Articles

How big is your ideal cow? In the show ring, big cows tend to do well. Their size makes them impressive to look at compared to smaller females and for those chasing higher growth rates, a herd of large cows will, on average, produce calves with heavier weaning weights.

However the overall profitability of your farm is not just your income. Especially in the current climate of high costs of fertiliser, labour and feed, reducing input costs is a great way to increase your profit. Smaller cows need less feed and so can greatly reduce your input costs

With lambing round the corner for many terminal sire breeders, now is an important time to highlight the importance of recording both Birth Weights and Lambing Ease.

As we enter the autumn, and the weather is starting to turn and many of you will be thinking about preparing for the winter and getting jobs ticked off. Hopefully one near the top of the list is collecting weights of youngstock and cows. Providing weights for cows at weaning is important data, that will support on-going research and we hope lead to the development of an EBV for this trait.

The latest Dorset Centurion newsletter can be read here. 

Many breeders have been involved in performance recording and research for more than 50 years. The cumulative and permanent change this creates in the breed, means that over time the improvements made in recorded flocks benefit the whole breed.

In recent years there has been an increasing number of breeders have had their lambs measured using Signet’s ultrasound scanning service as part of their breeding programmes. It is a great tool to identify sheep with superior muscling, while avoiding those likely to be excessively fat. This is the best way of identifying animals with superior genes for muscling and this data is used to produce Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs).

The report presents evidence to inform decisions related to the development of the genetic improvement infrastructure for the UK sheep and beef sector, in order to improve financial sustainability and reduce environmental impact of the sector, including the current financial benefit of genetic improvement.

During the summer, we launched some new estimated breeding values (EBVs) for sheep farmers. To explain what these were and how useful they could be, we hit the road to talk to farmers about them at a series of workshops.

Farmers attending the workshops heard how careful ram selection can easily lift the value of lambs by £3–£5 a head, which would be worth an extra £1,000 over a ram’s working lifetime.

Assessing a ram’s genetic merit is key when looking to maximise profitability within the flock and accelerate growth from forage

Results from preliminary trials of the new PACs owned by SRUC support research findings from New Zealand, Ireland and other countries: methane emissions from sheep are feasible to measure on-farm using Portable Accumulation Chambers (PAC) under UK conditions and that there is variability between animals in methane emissions recorded by PACs that could potentially be exploited within breeding programmes.