Selectabull - Genetic Trait Calculation System

Design / Development / CMS / Integration / Hosting

Transforming the unintelligible into the accessible - giving farmers control of the genetic future of their herds.

 The Challenge

To develop massively complex bioinformatics data mining and calculations systems for the genetic traits of thousands of bulls and
present this through a web interface that is easy and engaging for dairy farmers to operate. 

The Solution

One of Eye Media's greatest strengths is in taking complex data or processes and develop innovative ways to make them simple and accessible to the end user. In the case of the Australia dairy industry, this innovation challenge was to give dairy farmers the power to determine the breeding objectives of their herds and select bulls to maximise the desired genetic traits of those objectives. 

Within the system and legacy databases are thousands of candidate bulls, each with unique measurements of 36 major traits. This meant that millions of variations were possible, before taking in to account complex genetic formulas and cross relationships between traits. The challenge was to take this massive complexity and volume of data, and make it accessible, intuitive and even enjoyable for dairy farmers to use.

As farmers are not genetic statisticians, essentially the challenge was “transforming the unintelligible into the accessible”. The result is Selectabull, a simple online interface that provides dairy farmers with slider controls for each of 36 genetic traits so they can "dial up" the ideal herd qualities to meet their breeding objectives. As the farmer changes the slider controls for such traits as milk protein, physical characteristics, even cow “likeability” and temperament, a highly complex query and computation system built by Eye Media rapidly analyses the genetic characteristics of thousands of bulls before recommending the best match. 

With each touch of the slider controls, there are literally thousands of complex genetic calculations and permutations of data taking place against the 36 traits of over 10,000 bulls.  There take in to account the formulae for such factors as inbreeding, cost and the farmer’s individual profit and revenue objectives. Such has been the success of Selectabull, that the dairy industry client has also commissioned Eye Media to develop the systems and design for what is basically be a 'dating service' for cows - working with farmers to match the ideal cow in their herd to the best bull - all in the name of continuous improvement of Australia's dairy quality, productivity and profitability.