THE Jersey breed's peak body wants publishable genomic Australian Breeding Values as soon as possible, even if it means having to "wear" lower reliability.
Recently, Jersey Australia called for breeders to donate unwanted Jersey semen straws so the breed could build its genomic database in a bid to lift reliability.
Most of the dairy industry's genomic work - where an animals' DNA is tested for specific traits - has so far been done with the Holstein breed, due to the size of its herd.
The Australian Dairy Herd Improvement Scheme plans to release the first genomic Australian Breeding Values for Holsteins in September.
The Holstein genomic database has a 50 to 60 per cent reliability compared to the Jersey's 30 per cent.
The Victorian Department of Primary Industries has so far genotyped 400 Jersey bulls and 2500 Holstein bulls.
According to Jersey Australia chief executive Scott Joynson the only way to improve reliability is to build on the number of animals tested.
He said there were two ways to quickly lift this base.
The first was to work with the DPI to test semen from sires with publishable proofs in Australia.
Jersey Australia have been searching for straw donations for a fortnight and 154 have so far been received.
The second way was to increase the number of animals tested by gathering DNA from cows from selected Australian Jersey herds.
In a joint project with the DPI and Dairy Futures Cooperative Research Centre, tail hair on 250 cows has been sampled.
Mr Joynson said Jersey Australia would like to have published GABVs as soon as possible.
"We are prepared as a breed (group) to wear the low reliability and grow our database with them," he said.
Mr Joynson said Jersey breeders were aware that low reliability meant there could be a lot of movement with the GABV list, but it was something that would improve over time.
Dairy Futures CRC chief executive officer David Nation commended the grass-roots action, calling for semen donations and working with scientists to boost the genomic database.
However, he said the Jersey pool in Australia was a lot smaller than the Holstein pool and that more work would be needed to lift reliability.
He said ADHIS had been sourcing Jersey bulls that had been used in Australia from similar international herd improvement organisations to build numbers.
However, the level of reliability must be higher than 30 per cent, but not necessarily as high as the Holstein breed, for Jersey bulls to receive an GABV.
"We are wanting to get it to a point were people say yes we choose one bull over another bull based on a reliable DNA test," Dr Nation said. "We're not yet at that level of reliability (where we) are well placed to make a decision."
