Scientists from throughout Australia converged on Central Queensland University Rockhampton this week to attend a two-day ASREML workshop.

One could be forgiven for thinking that ASREML reads like a foreign language – and it actually is. ASREML is a powerful statistical software package that has successful applications in animal and plant breeding, medical research, genetics, agricultural experimentation and the environmental sciences, both nationally and internationally.

CQU’s Dr Ross Shepherd said ASREML is especially suited to fitting linear mixed models to large datasets, with unmatched model flexibility and high speed.

“For those statisticians and scientific researchers with complicated data sets, it is the statistical software of choice as it is far more flexible in fitting linear mixed models and computationally faster than SAS, S-Plus and similar statistical software,” he said.

The software, for example, facilitates multi-environment trials for the analysis of plant or crop improvement data. It’s capable of analysing univariate and multivariate breeding and genetics data. It also supports a wide range of variance models for spatial analysis.

Dr Arthur Gilmour, Principal Research Scientist with NSW Agriculture and developer of the software, lead this week’s workshop at CQU which was hosted by the Faculty of Informatics and Communication. CSIRO, DPI, BSES and university researchers attended the workshop.

Dr Gilmour developed the software with support from an international team of leading statisticians.