Neogen® Smart Flock

Commonly Asked Questions

Neogen made some exciting changes to the genomic products and services that we offer to the Australian sheep industry in August 2024 with the launch of the new Smart Flock product range.

Neogen’s Smart Flock product range enables sheep breeders to accelerate genetic gain within their sheep enterprise and is the premium genomic solution available to Australian lamb and wool producers.

Using Smart Flock, sheep breeders can make better and more accurate breeding decisions, confirm parentage information, benchmark their flock’s genetics for economically important traits, and manage important recessive genetic traits and conditions.

Smart Flock’s different product options are tailored to the needs of the sheep industry in Australia, allowing sheep breeders to find a genomic testing option that best suits their individual needs.

Smart Flock Elite – Individual animal testing. Product deliverables include genomic profiling, genomically enhanced ASBVs, parentage assignment, and for Merino animals, the Sheep Poll test. Equivalent to the previous ‘Genomic Test’.

Smart Flock Parentage – Individual animal testing. Product deliverables include parentage assignment, and for Merino animals, the Sheep Poll test. Equivalent to the previous ‘Parentage Test’.

Smart Flock Profile – Flock testing. Product deliverables include flock average ASBVs for 11 traits. Available for Merino animals only. Equivalent to the previous ‘Flock Profile Test’.

Genomic testing of livestock is evolving rapidly. The introduction of Neogen Smart Flock ensures Neogen’s genomic product offering continues to keep pace with advances in DNA technology, and is consistent with Neogen’s commitment to providing Australian sheep breeders with access to modern, premium genomic products, coupled with unrivalled customer service.

Stay tuned for some further announcements regarding additions to the Smart Flock product range in coming months.

Smart Flock retains all the same benefits and features of previous products and is easily interchangeable with genomic testing that customers might have previously ordered.

New Product Previous Product
Smart Flock Elite
Smart Flock Parentage
Smart Flock Profile		 Genomic Test
Parentage Test
Flock Profile

Yes. There has been no change to pricing, with Neogen Smart Flock offered at the same price as previous products. Current prices are available from the Sheep DNA website.

Yes. Smart Flock Elite and Smart Flock Profile include the genomic profiling of animals with Neogen’s premium, proprietary genotyping platform, the GGP Ovine 50K.

The GeneSeek Genomic Profiler (GGP) Ovine 50K genotyping platform was designed ‘by the Australian sheep industry, for the Australian sheep industry’, and is ideal for inclusion in Sheep Genetics for the calculation of genomically enhanced breeding values.

Yes. Smart Flock Elite and Smart Flock Parentage genomic profiles are fully compatible with the genomic profiles from previous genomic tests.

Neogen prides itself on offering the fastest testing turnaround times of any livestock genomics laboratory. Neogen Smart Flock genomic testing is routinely completed within 2-3 weeks of when samples arrive at the lab.

Neogen stands behind its commitment and offers a guaranteed 28 day turnaround time for Smart Flock Elite. In the event that Neogen Australasia does not return results in 28 days, a discount of 10% is applied as a credit to the customer’s Sheep DNA account.

Note: the turnaround times listed above refer to the completion of genomic testing and where applicable, delivery of genomic profiles to Sheep Genetics. The availability of genomically enhanced ASBVs may take longer, subject to Sheep Genetics analysis schedules.

Neogen Smart Flock can be ordered in exactly the same manner as previous tests.

Place your order by emailing a completed submission form to naa-sheep@neogen.com, or by entering your order on the SheepDNA website. Once your order has been submitted, mail your samples, along with a Sample ID form, to:

Neogen Australasia
14 Hume St
Bundamba, QLD 4304.

Submission forms for Neogen Smart Flock are available from the Sheep DNA website.

Customers with questions about Neogen Smart Flock are encouraged to contact the Neogen customer service team on (07) 3736 2134, or naa-lab@neogen.com, or to talk to your local genomics territory manager.

A range of useful information resources are also available from the Neogen Australasia and Sheep DNA websites.