Methodology of evaluating the effectiveness of the index selection method in sheep breeding

Evaluation of animals simultaneously on several economically useful features allows to get a complex numerical indicator, based on which it is possible to rank animals. This approach allows you to identify the best animals and determine the strategy of the breeding work. The successful result of the selection work is the production of offspring with high values of selected economically useful traits. This raises the question of the effectiveness of selecting animals based on breeding indices for the breeding work. Thus, the presented research is relevant and will help to evaluate the effectiveness of using the index selection method. The research uses methods of set theory. The entire sample of evaluated rams is divided into two sets. The first set includes sheep with high values of breeding indexes, and the second set includes sheep whose values of economically useful traits are less than the average values. Then the offspring of the evaluated rams are analyzed. In the course of this analysis, it is found out whether rams with a high value of breeding indexes have the same highly productive offspring or not. The article draws attention to the fact that for an objective assessment of the effectiveness of the index selection method, such calculations must be performed on a large number of samples. You need to use data for several years. The best result can be obtained if you analyze the same group of animals for several years. This approach can be implemented in farms that have collected correct databases of animal bonuses that combine data for several years. An integrated Matlab package was used to calculate selection indexes and perform operations on sets. The article is illustrated with numerical data presented in the form of tables and diagrams. The conclusions obtained in the course of the work can help researchers and breeders in improving the efficiency of breeding work using information and computer technologies.