Sheep Ireland, through its breeding information service LambPlus, provides a range of breeding information reports and tools for the Irish Sheep farmer.
We have made great progress over the last few years, with over 1000 sheep farmers joining our performance recording service LambPlus in 2023. We provide top-class customer support to our current and potential future members. Sheep Ireland is also involved with the Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine (DAFM) in some National Sheep Schemes, with the Sheep Improvement Scheme being the most recent. We also work closely with the Teagasc Research and Knowledge Transfer teams to maximise the positive impact breeding can have on the national flock.
About Sheep Ireland:
- Our vision is to empower sustainable farming through collaboration and excellence in Genetics and empowering more informed breeding decisions.
- We host the national sheep database, which includes the full flockbook information of 17 different societies and one hundred thousand Sheep genotypes.
- We are an organisation of 7 employees and several contractors that cover everything from genetic evaluations, research, farmer support, farm visits and open days, flockbook services, software development (Website and APP), development and running of the National Central Progeny Test Centre.
Main duties of the Sheep Ireland Manager:
- Leading and supporting the Sheep Ireland Team.
- Driving the LambPlus service ensuring it continues to grow, improve and add value.
- Lead the identification and design of new research proposals, new products and web tools and to support farmers in managing their breeding programs.
- Reporting to the Sheep Ireland Board and carrying out its deliverables.
- Actively promote the value of Sheep Ireland and the national breed improvement programme to farmers and the wider industry.
- Building on the close links with Farmers and Industry partners that already exist.
- Overseeing the preparation and delivery of Sheep Ireland’s strategic plan.
- Supporting the various DAFM schemes, for example, the Sheep Improvement Scheme (Genotyped Ram Task).
- Actively promoting continuous improvement within the team.
- Maintaining the financial security of the organisation along with the risk register.
Our candidate requirements:
- A BSc. Ag degree or similar qualification.
- A Fundamental understanding of the Irish sheep Industry
- Experience leading, supporting and training a team of people.
- Excellent computer, communication and customer-focus skills.
- Experience building strong relationships.
- Strategic thinking ability.
- Experience delivering projects in a timely manner.
- Experience of genetic evaluations and breeding programmes.