The real power ofimproved genetics – Farming Life

So maybe its time to take a peek at what scientists around the world are striving to achieve, where developments in the science of genetic development is concerned.

Lets start with the world of plants. There are three main crops responsible for delivering all of the plant-based energy and protein required in the world today. These consumed directly by mankind or fed to livestock in order to produce animal protein.

The crops in question are: wheat, maize (corn) and soya bean. Given Northern Irelands temperate climate, wheat is the one which farmers and consumers will be most familiar with.

So here comes the shocking fact: A first-of-its-kind analysis of the untapped genetic potential of wheat shows global yields are only half of what they could be!

The team of international experts, led from the UKs Rothamsted Research, says this genetic yield gap could be closed by developing wheat varieties tailored to each region.

In other words, by utilising the vast genetic variation available in global and historical wheat gene banks with modern techniques such as speed breeding and gene editing.

Dr Mikhail Semenov and Dr Nimai Senapati, who co-led this study, define a crops genetic yield potential as the highest yield achievable by an idealised variety.

A plant with an optimal genome allows it to capture water, sunlight and nutrients more efficiently than any other.

Dr Semenov said: Current wheat cultivars are, on average, only at the half-way point with respect to the yields they could produce given the mismatches between their genetics and local wheat growing conditions.

Global wheat production could be doubled by the genetic improvement of local wheat cultivars - without increasing global wheat area.

Using existing data on the contribution of different genes to individual plant traits such as size, shape, metabolism and growth, the researchers ranmillions of computer simulations to design perfect wheat plantsthat were tailored to their local environments.

When compared to the performance of locally adapted cultivars, in all cases they found current wheat varieties were underperforming for grain yield, with an obvious genetic yield gap between reality and possibility.

According to Dr Senapati, closing the genetic yield gap would go a long way to feeding the growing world population and would reduce pressure to convert wild habitats to farmland.

Using a state-of-the-art wheat model, called Sirius, the team first calculated the potential yield from a total of 28 commonly used wheat varieties grown at a number of sites around the world, assuming the best possible cultivation conditions for each one.

This gave harvests of less than four tons in Australia and Kazakhstan - compared with 14 tons of wheat produced per hectare in New Zealand.

Next, they designed idealized local varieties within their model, which optimised several plant traits that contribute to yield and whose underlying genetics will allow them to be improved by plant breeders.

Simulations were based on extensive data on the natural genetic variation underpinning the traits.

These included tolerance and response to drought and heat stresses, the size and orientation of the light-capturing upper leaves, and the timing of key life cycle events.

The results showed that by optimizing these key traits, genetic yield gaps could be anywhere from 30-70% across different countries, with a global average genetic yield gap of 51%. Therefore, global wheat production could be doubled by exploiting this existing genetic yield gap towards achieving global food security in a sustainable way.

Not unsurprisingly, the countries with the lowest current yields could gain the most from closing their genetic yield gaps, said Dr Senapati.

That said, even improvements in those countries with a medium genetic yield gap of 40 to 50%, but with a large proportion of the global wheat harvest, would have a substantial effect on global wheat production due to the larger wheat cultivation areas involved.

Meanwhile, here in Ireland, sheep production has been a key focus of genetic research for many years.

In fact, the myriad sources of data now available to Sheep Ireland is allowing the organisation to achieve the role it was created to fulfil on its establishment back in 2009.

This was the core message delivered by Sheep Irelands manager, Kevin McDermott, courtesy of his presentation to the recent EasyCare open evening. The event was held on the Co Antrim farm of Campbell Tweed.

Our aim is to secure balanced breeding goals for the Irish sheep industry, he stressed.

The good news is that the facts expanding network of data sources and real time information available to us is making this possible.

For example, genetic evaluations can be updated on a weekly basis. Making this possible is the fact that Sheep Ireland is a centralised data source for the entire Irish sheep industry.

McDermott particularly highlighted the role that genomics is now playing within Irelands sheep breeding sectors.

He further explained:Being able to genotype sheep brings with it many benefits. At a very fundamental level, it allows us to verify the parentage of pedigree breeding stock.

This is significant, given that up to 8% of pedigree ewes and lambs born in Ireland have been attributed the wrong ancestry, up to this point.

However, genomics opens up a host of new opportunities, when it comes to delivering improved performance at farm level.

McDermott continued:But none of this would be possible without the increasing buy-in of both pedigree and commercial sheep farmers throughout Ireland.

A total of 8 pedigree sheep societies are now using the Sheep Ireland IT system to administer their flockbooks: Belclare, Beltex, Charollais, Galway, Irish Suffolk Sheep Society, Rouge de lOuest, Texel and Vendeen.

The Sheep Ireland representative also confirmed the benefits that will be accrued by farmers using the organisations new phone app.

Essentially, it allows flockowners associated withSheep Irelandto record information about their animals, such as lambing, and growth rates on an almost real-time basis.

Kevin McDermott again: The new app allows farmers to record and submit information reliably and accurately while they are actually out in the field or in sheds.

Gone are the days when recordings are initially written down on paper and then uploaded into the Sheep Ireland once the farmer gets back to his or her office computer. As a result, the margin for error is greatly reduced.

The impact of the continuing progress made by Sheep Ireland over recent years has been significant.

The organisation was designated the responsibility of increasing the rate of genetic gain within the Irish sheep sector by identifying and promoting the use of rams with more profitable and sustainable genetics.

This has been achieved by gathering performance data from the top rams in the country and accessing their strengths and weaknesses using a genetic evaluation which is updated weekly to include any new data.

The results of these genetic evaluations are then displayed in sales catalogues and online in a simple one to five star rating system, allowing sheep farmers to make a more informed breeding decision when selecting their next stock ram.

Looking to the future, Sheep Ireland sees its role as being part of the response from Irish agriculture to the challenge of global warming.

Specifically, the organisation is currently seeking to develop an Estimated Breeding Value (EBV) for sheep, linked to their methane emissions.

Kevin McDermott again: Again, genomics can play a role in this context.

He concluded: All of the work carried out by Sheep Ireland is independently validated. This approach gives sheep producers a very high level of confidence in the performance-related data that we make available.

Dairy is the largest sector within local agriculture at the present time.

There is a growing recognition of the role that improved genetics will play in delivering future sustainability for the milk sector in Northern Ireland.

Technologies including the use of sexed semen and embryo transfer are already making a significant difference in this regard.

Ai Services Breeding Services Manager Ivan Minford takes up the story: Committing to AI has always represented a very small investment relative to the overall costs incurred within any dairy farming business. Feed, fertiliser and energy prices continue to increase at an exponential rate.

Whats more, the development of effective breeding policies has always been the cornerstone of improved herd performance that will continue to deliver for many generations.

In money terms, the size of the initial investment required to make all of this happen is inconsequential, relative to the scale of the benefits accrued.

He continued; And this remains the case. Ai Services has developed a strong working relationship with the worlds premier breeding companies to secure elite dairy genetics at prices that represent unbeatable value for money for local milk producers.

According to the Ai Services representative, an investment in improved genetics will deliver at two fundamental levels for dairy farmers: improved efficiency and improved profitably.

He further explained: Genetics impacts on every impact of cow performance: improved milk production, enhanced milk quality, extended longevity within a milking group and improved health traits to name but a few.

Significantly, all of these factors combine to deliver a smaller carbon footprint and improved sustainability for all dairy farming operations.

Cow size has also been identified as a key factor in determining the carbon footprint of all milk production business.

There is scope to reduce cow size while still maintaining overall animal performance, Minford concluded.

So how does all this fit into the future development of agriculture in Northern Ireland.

Farm Minister Edwin Poots has set out his vision for the future of farm support in Northern Ireland.

Speaking at the Irish National Ploughing Championships in Co Laois, he confirmed that the post-Brexit farm support measures will focus on a number of key themes: recognising the role of active farmers in adopting sustainable production practices, creating the conditions that will provide encouragement for young people coming into the industry and driving up efficiency levels across the industry.

Where beef is concerned, the minister referred to a revolution taking place within the sector, similar to that which has already been effected within the pig and poultry sectors.

He added:The use of improved genetics and the introduction of management systems that drive performance and reduce environmental impacts, particularly greenhouse gas emissions, are priorities for the beef industry.

Edwin Poots concluded:All future support measures will be underpinned by a measurable improvement in farm economic and environmental performance.

So there you have it: improving genetics will play a critically important role as farming in Northern Ireland looks to the future.

And no doubt, this is something that we can all look forward to.

But developing new genotypes and bloodlines is one thing: managing them effectively is another days work entirely!

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The real power ofimproved genetics - Farming Life