Sheep performance recording in Ireland is now at its highest level ever and the level of awareness around the sheep €uro-Star evaluations is growing annually.
Making a genetic improvement in our sheep industry is completely dependent on collecting large amounts of data on our sheep breeds to produce genetic evaluations and then, in turn, Irish sheep farmers using this information when buying breeding rams annually. The two need to go hand in hand.
According to the latest census, there are just over 80,000 breeding rams in Ireland. Approximately 25% to 30% of these rams will need to be replaced on an annual basis. This presents a huge opportunity for us as an industry to improve our sheep genetics rapidly, but only if our next generation of rams are better than the previous generation of rams used.
We cannot improve what we do not measure, hence the importance of ram breeders participating in the Sheep Ireland performance-recording programme where the €uro-Star indexes highlight the best performing genetics.
So far in 2016, Sheep Ireland has performance-recorded over 10,000 ram lambs. A certain proportion of these ram lambs will be culled for physical issues and/or poor €uro-Stars (approximately 40%), which leaves approximately 6,000 performance-recorded ram lambs available for sale to the industry.
Very quickly, it becomes obvious that while performance is at its highest level ever in Ireland, there is still a way to go before the annual ram requirement of the industry is being met by high-index, performance-re-corded rams.
However, while the number of high-index rams available for sale to commercial farmers needs to grow annually, it is growing steadily. A key message is that our performance-recording ram breeders are now themselves using high-index rams annually and this is resulting in genetic improvement for our industry. Commercial sheep farmers are benefiting from this genetic improvement.
Future of genetic improvement
To deliver maximum genetic gain to all Irish sheep farmers, we need more of our ram breeders involved in performance-recording. If we can achieve this, the entire industry will benefit. Demand for high-index €uro-Star rams each year will determine the level of performance-recording that takes place among our ram breeders. The rate of genetic gain that we can make as an industry will be determined by the level of performance-recording so it is a domino effect.
Genetic improvement is a powerful concept, which can benefit every sheep farmer in the country – ‘‘a rising tide lifts all boats’’ is a phrase that summarises the effect genetic improvement can have.
A proportion of farmers will never engage with €uro-Star indexes and we know this, but these farmers will still benefit from better genetics as a result of the actions of other ram breeders.
So, what does Sheep Ireland ask of Irish sheep farmers? We need farmers to do one thing, to make use of the €uro-Star indexes that are currently available on rams and to request €uro-Star indexes when they are not presented by ram breeders. Irish ram breeders are excellent at responding to the needs of sheep farmers and if demand for high index, performance-recorded rams grows, so too will the level of performance-recording in our industry. All involved in the industry will benefit from this.
How to use the €uro-Star indexes
For the past number of weeks, Sheep Ireland has been running ram breeder workshops on the €uro-Star indexes and how to use them. The messages have been simple.
The first steps that all ram buyers must go through when buying a breeding ram are the physical checks.
If a ram is not physically correct, high indexes will never compensate for this. €uro-Star evaluations for individual rams are calculated using performance records from entire bloodlines.
For this reason, an individual ram which is physically inferior may have a high genetic index based on the performance of his relations elsewhere.
Once the physical checks are complete, farmers need to consider the purpose of the ram.
Is the aim to breed replacement females in which case you should focus on the replacement index or will the ram only be used to breed lambs for slaughter in which case you should focus on the terminal index?
Unfortunately, €uro-Star indexes can change over time. Indexes are a prediction of future animal performance based on past and current performance. Each week, more information is recorded on all of our different sheep bloodlines and this information updates our previous predictions.
The more information that is available on a bloodline, the more accurate or robust the predictions of future performance will be. However, the problem for some bloodlines is that the level of information available is not where we would like – resulting in a prediction which is less reliable or accurate.
Is using the €uro-Star evaluations like taking a gamble? To a certain extent, it is. The €uro-Stars are constructed based on data, but if this data is sparse or unreliable, then the ram’s evaluation will be unreliable. However, without €uro-Star indexes, buying a ram becomes a complete gamble. How can we improve the maternal qualities of our females without extra information on our rams? By assessing a ram’s visual appearance, is it possible to know how milky his daughters will be? Or how many lambs his daughters will give birth to? The answer is most definitely no.
An accuracy percentage figure is attached to all genetic indexes and this gives farmers an indication of the level of data upon which the evaluation is based. Accuracy percentage is increasing year on year as more breeders get involved in performance-recording and as the years of data build up.
At present, a very high accuracy rate for ram lambs would be 40% to 50%. These accuracies will only be seen attached to evaluations from very well recorded bloodlines. Ram buyers need to be made aware that lower accuracies mean potential for index movement as more data is recorded and Sheep Ireland will be trying to get this message to all farmers going forward. The higher the accuracy percentage, the lower the gamble.
Why can stars move? Here are some of the potential reasons:
New performance data is recorded on a bloodline, which contradicts the data previously recorded on that bloodline.Sheep Ireland runs a new genetic evaluation every week, which means Irish ram buyers get the most up-to-date information possible, but this can mean slight changes in €uro-Star indexes depending on what data was recorded during that week.Animal parentage/ancestry might be changed/updated. An animal’s €uro-Star index is very influenced by their sire and dam (ancestry). If a lamb is born to a high index sire and dam, then that lamb will have a high index. The same can be said for a low index animal. Parentage analysis that has been carried out through the Ovigen sheep genomics shows that there are some parentage-recording errors in performance recording flocks. This is to be expected and comes as no surprise. From this point forward using genomics, we will be in a position to identify incorrect parentage and, further to this, identify the correct parentage for these animals. This will hugely benefit the accuracy of the €uro-Star genetic evaluations for everyone in the industry.New data will constantly flow into the genetic evaluations from all of our sheep bloodlines.
This data will always be used to update the €uro-Star genetic evaluations, so that Irish sheep farmers have the best possible data available to them at any point in time.
Once again Sheep Ireland will be organising a high-index €uro-Star multi-breed ram sale in Tullamore mart on Saturday 27 August. This sale has grown in popularity over the years and is a good place to buy the best sheep genetics available in the industry.
Full sale details and a sales catalogue will be available on www.sheep.ie in the coming weeks.
Read the full focus section on sheep breeding here
Sheep performance recording in Ireland is now at its highest level ever and the level of awareness around the sheep €uro-Star evaluations is growing annually.
Making a genetic improvement in our sheep industry is completely dependent on collecting large amounts of data on our sheep breeds to produce genetic evaluations and then, in turn, Irish sheep farmers using this information when buying breeding rams annually. The two need to go hand in hand.
According to the latest census, there are just over 80,000 breeding rams in Ireland. Approximately 25% to 30% of these rams will need to be replaced on an annual basis. This presents a huge opportunity for us as an industry to improve our sheep genetics rapidly, but only if our next generation of rams are better than the previous generation of rams used.
We cannot improve what we do not measure, hence the importance of ram breeders participating in the Sheep Ireland performance-recording programme where the €uro-Star indexes highlight the best performing genetics.
So far in 2016, Sheep Ireland has performance-recorded over 10,000 ram lambs. A certain proportion of these ram lambs will be culled for physical issues and/or poor €uro-Stars (approximately 40%), which leaves approximately 6,000 performance-recorded ram lambs available for sale to the industry.
Very quickly, it becomes obvious that while performance is at its highest level ever in Ireland, there is still a way to go before the annual ram requirement of the industry is being met by high-index, performance-re-corded rams.
However, while the number of high-index rams available for sale to commercial farmers needs to grow annually, it is growing steadily. A key message is that our performance-recording ram breeders are now themselves using high-index rams annually and this is resulting in genetic improvement for our industry. Commercial sheep farmers are benefiting from this genetic improvement.
Future of genetic improvement
To deliver maximum genetic gain to all Irish sheep farmers, we need more of our ram breeders involved in performance-recording. If we can achieve this, the entire industry will benefit. Demand for high-index €uro-Star rams each year will determine the level of performance-recording that takes place among our ram breeders. The rate of genetic gain that we can make as an industry will be determined by the level of performance-recording so it is a domino effect.
Genetic improvement is a powerful concept, which can benefit every sheep farmer in the country – ‘‘a rising tide lifts all boats’’ is a phrase that summarises the effect genetic improvement can have.
A proportion of farmers will never engage with €uro-Star indexes and we know this, but these farmers will still benefit from better genetics as a result of the actions of other ram breeders.
So, what does Sheep Ireland ask of Irish sheep farmers? We need farmers to do one thing, to make use of the €uro-Star indexes that are currently available on rams and to request €uro-Star indexes when they are not presented by ram breeders. Irish ram breeders are excellent at responding to the needs of sheep farmers and if demand for high index, performance-recorded rams grows, so too will the level of performance-recording in our industry. All involved in the industry will benefit from this.
How to use the €uro-Star indexes
For the past number of weeks, Sheep Ireland has been running ram breeder workshops on the €uro-Star indexes and how to use them. The messages have been simple.
The first steps that all ram buyers must go through when buying a breeding ram are the physical checks.
If a ram is not physically correct, high indexes will never compensate for this. €uro-Star evaluations for individual rams are calculated using performance records from entire bloodlines.
For this reason, an individual ram which is physically inferior may have a high genetic index based on the performance of his relations elsewhere.
Once the physical checks are complete, farmers need to consider the purpose of the ram.
Is the aim to breed replacement females in which case you should focus on the replacement index or will the ram only be used to breed lambs for slaughter in which case you should focus on the terminal index?
Unfortunately, €uro-Star indexes can change over time. Indexes are a prediction of future animal performance based on past and current performance. Each week, more information is recorded on all of our different sheep bloodlines and this information updates our previous predictions.
The more information that is available on a bloodline, the more accurate or robust the predictions of future performance will be. However, the problem for some bloodlines is that the level of information available is not where we would like – resulting in a prediction which is less reliable or accurate.
Is using the €uro-Star evaluations like taking a gamble? To a certain extent, it is. The €uro-Stars are constructed based on data, but if this data is sparse or unreliable, then the ram’s evaluation will be unreliable. However, without €uro-Star indexes, buying a ram becomes a complete gamble. How can we improve the maternal qualities of our females without extra information on our rams? By assessing a ram’s visual appearance, is it possible to know how milky his daughters will be? Or how many lambs his daughters will give birth to? The answer is most definitely no.
An accuracy percentage figure is attached to all genetic indexes and this gives farmers an indication of the level of data upon which the evaluation is based. Accuracy percentage is increasing year on year as more breeders get involved in performance-recording and as the years of data build up.
At present, a very high accuracy rate for ram lambs would be 40% to 50%. These accuracies will only be seen attached to evaluations from very well recorded bloodlines. Ram buyers need to be made aware that lower accuracies mean potential for index movement as more data is recorded and Sheep Ireland will be trying to get this message to all farmers going forward. The higher the accuracy percentage, the lower the gamble.
Why can stars move? Here are some of the potential reasons:
New performance data is recorded on a bloodline, which contradicts the data previously recorded on that bloodline.Sheep Ireland runs a new genetic evaluation every week, which means Irish ram buyers get the most up-to-date information possible, but this can mean slight changes in €uro-Star indexes depending on what data was recorded during that week.Animal parentage/ancestry might be changed/updated. An animal’s €uro-Star index is very influenced by their sire and dam (ancestry). If a lamb is born to a high index sire and dam, then that lamb will have a high index. The same can be said for a low index animal. Parentage analysis that has been carried out through the Ovigen sheep genomics shows that there are some parentage-recording errors in performance recording flocks. This is to be expected and comes as no surprise. From this point forward using genomics, we will be in a position to identify incorrect parentage and, further to this, identify the correct parentage for these animals. This will hugely benefit the accuracy of the €uro-Star genetic evaluations for everyone in the industry.New data will constantly flow into the genetic evaluations from all of our sheep bloodlines.
This data will always be used to update the €uro-Star genetic evaluations, so that Irish sheep farmers have the best possible data available to them at any point in time.
Once again Sheep Ireland will be organising a high-index €uro-Star multi-breed ram sale in Tullamore mart on Saturday 27 August. This sale has grown in popularity over the years and is a good place to buy the best sheep genetics available in the industry.
Full sale details and a sales catalogue will be available on www.sheep.ie in the coming weeks.
Read the full focus section on sheep breeding here
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