Tips for Genetic Planning

To access and use Alta BLUE LINK, you must first be added by your administrator or manager and assigned to specific dairies. See Alta BLUE LINK User Management to learn more about user access.

When you open the Genetic Plans page, there are a few things you'll notice:

• The Create a New Plan button cannot be clicked; this is only temporary while PULSE loads data in the background. When the page fully loads, the button becomes active.
• The table lists every genetic plan that's been created, and the Status column tells you the plan's current state. An active plan's status can be defined as one of the following:
  • Draft: You have started the genetic planning steps, but you have not completed them.
  • Ready for Activation: You have completed the genetic planning steps, but you have not activated the plan yet.
  • Activated: You have completed the genetic planning steps and you have activated the plan.

  Additionally, an inactive plan's status can be defined as Expired depending upon the circumstances of the plan's inactivity.

• When a plan is Activated, all Steps in the plan become read-only and cannot be edited. The See Plan option changes to See Report to reflect this change.

• You can clone a new plan based on a previous plan. The new plan will include all your settings from the existing plan.

  Simply click on the plan you want to copy to view its details in a side panel, select the Options button at the top right corner, and select Duplicate Plan.

  

  NOTE: You can only duplicate an existing plan if you have completed all of its genetic planning steps.
• If a description was entered in Step 1: Name Your Plan of an existing plan, a blue Note icon appears next to the plan name. Hovering your cursor over the icon displays the description text.

The Data Integrity report is a useful tool to improve plan accuracy. To quickly identify missing or incomplete animal data, download the Data Integrity Report from the Genetic Dashboard. For the most accurate and comprehensive herd analysis, have the dairy add parentage details for the animals in your herd. VAS recommends adding the data for all animals for the following standard PULSE/DairyComp 305 items: 

• Sire (SID Sire identifier)
• Dam (DID Dam identifier)
• Maternal grandsire (MGS)
• Maternal great-grandsire (MGGS)

This data is used to assess the herd's genomic profile and is the basis of calculations made for specific animal traits and potential improvements.

The breed average is also incorporated into the assessment calculations, but having specific parentage data for the animals in the herd greatly increases the accuracy of the analysis process:

• Three-generation parent average: If a proof is not available for a female, trait data is used from three previous sire generations (sire, maternal grandsire, and maternal great-grandsire) to calculate the female's trait averages. Alta BLUE LINK calculates the trait values using weighted percentages of the three-generation parent averages and the breed average:
  • 50% sire
  • 25% maternal grandsire
  • 12.5% maternal great-grandsire
  • 12.5% breed average
• One-generation parent average: To calculate a potential progeny's trait averages, trait data is used from the progeny's parents (sire and dam).
• Breed average: When parent data is unavailable, a progeny's trait averages are based on the breed average.

Based on discussions with the dairy, you will gather the primary goals of the owner, including which of the general trait categories are to be the focus of the plan. In Step 3 of the genetic planning tool, start by selecting a Preset value to set the major category percentages for Production, Health, and Conformation, and then adjust the values for specific traits in those categories.

PULSE keeps the latest genetic plan as the "current" plan. However, you can create plans that apply to specific animal groupings or other criteria when defining the plan. Use the options in Step 4: Create Your Strategy to focus your plan on specific animals or to limit the scope of individual plans.

Alta BLUE LINK supports the manual addition of bulls to your genetic plan. This allows you to hand-select bulls that are not currently included in the Alta marketing list, or to make use of remaining inventory from another semen supplier.

See Add Bulls to Your Plan to learn more!