Better Mothers

To ensure a more profitable sheep stock, a hill farmer needs ewes to be better mothers.

Compare:

• 2 tups, bought at a top breeders’ sale in the early 1990’s, (these were obviously bought by eye with no performance data available)
  The tups Sire X and Sire Y were
  • Bought by the same buyer
  • Used on the same farm,
  • To produce ewes lambs born in the same year.
  • These ewe lambs were kept as breeding stock
• The ewes bred by these two sires were then compared over their productive life.
• Daughters of Sire X produced on average almost twice as much weight of lamb at 8 weeks each (and every) year, as daughters of Sire Y

The Signet “Sheepbreeder” scheme updates all the performance records of every animal ever recorded and we can now look at the Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs) of Sire X and Sire Y by calculation from their descendants.

Compare these to the scheme average for bfelite animals in 2005.

None of us wants a tup that performs like Sire Y – but how do you tell when your money is on the line? The answer is to use EBV's

• Performance Recording
• Are better mothers
• Produce heavier lambs
• Have lambs with improved carcases
• Give better returns

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