Promotion of Sheep Genetic Improvement

• It’s clear that there is no silver bullet in terms of promoting genetic improvement to the industry. One thing that is clear however is that farmers are now using a wide variety of mediums to access information which may help their sheep enterprise. With this in mind, Sheep Ireland will be using novel ways to get our messages out to the industry over the coming year.
• Examples of this are that we have utilised so far this year, have been the breeder case studies which illustrated the significant scanning% differences being realised by higher index sheep. Another method we plan to use throughout 2017 will be produce short videos which carry important messages. These videos can then be spread via social media to reach as many viewers as possible.

Tackling low accuracy% by using a ‘ram team’

• Did you know if you have more than one stock ram with Star ratings that you can then combine their accuracy (Acc%) figures to essentially form a ram team accuracy. This Acc% figure for the Ram Team will be much higher than any of the individual rams Acc% figures on their own, especially where rams are starting off with low Acc%. Work out your Ram Team Acc% by using the Excel link
• For example, if you have three stock rams that have Acc of 42%, 55% and 39%, then the Acc% value for that team would be Acc 86% as shown in the excel below. Let’s say these three rams were high on the Replacement index, with an average ranking of top 10%, then this is the equivalent of having one ram with an Acc 86% ranked in the top 10%.
• Or in this video where the three stock rams have an Acc 40% each, their Team accuracy is Acc 85%.

• To work out your Ram Team Acc% save this excel (RAM TEAM Acc%), and input the accuracy for each of you rams for one specific index/trait (ie Terminal index, as shown in the video above).

Upcoming Teagasc Hill Sheep Conference Wednesday 8th February

Click here for details of next week’s Teagasc Hill Sheep Conference. Both lowland conferences took place during the past week and were hugely informative events.