Preliminary results were published last week from the first sheep performance recording test in the UK that allows comparisons of rams to be made across different breeds.

Existing programmes for recording estimated breeding values (EBVs) currently run by the main sheep breed societies only allow within-breed comparisons of rams.

The RamCompare project was launched by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board three years ago and involved progeny testing of 4,000 ewes over two seasons.

Genetic improvement

“The information generated will undoubtedly help drive genetic improvement within the Scottish sheep flock and strengthen the connection between ram breeders and the commercial lamb producers,” said Douglas Bell, head of industry development at Quality Meat Scotland.

Ewes were bred to 70 leading terminal sire rams from five breeds, namely Charollais, Meatlinc, Suffolk, Texel and Hampshire Down. Preliminary results published last week show that variations in performance across 10 terminal traits ranged just as widely within breeds as across breeds.

The new composite index of overall carcase merit, which considers carcase weight, carcase conformation and carcase fat class, was topped by a Texel ram PRH1500573 from Bob Payne from Sheffield’s Handbank flock at an accuracy of 89%.

Six farms in Britain were involved in the first phase of the project and information for 6,000 lambs was collected.

Full results from the first two years of the programme will be published next year when kill data from another 1,500 lambs that were born in late spring 2017 will be available.