DEERLink will help maintain connectedness

This is a good time for breeders to plan mating for next year to maintain the best possible connectedness on DEERSelect. To ensure connectedness you need to have genetic links with other recording herds that are less than three years old; this is achieved by using a common sire across different herds in the same year. DEERLink, a collaborative project between DEEResearch and AgResearch, can help you with connectedness in either of two ways: • facilitating an exchange of semen with other DEERSelect herds or • using semen from one of your sires in the DEERLink central herd AI programme.