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Weekly Update: 10/04/215

Ovigen flock visits

The programme of DNA collection for the Ovigen genomics research project has begun. We have visited over 20 flocks to date. Before we can visit each flock it is essential that all of the 2015 born lambs are entered onto the Sheep Ireland database. A visit cannot be planned until this is the case, so this has delayed some visits slightly. We encourage all LambPlus breeders to tidy up their flock inventories in advance of these flock visits by removing all sold/dead sheep. This will help significantly speed up each flock visit as we will not be questioning missing sheep unnecessarily.

 

Deadline for submission of 2015 lambing data

The last day of April (Thursday 30th) is the deadline for the entry of lambing data onto the Sheep Ireland database. Any lambs entered onto the database after this point will not receive €uroStar evaluations for 2015. Regular reminders will be sent to breeders over the coming weeks to ensure the deadline is not missed.

We acknowledge that imposing deadlines for data entry is a nuisance for many breeders, but in order to deliver timely genetic evaluations to all breeders in advance of the 2015 ram sale season they are a necessary evil. Any breeder experiencing difficulty submitting their 2015 lambing data online, should contact Sheep Ireland as soon as possible.

 

Lamb weight recording

Many pedigree ram breeders have already submitted their 40 day lamb weights via our new batch weight recording screens. A lot of lambs are now approaching the ideal age for the weaning weight (approximately 100 days). Again breeders are reminded to collect this weight from lambs within the time frame of between 60 and 120 days of age. For more information click here.