Dear SBTS & TBTS stakeholder breed society members,

In recent months, the SBTS & TBTS extension team, in conjunction with BREEDPLAN staff, have reviewed the BREEDPLAN tip sheets relating to selection indexes. A number of new tip sheets, both general and breed specific, are now available in the Help Centre on the BREEDPLAN website.

The general selection index tip sheets are:

1. An Introduction to Selection Indexes

This tip sheet introduces BreedObject selection indexes, outlines what selection indexes are available, and explains how to interpret selection indexes. It also provides a brief guide to using selection indexes in animal selection.

2. A BREEDPLAN Guide to Animal Selection

This tip sheet provides a detailed best practice guide to using BREEEDPLAN information, alongside other selection tools, for animal selection. Advice on pre-sale preparation for bull buyers is also provided.

Two breed specific tip sheets are also available and replace the previous ‘Interpreting Breed Selection Indexes’ tip sheet. These are:

1. Using Breed Selection Indexes

This tip sheet provides you and your commercial clients with a reference guide to assist in the identification of the most relevant selection index for your (or your clients) production system(s). This tip sheet includes an overview of the available breed society selection indexes and a guide to using these in animal selection.

2. Breed Selection Indexes: Technical Specifications

This tip sheet has been designed for those of you who wish to gain a deeper understanding of the technical specifications for each of the available selection indexes. This tip sheet provides an overview of the BreedObject selection index development process. The blue profit driver graph, the red EBV weightings graph and the green predicted response graph for each selection index, as were available in the previous ‘Interpreting Breed Selection Index’ tip sheets, can also be found here.

We encourage you to consider sharing these new selection index tip sheets with your commercial bull buying clients, particularly the ‘A BREEDPLAN Guide to Animal Selection’ and the relevant ‘Using Breed Selection Indexes’ tip sheets. You are welcome to link to these tip sheets via your own websites and/or social media sites. You may also wish to reference these tip sheets in your sale catalogues. If doing so, it is recommended that you link directly to the version located on the BREEDPLAN website, rather than host a local copy on your own server. This will ensure that any future updates to the tip sheets are automatically captured.

Should you have any questions, comments or feedback on the new BREEDPLAN tip sheets, please contact the relevant SBTS or TBTS Technical Officer, or staff at BREEDPLAN.

Kind regards,

TBTS Technical Officers