Case Studies
Halting the invasion
Managing weeds has been an issue for agricultural producers for centuries; consequently there are now a wide variety of techniques used for managing and controlling weeds in an agricultural situation. But in order to successfully control or eliminate any weed farmers need to know which is the most effective and appropriate [...]
The very hungry caterpillar
Ever since attempting to grow our own vegetables with my young children I have been amazed by the decimation caused by caterpillars on crops. At the time my family were engaging in our first gardening experiments and initially we were all delighted to see the range of butterflies in the garden, [...]
KWS value precision and security
For centuries people have been breeding plants, trying to fine-tune individual plants to obtain or change a particular trait. Today plant breeders look at addressing concerns such as drought or environment tolerance, pesticide, herbicide, fungi or bacteria tolerance, improving nutritional value or increasing yields. This, by definition, ranges from “classical” propagation [...]
Why not join VSNi?
Would you like to implement new ideas, and see them put to practical use by a world-wide community of enthusiastic users? VSNi is looking for innovative statisticians and computing professionals with strong programming skills to join its team developing the statistical system GenStat, as well as new products for visualization and [...]
ASReml spawns new thoughts on salmon traits
A report published in September 2009 suggested that farm-reared fish accounted for 50% of the world’ consumption of fish. This rise in aquaculture production isn’t much of a surprise when you consider the emphasis on the health-giving properties of fish (particularly Omega-3 from oily fish) and the subsequent encouragement for people to eat more oily fish; and it’s certainly good news for the aquaculture producers across the world.
Zoo breeding: Sumatran tiger secrets unravelled using ASReml
Zoos have come a long way since the original Zoological Garden in Regent’s Park, London. They are not just a collection of animals for people to look and scientists to study; evolving into centres of research and play a vital part in wildlife conservation and protection. Certainly in the UK you [...]
Understanding reproductive performance
GenStat is known as the data analysis tool for biological sciences, its original development and history stems from the data analysis needs of agricultural researchers based at Rothamsted Research. A study, published in the Journal of Tropical Animal Health and Production, has been looking at determining the true reproductive and productive [...]
Scientific Computing review GenStat
Statistics and genetics package features very nifty tools for life scientists Review by John A. Wass, Ph.D. The Getting Started manual describes this software as “…a complete and comprehensive statistics package…” but, actually, there is a lot more to it. Most packages these days have a variety of statistical tests with [...]
Scientific Computing World reviews GenStat 11th Edition
“GenStat is one of those packages with a reliable and road mapped programme of regular updates. GenStat upgrades have never been less than thorough, stable, significant and workmanlike progressions for one of the industry’s most serious packages; this is no exception.” So says Felix Grant. He goes on to comment on [...]
Individual Herd Heritability Estimates using ASReml
Herd heritability is an important issue in animal breeding; it measures the genetic and environmental influences on the development of a specific quantitative trait. Big words, with big meanings….but for cattle breeders it’s important to understand which aspects of the cattle are influenced by genetics and which by environmental factors. Understanding [...]
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