The key to establishing a DNA programme in a commercial flock is a solid DNA sampling strategy and a set of robust, repeatable processes.
Sampling strategy
A number of our clients with large commercial flocks are adopting a multi-year approach - starting with all breeding ewes in their first year, sampling their lambs, identifying the best mums and replacements from this group - and then repeating the process in year two (including lambs from the mums in their second year). And so on. Over about a five-year period, every animal will be in the "system" with a full performance history. Year-on-year, the value of the data increases, although the benefits should start to flow much earlier, right from year one, through better on-farm decisions. The strategy that you adopt will depend on your own situation and will be driven by your programme objectives, your resources, and your budget.
Sample collection
It makes sense to build on those events where you already have the animals in - for scanning, tailing, and weaning. DNA collection can be added to the tasks without huge additional effort. You will need to get very familiar with ear tags (visual and RFID), tissue sampling units (TSUs), and identification labels.
Totogen has developed its own DNA collection kit, comprising the TotoPunch (an ear punch, designed by Tototgen to be robust and simple to use) and bar-coded collection tube (TSU) that fixes to the punch. It has proven itself in the field to deliver excellent results at a fraction of the cost of other solutions (the tube itself is around 25% of the cost of alternatives and uses one third as much plastic).
Matching samples to animals
The barcode on the TSU needs to be matched with an identifier for the animal - a visual or RFID tag. If you are already using a scanning wand and associated soft/hardware, you simply scan the Totogen barcode and add it to the record of the animal. If you are not, we can provide a simple way to do this using OrcaScan, an app (for mobile or tablet) that will upload the Totogen barcode plus your animal identifier to the cloud (for us to download directly to our systems). The video below gives an overview of this in action.
