Open day to help farmers take stock of sheep breeds

SHEEP farmers in Carmarthenshire are to host an open day on an industry-wide project which aims to foster genetic improvement in Wales’ sheep sector.

Red meat producers are invited to attend the open day held at Pistyllgwyn farm, Llansawel, Llandeilo, on June 13.

Pistyllgwyn is one of six partner farms participating in the RamCompare project, and the only farm in Wales. Working with the supply chain, the scheme aims to incorporate data from commercial farms and abattoirs to include in genetic evaluations and develop a combined breed analysis of rams across the UK.

Hybu Cig Cymru – Meat Promotion Wales (HCC) is one of 14 partner organisations involved in RamCompare, and some of the participating rams were on HCC’s stand at the recent NSA Welsh Sheep event held near Brecon.

At the end of the project, lists of the top 25 rams based on the growth rates and carcase data of their progeny will be compiled and rams of different breeds will be compared directly.

HCC’s industry development officer Gwawr Parry said: “An important element of HCC’s remit is to further develop Wales’ sheep sector in order to enhance the quality, increase cost-effectiveness and add value to red meat products across the whole supply chain. One way of working towards this goal is to support a number of research and development projects such as the UKwide RamCompare initiative.

“As the use of EID [electronic identification] increases, so does the amount of data that farmers collect, and this could be used more effectively to benefit the whole industry. Currently, combined-breed genetic evaluations are available in several countries including Ireland, New Zealand and Australia, but not in Britain. The RamCompare project is a major step towards rectifying this.”

The event will include an update by project co-ordinator Bridget Lloyd, who will share information on recruiting flocks for further data capture. Emma Steele from Signet will also provide a data update.

Ms Lloyd said: “This is an exciting year, with data collection from our second year’s lambs under way and lambs finishing from 10 weeks of age. As analysis of year one data is being processed, we are actively collecting data from lambs born this spring.

“At the same time we are launching Phase II, recruiting additional farms to the project and involving an additional 64 rams this year from performancerecorded terminal sire breeds. Early results will be revealed in November at the Sheep Breeders Round Table conference.”

During the event, producers will be guided on a farm tour by farmers Sion and Claire Williams.