The Aberdeen-Angus Portugal Breeders Association recently announced that their April Analysis publication will be their first official genetic evaluation publication to use Breedplan.

As the majority of the genetics imported to Portugal are registered with the Aberdeen-Angus Cattle Society here in the UK, there are high genetic linkages between the populations and animal details. Performance data has also been recorded in line with Breedplan requirements since 2008, meaning that it made sense to use Breedplan now and further into the future.

Since 2017, the Portuguese Association has been in charge of the Portuguese Herd Book and it has been made a priority to work closely with ABRI and A-ACS to develop Breedplan, allowing the Portuguese Association to have their own IRL2 database, allowing for genetic evaluation.

Taking into account the number of animals and data recorded, a third-party agreement was established between AAPT, A-ACS and ABRI for a monthly joint evaluation with the Aberdeen-Angus Cattle Society’s database, which ensures that there is optimum accuracy for reportability of EBV’s.

This is a landmark achievement for the breed in Portugal in joining an international livestock registration and genetic evaluation programme such as Breedplan. It allows for the breeders and industry to utilise the features of Breedplan, which will accelerate the genetic selection and progression in Portugal.

Pedigree, performance and membership information can be found on the link below:

http://abri.une.edu.au/online/cgi-bin/i4.dll?1=333E202F&2=2431&3=56&5=2B3C2B3C3A

The Aberdeen-Angus Portugal Breeders Association would like to thank everybody for their continued support to their breeding and selection in Portugal.