@conference {3672,
	title = {BRIEF COMMUNICATION: Preliminary estimates of genetic parameters for adult dag scores in New Zealand sheep and their relationship with juvenile measurements},
	booktitle = {Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	volume = {76},
	year = {2016},
	month = {07/2016},
	pages = {144-145},
	address = {Adelaide},
	abstract = {The accumulation of faecal material around the breech
area of sheep (dags) is of interest to the New Zealand
sheep industry for a variety of reasons, including financial
penalties for presenting animals with dags at slaughter,
reduced wool value, increased risk of flystrike and the
labour cost associated with dagging both lambs and adult
ewes (Pickering et al. 2012). Currently, dag scores at
both three (DAG3) and eight (DAG8) months of age are
routinely measured, and analysed in Sheep Improvement
Limited (SIL). However, there are currently no formally
published estimates of the genetic relationship between dag
score as a lamb and dag score as an adult (DAGA) in the
New Zealand sheep population. Adult dag score has been
found to be highly repeatable between 12 months to two
years of age (R = 0.42) and between two and three years of
age (R = 0.44) in different strains of Merino sheep (Larsen
et al. 1995).
Currently within SIL, the estimated breeding values
(EBVs) calculated from DAG8 measures are reported
as the adult dag score EBVs. There are now, however,
multiple flocks recording adult dag score in the SIL
database. An analysis of the correlation of adult dag score
with DAG8 and DAG3 would confirm if the current SIL
model is appropriate for reporting adult dag EBVs, or if the
model needs revising to include adult dag measures and its
correlations with DAG3 and DAG8.},
	issn = {1176-5283},
	author = {Mcrae KM and Dodds KG and Newman S-AN and Brito LF and Pickering NK and McEwan JC}
}
@conference {3672,
	title = {BRIEF COMMUNICATION: Genetic parameters for growth, carcass and meat quality traits in New Zealand sheep},
	booktitle = {Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	volume = {75},
	year = {2015},
	month = {07/2015},
	pages = {94-96},
	address = {Dunedin},
	abstract = { },
	issn = {1176-5283},
	author = {Brito LF and Miller SP and Clarke SM and Dodds KG and Bain WE and Lee MA and Pickering NK and McEwan JC}
}
