News

Short update for Terminal Sire breeders about the planned changes that have now been implemented to the Terminal Sire Evaluation

RamCompare, the UK’s national progeny testing initiative, is seeking new commercial farms to join the project this season across England and Wales.

Signet’s clients are now able to breed sheep which are more resistant to internal parasites. The details of the flocks involved in this initiative in 2024 are provided here to help commercial farmers who are interested in using Estimated Breeding Values
(EBVs) for worm resistance when purchasing rams.

The RamCompare project is celebrating its tenth year in 2025 and is seeking new rams to join this year’s breeding season.

After consulting with our stakeholders, we have decided to adjust our deadline dates from April 2025 to better meet the needs of various breeds. The new deadlines are as follows:

• Terminal Sire Evaluations – Deadline is the 1st Tuesday of the month
• Hill Evaluation – Deadline is the 3rd Tuesday of the month
• Maternal Evaluation – Deadline remains unchanged on the 4th Tuesday of the month

Signet are planning to update the breeding indexes we use in our genetic evaluation of terminal sire breeds. This AHDB funded research will be delivered by AGBU, the Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit, University of New England, Australia. Research fellow Gus Rose will lead the work, supported by an internationally recognised team.

As part of this work, Gus is heading to the UK to talk to Signet clients about the ways they use the service and what their clients require. To support this engagement a series of meetings are being organised in the lead up to the Sheep Breeders Roundtable in November. It would be great if you could join us.

In 2022 AHDB launched the UK’s first genomic breeding values for sheep, as part of Signet’s hill sheep breeding program. Shortly after their release we were approached by several Breed Societies looking to share genomic information with AHDB for sheep bred in pedigree flocks if we could work with them to add value to these genotypes. Initial research from this work will be released at stakeholder meetings in the coming month.

Over the last 8 years AHDB have collected a wealth of abattoir data through RamCompare, with over 50,000 abattoir records supplied for lambs produced as part of this progeny test. For 12 months, breeding values for abattoir traits have been produced as a sub-set of information which has sat alongside existing traits like Scan Weight and Muscle Depth on the Signet website. However, new research by Samir id-Lahoucine at SRUC will now be used to help us make better use of this information.

In 2019 Signet changed the way in which we analysed the ultrasound muscle and fat depth data that we collect from sheep. Initially, we used to assess data on an age adjusted basis, whereas we now use weight adjusted data – which provides a better indication of the amount of muscle/fat in the carcase at a standard slaughter weight.

While EBVs identify animals that excel in individual traits, they can be combined into breeding indexes using economic weightings to meet a broader breeding objective. Providing breeders with the information to be able to rank and compare animals. This page summarises the breeding indexes Signet currently publishes.