TGRM™ Frequently Asked Questions

A: TGRM™ can help improve any breeding program that uses scientific methods and objective measurement to identify superior animals to select as parents. TGRM™ can do this better because it helps you maximise genetic gain while managing coancestry and inbreeding, as well as costs and other issues you must consider when selecting and mating your animals. Without the help of computers, it is difficult to consider the many different combinations of animals to achieve your desired outcomes. TGRM™ takes your desired outcomes as goals and aims to find the animals that can best achieve those goals.

A: TGRM™ is a software system owned by the University of New England and Meat & Livestock Australia, further developed and delivered by X'Prime. It is licensed as a service, primarily through distributors to industry, giving you access to powerful servers, a full support and information system underpinned by a database system, with data input facilities and powerful reporting mechanisms. The graphical user interface is designed to allow interaction between the user and the scientific engine, giving the user control over the desired outcomes. TGRM™ is constantly being improved and updated giving you the latest developments in mate selection. TGRM™ is available to many industries and contact details can be found here, or if you are a breeding company or wish to obtain a distributorship click here.

A: TGRM™ is available to many industries and contact details can be found here. If none of the service providers listed is available to you, then please register your interest in TGRM at: http://xprime.com.au/register. We'll use the information you provide to help us find service providers in your industry.

A: TGRM™ selects primarily on the multiple-trait index which reflects your breeding objective. The breeding objective is a set of goals for the traits you have identified as important, and the theory tells us that this is the fastest way to achieve your goals in a balanced way. TGRM™ allows you to input as many additional traits as you like. Traits should preferably be in the form of Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs). All individuals that are candidates for selection must have a trait value in the data. The traits can then be used to supplement index selection. You can set a minimum or maximum value for each trait, or an optimum. This helps you to avoid the more extreme values or to have progeny that are more similar for some traits. You can even use TGRM™ to make a small number of extreme matings for a trait or even the index.

A: To get an accurate estimate of coancestry and inbreeding, you should have as much pedigree information as possible. You can never have too much! If you lack depth in the pedigree that is recorded, you can still use TGRM as long as you are aware that some pedigree is lacking. There are some studies that suggest 7 generations is adequate, but the actual number of generations required depends upon your data structure, species, breed and breeding history, among other factors. As a general rule, go for as much pedigree as you can get, and once you have some preliminary results and estimates of coancestry and recommended usage patterns based upon your goals, we can make a recommendation if more pedigree is required.

A: Yes, TGRM™ is ideally suited to groups that have a common breeding objective and wish to work together. Group breeding schemes can result in much higher genetic gain and benefit from large size, however if cooperation is lacking, these benefits are reduced. TGRM™ can help to set a common objective, encourage appropriate interchange of males, respect individual ownership and improve genetic progress of the group and of individuals in the group while taking advantage of the group size to manage coancestry and inbreeding. TGRM™ uses grouping to achieve this, with genetic gain and inbreeding reported for each group along with the other standard reports.