Happy New Year

Happy new year to all readers of this weekly update. We look forward to the coming year and will aim to continue the development of the €uro-Star evaluations in association with our LambPlus breeders and other industry partners for the benefit of all sheep farmers.

Lambing Season 2017

• Most LambPlus breeders are currently in the middle of lambing. We would encourage all breeders to get their lambing data loaded onto the website as quickly as possible to guarantee maximum data recording accuracy and in doing so, maximise their DQI. Prompt recording of lambing ensures any data issues such as misread ewe/lamb tags can be resolved very easily given that it is still only shortly after the event. Once ewes and lambs hit the fields in large groups, resolving data issues become much more difficult.
• All breeders should have received their lambing notebooks by now and these will be extremely useful at this busy time. It is critical that all LambPlus breeders know what information needs to be recorded at each lambing. This information can be found in the front of the lambing notebook, on our website or in the Sheep Ireland guide and breeder directory which was posted to all LambPlus breeders and can also be found on our website by clicking here.
• The most common traits that breeders forget to record are:-
  •  Dead lambs & their weights
  • Fostering information
  • Pet lambs / Bottle reared
  • Ewes that aborted or Barren
  • Variation in Lambing Difficulty