your goals then our breeding objective specialists are at your service.

Want to use one sire per group? Or would you prefer to use a team of sires? The choice is yours! Our experts can advise on single-sire mating allocations or sire-teams of any size. Are some of your sires working too hard or hardly working? Fear not! We can create a list of sire reserves in case you need to make some substitutions during the season.

You will receive a report with your genetic gain over recent years, relatedness tables, the number of dams per sire and the inbreeding analytics of your animals. And, most importantly, drafting lists for your next mating.

Throw down your tattered notebook, close that spreadsheet! Make your data work for you and free up your time for other things.

Contact our team and let us do the hard yards with the mating allocation this season.

Testimonials for Ani-Mate

“We decided to use Ani-Mate to get an accurate picture of what level of in-breeding we may have in our flock. Our normal practice has been to simply allocate rams to mobs of ewes based on age rather than careful consideration of relatedness. We were pleased to find that, although there was a low level of inbreeding in the flock, Ani-Mate’s analysis and allocation of ewes to less related sires means that this year’s lambs will have a very low level of inbreeding. The process was simple from our end, we supplied Sharl with the list of ewes on hand for mating and the available sires, and he sent back a drafting list showing which ewes could be mated to which ram. We then loaded that file onto our Tru-Test XR5000 scale indicator and the Pratley Auto-Drafter did the rest. We are very pleased with the advice and service provided by AbacusBio, in particular the fast turn-around of the drafting lists once we provided all the animal ID’s to Sharl.”Ruth and Ross Richards (Romani Coopworth)

“At Twin Farm Genetics, we have successfully used Ani-Mate in our TEFRom and Suftex studs for over 10 years.  Using ram hoggets over ewe hoggets shortens the generation interval and Ani-Mate minimises the problem of relatedness.  It doesn’t replace good stockmanship but it sure makes single sire mating a lot easier which has contributed to our Studs success.” –  Andrew, Katherine, Russell and Pam Welsh (Twin Farm Genetics)

“We have used Ani-Mate for over a decade in our Newhaven Perendale stud and it is an essential tool in our stud’s genetic programme and progress” – Blair and Jane Smith (Newhaven Perendales)

Up until this year I have always random mated using Professor Al Raes theory on population genetics. As I am now using total genomics on my ewes and rams and the advent of single step I feel that population genetics is a breeding policy of the past. The next step was to use Ani-Mate to realize any unlocked potential in my flock. AbacusBio made the process very easy.” – Ross Alexander (ARDG Romney, Pakaraka)

Have you also got something to say about Ani-Mate? Contact the team and let them know!