Sheep selection and management tools
This content is being prepared for publication and will be available soon.
In the meantime please email Jessica.richards@dpi.nsw.gov.au for a copy of any of these tools.
OFFM Calculator
The OFFM (on-farm fibre management) Calculator assists commercial wool producers to determine whether fleece measurement is likely to be a profitable practice for their flock. Using basic information on flock structure and performance, the calculator shows the likely profit from four areas of production; hogget clip preparation, adult clip preparation, ewe selection and wether selection. The returns are shown in a simple graphical format over a ten year period and offer some suggested changes for increasing profit by altering structure or selection method.
Wether Calculator
The Wether Calculator shows the economic consequences of varying the proportion of wethers within flocks of varying fibre diameter over a range of meat values for surplus stock. A range of selection options are also available for consideration. It relies on base flock information to be entered and uses these to make predictions on future fibre diameter (FD), fleece weight (FW) and body weight (WT). Meat and wool pricing options are then applied to these predictions to determine gross margins and shows the optimal economic proportion of wethers within the flock (the decision for including wethers or not is determined on more factors than just economics).
Lamb Growth Predictor
The Lamb Growth Predictor is a useful tool for making management decisions in lamb production systems. It uses repeated live-weights to calculate individual growth rates and adjusts these (for expected conditions) for future weight predictions. It predicts how many animals will reach a target weight on a specified date and how many animals will reach target weight.
Selection Assist
Selection Assist enables producers or their advisors or classers to compare results from different breeding directions, so as to choose which is most applicable to their flock. The program predicts the likely outcome of selected breeding objectives. It also shows the impact of reproductive rates and where the progress can come from within a flock.
Simultaneous Assortment
Simultaneous Assortment was developed to allocate animals into their most appropriate “meat” or “wool” groups according to individual information on the animals (eg. fibre diameter (FD) and body weight (WT)). In combination, the wool animals will have a lower average micron and the meat group a higher average body weight, rather than just a “select” group and an alternative group.
Merino v Terminal Flock Model
The Merino v Terminal Flock Model assists producers to decide the appropriate number of ewes to allocate to self-replacing Merino matings and first cross matings, with the aim of maintaining a sustainable self-replacing flock.
