Many New Zealand breeders use SIL (Sheep Improvement Limited) which operates under the umbrella of Beef + Lamb New Zealand. In Australia the equivalent performance recording system is Lambplan operating under the umbrella of Sheep Genetics.
Karioi records performance data with Lambplan rather than SIL because:
We have been performance recording continuously with Lambplan since the early 1990s providing a significant foundation for current EBVs
The sire used from 2014 to 2016 (#091905) was DNA mapped under a genotyping program carried out by Sheep Genetics in 2012 and the data incorporated into Lambplan analysis improving the accuracy of these EBVs
The sale of Karioi rams in Australia through the 1990s and 2000s provides genetic linage to other flocks that improves the accuracy of EBVs; the absence of this linkage to recording flocks in New Zealand makes EBVs from SIL less useful
Karioi can benchmark its progress against other White Suffolk flocks (46,000 recorded animals in 2016) while still benchmarking against all terminal sires in Australia (over 120,000 recorded terminal sheep in 2016); this is not possible in New Zealand where Karioi remains the only performance recorded White Suffolk flock
Australia has more than twice as many sheep as New Zealand – our benchmarking against Australian terminal sires is at least as valid as against New Zealand terminal sires