Weekly Update 28/04/17

Sheep Industry Research Projects

SusSheP

  • This week Sheep Ireland took part in a meeting of project partners partaking in a new research project called SusShep. This project will include other Irish representatives in the form of the University of Limerick, Teagasc, and representatives from Norway, UK and France. SusSheP will aim to progress the development of ewe longevity genetic indexes, look at labour and carbon hoof print within sheep farming and investigate improvements in sheep AI methods and procedures with a view of increasing AI usage. This will have obvious benefits for sheep breed improvement. Sheep Ireland is delighted to be involved. Click here to view the SusSheP twitter.

SheepNet

  • SheepNet is a new project which involves organisations from 6 EU countries (Ireland, France, Italy, Romania, Spain and United Kingdom) and Turkey, and encompasses both sheep meat and sheep milk production. The aim of the project is to enhance practice-driven innovation that will improve the 3 factors that influence ewe productivity, namely:
    1. Proportion of ewes joined that become pregnant.
    2. Proportion of ewes that give birth.
    3. Lamb mortality.
  • The central aim of this project is to establish effective/meaningful exchange of scientific and practical knowledge among researchers, farmers and advisors/consultants across Europe that will enable an improvement in the productivity of sheep enterprises. Teagasc is the leading Irish partner and Sheep Ireland will be contributing by participating in an Irish working group. For more information on SheepNet, click here.

CPT 40 Day Weights

  • This week we’ve collected the first of our CPT 40 day weights. Lamb thrive across all the flocks are very good, helped greatly by the weather. On Wednesday we visited the flock of Andrew Moloney (Offaly) and on Thursday and today (Friday) we are on the farm of John Large (Tipperary). The remaining flocks will be visited next week.
  • All ewes and lambs are weighed, condition scored and scored for lameness and dagginess. Ewes are also checked for mastitis.
CPT Lamb 40 day weights being captured on the farm of John Large

OVIGEN Update

  • Letters relating to the next phase of OVIGEN are being posted out to past OVIGEN participants today (Friday). This letter will contain information about the subsidised genotyping being made available to breeders for 2017. Following on from the Sheep Industry Meeting held in Teagasc Athenry, breeders will be able to genotype their sheep in 2017 at a highly subsidised cost of €3 per female and €6 per male (add €2 where a tag is required).
  • Full details of the industry meeting are available in last week’s weekly update.

LambPlus Lambing Data Deadline

  • The deadline for the entry of 2017 lambing data is 30th April. Unfortunately this date falls on Sunday this year. Over the past number of weeks there has been a huge amount of activity on the Sheep Ireland website.

Next Sheep Ireland Board Meeting

  • The next Sheep Ireland Board Meeting takes place next Friday 5 th May. As usual we encourage all users of Sheep Ireland services to raise any issues or ideas with your relevant Board representative. A list of representatives can be found on the Sheep Ireland website by clicking here.