High-performance tups offer £10 per ewe boost to breeders

IMPROVING sheep breeding stock can deliver thousands of pounds in extra profit, farmers were told this week.

Those attending the Scotsheep event, near Stirling, heard that a four-year programme using high-performance tups has shown that there is a potential bonus of 10 per ewe on both hill and low ground farms when compared with traditional breeding.

Rod McKenzie, development manager for the Sheep Strategy group, which has driven the practical experiment, said there was now a real interest in using high performance sheep.

He said: "When we started there was a tendency to scoff at this type of work but now when they see what can be achieved, there is a fair bit of interest." The work started in 2006 on six farms across Scotland. Each of these units was provided with tups with good growth rates, muscle depth, fat depth and maternal traits.

Their progeny showed up well in reproducing these characteristics and, in the second phase of the project, the ewes were again mated with the superior tups. It is the lambs from this mating that have provided much better growth rates and marketability.

Maimie Paterson, group chairwoman and a sheep breeder, said that the other very relevant trait coming through this year was the lambs' survivability.

She said: "If we have any more winters like the one we have just experienced, you need ewes that will keep their lambs close to them and keep their milk flowing."

Although the sheep industry has, so far, largely concentrated on the costs and problems associated with electronic identification tags, Kathy Peebles of Quality Meat Scotland said she could see potential benefits.

By using tags, producers could get far more detailed information on their lambs from the abattoirs.

Also speaking at Scotsheep, Stuart Ashworth, the statistics guru at QMS, warned that producers could be affected this year by swings in currency.

The smaller ewe flock and lower number of lambs due to the cold start to the season means prices are firm. But 30 per cent of the lamb crop is exported and the upcoming Budget could see currency values move against export prices.