Select Sires Inc. announces the debut of StrataGEN™, a unique, sequential breeding system that offers optimal use of genomic insights to help dairy producers achieve individual breeding goals while also minimizing inbreeding.
StrataGEN uses genomic insights to categorize both daughter-proven sires and young sires into one of five unique genetic lines, based on common traits they’ve inherited from their ancestors, as confirmed by individual genomic testing. Each line is identified with a single color – orange, blue, green, yellow or red, for easy understanding and implementation into any dairy breeding program.
Following an initial consultation with a StrataGEN specialist, a herd’s probable, existing genetic base is evaluated and long-term herd goals are considered to develop a three- to five-line rotation of sires that will provide the greatest genetic intensity with minimized inbreeding.
“Inbreeding and the potential financial losses it causes, is a real problem in dairy operations today,” says Jeff Ziegler, genomic program manager at Select Sires. “With the intensive use of genomics now being applied to sire selection, the risk of inbreeding is even greater. However, a program like StrataGEN allows us to use this technology to actually reduce inbreeding by creating a minimum number of genetic lines that are very closely related – and then crossing those lines with others that are much different. It brings heterosis back into the breeding program without the need for crossbreeding.”