Single-Step BREEDPLAN released for Aberdeen Angus breeders across Europe
The Agricultural Business Research Institute (ABRI) is pleased to announce the release of a multi-country Single-Step BREEDPLAN analysis for European Aberdeen Angus breeders. This major upgrade has been implemented in the May 2025 European Aberdeen-Angus BREEDPLAN evaluation.
The European Aberdeen-Angus BREEDPLAN evaluation involves the following breed societies and breeders:
Aberdeen-Angus Portugal.
The Hungarian British Beef Breeds Association.
Aberdeen Angus breeders across Europe who are utilising ABRI’s direct-to-breeder BREEDPLAN service.
Members of the above groups, located across a range of European countries including Portugal, Hungary, Germany, the Czech Republic, Belgium and Bulgaria, now have access to an analysis that includes genomic (DNA) information in the calculation of BREEDPLAN EBVs.
Further information on Single-Step BREEDPLAN is provided below:
What is Single-Step BREEDPLAN?
Unlike the conventional (non-genomics) European Aberdeen-Angus BREEDPLAN analysis, which used pedigree and performance information, the Single-Step BREEDPLAN evaluation also utilises genomic (DNA) information to calculate EBVs. In this sense, genomic information is providing an extra source of information for the BREEDPLAN analysis to use.
There are two ways in which DNA information provides additional information for the European Aberdeen-Angus Single-Step BREEDPLAN evaluation. Firstly, when an Aberdeen Angus animal is genotyped, the analysis can then take account of each animal’s actual genetic relationship with all other genotyped animals in the population. Secondly, the analysis gains extra information by accounting for how the DNA information relates to the performance records for each trait in the analysis.
What are the advantages of Single-Step BREEDPLAN?
There are several advantage of Single-Step BREEDPLAN that will be applicable for Aberdeen Angus breeders throughout Europe. If animals are genotyped early in life, and their DNA information included in the Single-Step BREEDPLAN analysis, then this can “boost” their EBV accuracy. Having higher levels of EBV accuracy earlier in life means that European Aberdeen Angus breeders can make more informed selection decisions earlier in an animal’s life. In turn, this may assist to drive rates of genetic gain both in the individual herd and for the breed as a whole.
In addition, for those European Aberdeen-Angus breeders with smaller herds and/or undertaking ET programs, EBV accuracy levels are often limited by small contemporary group sizes even when pedigree and performance records are available. If calves are genotyped, however, they can accumulate additional information – and EBV accuracy – via their relationship to the wider genotyped and performance recorded population.
Aberdeen-Angus breeders should note that the use of genomic information as an additional data source to calculate EBVs does not diminish from the use of performance data in European Aberdeen-Angus BREEDPLAN. Indeed, a reference population (animals with both performance data and genomic information) is critical to the ongoing success of Single-Step BREEDPLAN, and Aberdeen Angus breeders are strongly encouraged to continue to collect performance data for all traits that are of importance to their and/or their clients breeding objectives.
What changes can Aberdeen Angus breeders expect?
Following the release of Single-Step BREEDPLAN, Aberdeen Angus breeders across Europe can expect to see changes to EBVs, associated EBV accuracies and selection indexes. In particular, genotyped animals that had a low EBV accuracy prior to the introduction of Single-Step will likely see the biggest increases in EBV accuracy following release of Single-Step BREEDPLAN, although the magnitude of EBV accuracy increases will vary by trait.