Sheep Ireland were delighted to have two speakers at the Teagasc Sligo/Leitrim/Donegal sheep webinar titled ‘Sheep breeding: What’s coming our way?’ on the 30th of November 2021. The webinar set out to explain the measures proposed for the new Sheep Improvement Scheme. Facilitated by Gary Fisher of Teagasc Letterkenny, with Shane McHugh Teagasc Letterkenny a main speaker, along with Sheep Irelands Eamon Wall and David Coen giving their own presentations. The presentations were followed by a Q&A session.
The webinar saw Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue make a guest appearance and answered any questions put forward by participants.
Shane gave a good break down on the proposed Scheme, going through all options for sheep farmers. Most options were very similar to that of the Sheep Welfare Scheme which is coming to a end.
Shane highlighted on of the main changes in the scheme which is the introduction of the genotyped ram option. He also discussed the use of a genotyped ram option on the hill sheep sector.
Eamon Wall gave a presentation on what Sheep Ireland are currently offering farmers and how data recording and LambPlus is increasing every year. Eamon also focused on the potential of the hill sheep sector and how this proposed scheme can benefit the hill farmers.
David Coen gave a presentation on the advantage of buying a genotyped ram as well as giving a step by step guide on how hill farmers go about genotyping their rams. David also updated the group on the work being carried out on hill farms presently through the Donegal Wicklow Cheviot and Mayo-Connemara groups.
There was a big focus on the mouth recording being done of flocks with over 1,700 mouths recorded in 2021.
You can find the full webinar on Teagasc Sligo/Leitrim/Donegal youtube channel, click here.