LambPlus Sign-up deadline

Tues 1st December marked the deadline for signing up to LambPlus for the 2016 season. Sign-up forms had been coming in big numbers for the final few days and breeder numbers look to be similar to 2015. We do not yet have a final count as we are still processing the forms and dealing with some breeders that did not provide all required details. A full breakdown of breeder numbers will be provided in this update as soon as it is finalised.

Lambing notebooks will be circulated to breeders once again this year in advance of lambing. It is very important that breeders use these notebooks to record their lambing data as they clearly detail all the required traits that need to be recorded by LambPlus members. The notebook contains a full explanation of all the required traits that breeders need to recorded annually. Each of these traits are now included in the Sheep Ireland Data Quality Index (DQI), so it is very important for all breeders to read the information contained within the notebook carefully.

Important meetings

This time of year is a very busy one in terms of meetings. Many breed society hold AGMs during this relatively quiet time before the chaos of lambing time. Last Sat (28th Nov) we were kindly invited by the Irish Rouge society to attend their AGM to display how the Sheep Ireland flockbook management system work. After the meeting the society agreed to move their flockbook onto the Sheep Ireland system which is a very progressive move. The Sheep Ireland flockbook management system is currently being used by the Texel, Belclare and Galway sheep societies to generate pedigree certs and sales catalogues. Some other breeds are using the Sheep Ireland catalogue generator to produce €uroStars evaluations for their sales catalogues.

We continue to encourage all breed societies to join this flockbook management system. Sheep Ireland has invested a lot of resources into developing this into an excellent service for breed society flockbooks. We still have lots of plans in place to develop the system further into the future, but as it stands today all breed societies can benefit hugely by being on this system. The Charollais AGM takes place this weekend and we will be encouraging breeders to discuss this issue at the meeting and to consider moving the breeds flockbook onto this system. We are more than happy to attend any breed society meeting to demonstrate what this system can offer.

Breed society meeting Tuesday 15th Dec

Our next meeting with breed society representatives will take place on Tuesday 15th Dec. Should any LambPlus breeder have any issues or comment they would like to raise, we encourage you to contact your society chairperson or secretary, who will hopefully be attending the meeting. This is a great forum to discuss important breeding issues and one which will continue on a regular basis going forward. The meeting will be preceded by a DNA workshop organised by Teagasc and the ICBF/Sheep Ireland. The objective of this workshop is to educate industry stakeholders of the processes involved in genomics – from DNA collection through to delivery of genomic evaluations. The main representatives of each sheep breed society have been invited to attend this meeting also. Should any LambPlus breeder be interested in attending this DNA workshop, please make contact with your society chairperson or secretary as places are limited and the organisers will need to be notified in advance.

Ovigen

There was a text message sent out to all breeders who have yet to be organised with regards to getting their flocks visited for Ovigen . If you haven’t replied to this text and are interested in getting it done before/after Christmas please contact Shane (Email: [email protected] or Phone: 023-8820154) with a time that would suit you for your flock and we will do our best to accommodate your request.