The overall winners of the FBD LambPlus awards will be announced next Tuesday 12th July at the Sheep Ireland Breeding Conference & Farm Walk .
There are six finalists, across two categories, each hoping to take home the top prize.
The first category is the highest achieving LambPlus flock with a total prize fund of €2,000.
The overall winner of the highest achieving flock will receive an engraved trophy, a framed certificate, and a cheque for €1,000. The two other finalists will each receive a framed certificate and a cheque for €500.
The second category is the most improved LambPlus flock with a total prize fund of €1,000.
The overall winner of the most improved flock will receive an engraved trophy, a framed certificate, and a cheque for €500. The two other finalists will each receive a framed certificate and a cheque for €250. These awards are kindly sponsored by FBD and Sheep Ireland are very grateful for their generous support.
The awards are an opportunity for Sheep Ireland to give recognition to the breeders who are leading the way in performance recording and genetic gain and to those flocks that have made a significant genetic improvement over the past number of years.
The three nominees for the Highest Achieving LambPlus flock 2022 are:
Michael & Sarah O’Neill, Charollais, Bolinaspect
Liam & Eoin Dunne, Belclares, Tubber
Liam Delaney, Belclare, Coolgarragh
These three breeders are at the top of their game with all three boasting DQIs of 90% or above. The nomination as a finalist for this award is the culmination of many years of dedicated breeding to improve the flock’s €uro-Star ratings and index accuracies.
The three finalists for the Most Improved LambPlus flock 2022 are:
Christy, Margaret & Brian Gallagher, Texels, Pullagh
William J. Hutchinson, Suffolks, Chapelizod
Michael Clarke, Suffolks, Ballyhine
All three of these flocks have made significant genetic gain over the past number of years through improved breeding strategies and performance recording. Although these three flocks may not yet have the high €uro-Star values of the highest achieving flocks they are working every bit as hard to improve the genetic merit of their flocks.
All LambPlus flocks are automatically entered into the awards simply by being a member of LambPlus. The flocks are then pitted against each other with flock linkage, DQI, €uro-Star values and index accuracies all being assessed to rank the flocks. Flock data are considered when choosing the overall winner of each category.
We would once again like to thank FBD for their generous sponsorship and to congratulate all the finalists on their nomination. We hope these awards will give a renewed motivation to all LambPlus flocks to reach for the stars in 2023.
