DIGITAL agriculture has boomed in recent years, with many farmers turning to technology and data science to help boost production and push the boundaries of innovation.
Harry Wilson, Westbreed Animal Breeding Services, Northam, has worked in the agricultural field for almost 50 years.
He said advances in artificial breeding would be far greater than what they were now, if the industry had access to today's technology decades ago.
"We would be miles and miles ahead," Mr Wilson said.
"I am in the twilight of my career and this is the sort of stuff I would have loved to have known 30 years ago, it is just really exciting."
Westbreed has collaborated with the University of Sydney to facilitate the trial of a new data capture system, which compares the causes of successful and unsuccessful artificial insemination (AI) procedures.
Mr Wilson said the trials had given the industry a very definitive collection of data on every individual sheep involved.
This was not the case prior to the use of electronic tags.
"We are gathering lots of information at each AI program we attend, which has been possible since the complete use of electronic tags and with more people using DNA testing.
"You have those two factors that have really changed the game, as far as getting really good information from sheep breeders about what's going on in their farms, the sort of animals used for AI and so on.
"We can record everything we know about the sire that is used and we can collect huge amounts of information on them just by scanning the electronic tag of every animal that we AI."
Mr Wilson said through the trial, information had been collected from more than 4000 animals, over three sites last season after 2000 animal records in 2019.
While it is only a small portion of what is done in WA, he said it was "still 4000 better than what they had ever done."
"We have been collecting that and submitting it to all the University of Sydney and we also submit a sample of semen from every ram that is actually used in the AI
"They analyse that to see if there are any links between the quality testing they do and the results they are getting in terms of fertility.
"They even push that a bit further and look at whether there is any ongoing congenital defects that might be occurring that they can pick up.
"I think WA is really starting to get behind this and hopefully they will continue to do so."
Mr Wilson said the trial had produced some exciting and accurate results with a wide number of animals.
"I was so excited when I saw the data base that came in from the Manunda stud last year on 1800 sheep and more recently from the Ejanding stud and Muresk," Mr Wilson said.
"We just never had that information in the past and it has already blown a lot of myths right out of the water because we had very accurate data on a wide number of animals."
The trial only uses breeders with electronic tags, which are scanned to record the ewe number.
Motility of sperm, fat score, reproductive tract tone, synchronisation techniques and dose rates are part of information that is recorded.
All factors are collected on every sheep, so when it comes to pregnancy scanning it is known whether the ewes are having a single lamb, twins or whether she's pregnant with AI or back-up ram.
"We also look at any physical characteristics that might be affecting the results," Mr Wilson said.
"We know, from the scanning, what the results are for ewes that are pregnant to AI and ewes that are pregnant to back-up rams.
"But there is often some cross over between the two if the scanning is not 100 per cent accurate, which can often be the case, and this is backed up by DNA testing the lambs.
"Also we are involved in the Merino sire evaluation program, which links nationwide."
Mr Wilson said the trial busted some myths the industry faced, which included differences between how semen was stored, whether it was fresh, chilled or frozen, what package it was stored in, the difference in straws and pellets and so on.
He said the actual time each ewe was inseminated relative to synchronisation treatment was proving invaluable information
"The exciting thing is what we are discovering that we didn't know and that's the specific influence of certain rams on the results you are getting regardless of any subjective semen analysis," Mr Wilson said.
"Ram influence is much greater than we ever thought, so are things like weather conditions, particular ages of the animals we are dealing with, whether they would be maiden ewes or older ewes.
"The point is we are collecting a huge amount of data, which we can then try and find what will be important in the future.
"This is being done pretty much all over Australia.
"In the past 12 months it has only been WA that has continued it on - we have a couple of farmers who are very keen on it."
Mr Wilson said data would be stored to create an integrated package for each farm Westbreed worked with.
He said it was a first for the industry, as none of the information was previously scored at such a scale and with such accuracy.
"We used everything we had available to us, but we are now able to create so much more," Mr Wilson said.
"I think, from our point of view, the more of the industry we can get on board the more information we are going to gather and the more we are going to be able to find it.
"And maybe target what we do in artificial breeding far better than what we do now.
"That's the main thing, to make it a lot more efficient than it is now.
"I look at the raw data coming in and I make my own little comparisons and I think 'Oh my god, look at that, it is very, very interesting.'"
Mr Wilson said the demand for artificial breeding services had increased only moderately in WA over the past few years.
"AI has become an integral part of stud breeding, you're either in it or you're not," he said.
"In any AI program you are always breeding for two years down the track when you are going to be selling rams.
"You can't afford to jump in and jump out again.
"I think the breeding side of it is just getting so much more sophisticated on the stud level that it was many years ago.
"The younger generation of sheep breeders are embracing the new technologies with gusto and our work complements the information they collect and results in better decision making and more targeted breeding decisions
"The competition is out there, you have to be a part of it, you can't sort of let it slip."
