Green light for hill sheep breeding funding

There was positive news for the hill sheep sector in the last week with the announcement of funding for a hill sheep breeding programme. Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon announced funding of €650,000 for a project called Oviflock which aims to lay the foundations for genetic improvement in the Irish hill sheep sector.

As reported in recent weeks, Sheep Ireland, in tandem with AbacusBio, have developed a blueprint for a hill sheep breed improvement programme called the Hill Sheep Data Programme (HSDP).

This programme requires a large initial investment to get up and running with genotyping of females and the establishment of flock books the starting point.

At the recent HSDP meeting held by Sheep Ireland with breed societies, farm organisations and industry representatives, Eamon Wall, Sheep Ireland stated that the approval of the Oviflock project was a critical step in progressing the HSDP.

Positive catalyst

Similar projects also funded under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) European Innovation Partnership (EIP) project fund / National Exchequer research funding have been the catalyst in advancing participation in lowland and commercial breeding initiatives.

The Ovigen project was a major driver in establishing national genomic genetic evaluations under the LambPlus breed improvement programme via subsidised genotyping costs, while the Ovidata project was the foundation for collecting information from commercial flocks and the generation of high value phenotypes for the purpose of national genetic evaluations.

Next steps

Eamon explains that Sheep Ireland are keen to get the Oviflock project up and running without delay and that the organisation will soon be talking with hill sheep societies with a view to participating.

The sanctioning of funding will also allow discussions on the HSDP to progress and move forward to a position of developing genetic evulations for hill sheep.

There are 17 hill sheep breeds actively working with Sheep Ireland in recent years, primarily to collect parentage data on rams. Two hill sheep breed societies – the Donegal Cheviot Sheep Society and the Mayo Connemara Sheep Show Society have established flock books and are actively involved in performance recording.

Eamon says “genetic gain in hill sheep has been severely limited due to an absence of routine parentage recording on our purebred hill sheep population.

This initiative will have a direct positive influence in the purebred hill sheep population and in turn have a positive influence across the entire sheep industry with the identification of superior performing genetics in hill flocks feeding out into the wider hill sheep population and also to lowland flocks through the production of flock replacements with positive maternal attributes”.

EIP projects

There were four other projects announced as receiving funding as part of the funding allocation of €2.85m under the themes of generational renewal and digital technology. Just shy of €650,000 was awarded to PARASCOPE – Parasite Risk Assessment for Sustainable Co-designed On-farm Practices and Evaluation, with the aim of introducing innovative technologies in to parasite control programmes in both sheep and cattle.

The Sustainable Agriculture Advisory Council which is a grouping from ICOS, Teagasc, Aurivo, Dairygold and other stakeholders were awarded €600,000 to stimulate sustainable generational renewal in Irish agriculture by addressing the needs of both young and aging farmers.

The Ballyhoura Generational Renewal EIP received similar funding for a project with a similar aim of promoting generational renewal.

While funding of €301,300 was awarded under the EIP Land Mobility Share Farming which aims to demonstrate Share Farming as an effective generational renewal tool.