Glascoed Farm -Carcase weights provides the potential to increase lamb value by £5.00/head.

Alwyn Nutting farms in Aberhafesp, Newtown and runs a mixed sucker herd and sheep enterprise. The flock is made up of maternal composite ewes and lambing takes place from mid-March. Groups of ewes and lambs are quickly mobbed together to allow rotational grazing to take place across the farm. This is the first year of involvement for Glascoed Farm with the RamCompare project.

A clear difference can be seen between the top and bottom performing rams on this farm, with the best genetic merit rams for carcase weight producing lambs which weighed more than 1kg heavier, influencing the value of a lamb by £5 or more depending on time of year. Days to slaughter is also important consideration to achieve premium prices from early season lamb sales.

Texel linkage ram Drinkstone Rocket Gun  PJP1000047 bred by R J L Park and supplied by the IBERS, Antur flock topped the rankings for carcase weight, having ranked highly within the breed for scan weight. This was followed by an Edstaston Charollais 20TG00951 bred by Robert Gregory’s and a previous stock sire for Glascoed farm, an Innovis bred Abermax ram.

From the range of sires put on test at Glascoed Farm, the carcase weight trait was a key influence, however, there were also large differences observed for days to slaughter within sire progeny groups. A Suffolk ram Y13:18:15690, Sandyknowe Trent, bred by Malcom Stewart and a Charollais ram 17PE05855, Dalby Sherman bred by Charles Sercombe produced progeny that finished over three weeks quicker than lower performing sires.

Key message:
Buying high-index rams from flocks that use CT scan data can lift both carcase weights and conformation and could have the potential for faster finishing lambs.