Press release

Each event provided attendees the opportunity to join a series of stations with expert speakers covering topics from genetics to market insights to butchery and selection demonstrations. Designed to challenge ideas and highlight opportunities for improvements within the farming systems and the consumer in mind.

SBRT is currently looking to bolster the independent individuals on the committee and is looking for volunteers with an interest and/or experience in sheep genetics and knowledge of SBRT.

During the summer, we launched some new estimated breeding values (EBVs) for sheep farmers. To explain what these were and how useful they could be, we hit the road to talk to farmers about them at a series of workshops.

Farmers attending the workshops heard how careful ram selection can easily lift the value of lambs by £3–£5 a head, which would be worth an extra £1,000 over a ram’s working lifetime.

AHDB are delighted to share news of our involvement in “Breed for CH4nge” an industry collaboration that will help the industry to breed sheep with a naturally low carbon footprint. There are a number of exciting elements to the project that align closely to AHDB’s research interests, and the genetic services delivered by Signet. The project will enhance our knowledge of genomics, breeding for parasite resistance and CT scanning, whilst assessing the benefits of using Portable Accumulation Chambers (PAC) to predict methane emissions in grazing sheep.

Performance recording has been used within hill sheep breeding programmes for many years, but recent developments as part of the Hill Ram Scheme in Wales has led to changes in the expression of the index. From June 2023 the index will be expressed in £ as the expected annual return per ewe.

Signet are proud to announce the release of the UK’s first commercially available genomic breeding values for sheep. The release of genomic breeding values is a major first for the UK industry following research lead by Samir Id Lahoucine at SRUC; work was funded as part of the Hybu Cig Cymru (HCC) lead Hill Ram Scheme and has been implemented as part of Farming Connects Welsh Sheep Genetics Programme.

The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board is to make new breeding values for abattoir traits an integral part of the National Terminal Sire Evaluation through its Signet Breeding Services, following significant analysis of abattoir data. This new approach coincides with the release of the latest RamCompare results at a webinar on 11 May 2023 (book online).  

Catch up here - https://youtu.be/QW1OoJPK-_c

We recognise the importance of generating consistency in the monthly breeding values published by Signet.

While the ranking of animals will change as new data is added to the genetic evaluation, breeders generally wish to avoid changes that lead to their animals re-ranking - unless the index of their favourite ram goes up of course! However, as time moves on the team of geneticists at SRUC do make recommendations on ways to enhance our evaluations and if it is going to help breeders to make better breeding decisions, then we try to take their advice. 

Catch up now on the recent webinar where Laura Eyles, Signet Breeding Services was joined by Dr Nóirín McHugh from Teagasc as she talks about projects in Ireland that have set out to measure methane emissions in Irish sheep flocks. She will explain why this work is important and what impact it is expected to have. Hear how selective breeding can be used to reduce methane emissions in the national flock and why genetic solutions are so important in enhancing this aspect of sheep production.

With farmers facing ongoing uncertainties including changes to basic payments and increased pressure to reduce carbon emissions, many suckler farmers are investigating ways to improve the efficiency of their cattle enterprises. Could AHDB's new maternal breed evaluations be the answer? Dr Alex Brown, AHDB's Senior Beef Breeding & Genetics Manager, explains more.