Inbreeding Checker Launched

• Sheep Ireland has launched a new “Inbreeding Checker” for all of its LambPlus members. The Inbreeding Checker will allow breeders to compare up to 5 potential rams at a time, against all the females in the flock and then display the predicted level of inbreeding for each potential union of ram and ewe. Each union is displayed as low (0% – 3%), medium (3% – 6%) or high levels (greater than 6%) of inbreeding. This should prove to be a very useful tool for breeders before selecting any potential sires for mating this year, especially for larger flocks with large multiples of bloodlines running through the flock.
• Prior to this breeders would have had to check the ancestry of each animal individually to ensure there were no common ancestry, this removes the possibility of human error and time it would have taken breeders to do this manually. With good internet access breeders could complete this checker on the day of a sale using a smart phone and download the results.
• It is recommended that any union that results in high levels of inbreeding is avoided to reduce the risk of reduced performance in the flock. The inbreeding check is limited to the depth of ancestry we have for each animal, therefore if an animal is missing some ancestry on our database then the Inbreeding Checker will be less accurate.
• Once the report is complete the breeders can easily download and print off the report, so that it can be used at mating time, when matching groups of ewes to mate with particular rams.
• The Inbreeding Checker can be found under the Reports tab at the top of you LambPlus homepage.
• See below an example flock where two rams were compared to the flock of ewes, the majority of the potential ram and ewe unions is ok but there are three ewes that we would recommend are not mated to either of these two rams.

Scanning Report Launched

• A new Ultrasound Scanning (Muscle and Fat depth) Report has been launched for all LambPlus members. This report displays the muscle and fat depth recorded on the date it was collected by the Sheep Ireland Technician. This report is also available to download in excel so members can look at the data in excel if they so wish. This report is also available for historical data, just simply select the year you wish to view at the top of the page where is says “Change year”.
• The “Ultrasound Scanning Report” can be found under the Reports tab at the top of you LambPlus homepage.

RamPlus: Belclare Update

• Belclare breeders taking part in RamPlus this year will be starting to synchronise their ewes this Monday. Any Belclare breeder interested in taking part should contact Sheep Ireland ASAP if they have not done so already.

Please Note: **Ram Change**

• One of the original rams selected for RamPlus has been changed, the two rams involved now are Kilmeany Achilles and Esker Anthony.
• For More information call LambPlus on 023 88 20216.