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Breed for CH4nge project update June 2024

Breed for CH4NGE: is a three-year initiative funded through DEFRA’s Farming Innovation Programme.

The goal is to breed productive, efficient maternal sheep with a naturally low carbon footprint.

To achieve this:

  • Measuring methane output in fully performance recorded lambs to help us identify the best sheep to breed from

  • Gathering data on feed efficiency and rumen biology to help develop a sustainable breeding strategy for ewes that make better use of our land and have a lower carbon footprint

  • Demonstrating the impact that efficient, low methane sheep can have on whole farm carbon footprint

  • Sharing what we find with the wider sheep industry so that we all benefit from improved efficiency

The partnership is made up of commercially driven breeders using performance-recording to deliver profitable maternal genetics at significant scale, with leading academics, a key lamb supply-chain and industry bodies whose networks extend to thousands of English sheep farmers.

 

For further information Sheep Breeding UK | Low Carbon Lamb | Low Methane Sheep (breedforch4nge.co.uk)

About the author

Laura Eyles

Laura Eyles

Laura has joined the Signet team as a breeding specialist, she comes from an agricultural background having grown up on a sheep farm in Cornwall, where they keep commercial ewes and run a small flock of pedigree Charollais sheep.

Laura has a strong interest in animal breeding and genetics having studied Animal Science (BSc Hons) at Harper Adams University. During her time at Harper, she spent an industrial placement in Cumbria working for a sheep breeding company and some of our clients may recognise her from this role. Since graduating she has worked for a large cattle breeding company before joining us at Signet to lead on a number of Signet’s sheep breeding projects.