Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
North York Moors Swaledale GroupNorth York Moors Swaledale Group
Steve DunkleySteve Dunkley
21st June 201821st June 2018
Operational Group
• 4 hill farmers from the North York Moors
• 5,000 ewes farmed
• Tim Dunn – Group Chairman and applicant
• AHDB and Kate Philips as actors within the group
The Swaledale
• Hardy Sheep
• Known for maternal traits
• 700,000 Swaledale ewes in UK
• 1.6m North Country Mule Ewes
The Problem
• The traditional use of genetic selection done purely on phenotype (physical appearance)
• Poor carcase traits
• The exclusion of techniques that increase the speed of genetic gain
• Hill farming systems and environmental constraints provide obstacles to the current way of collecting genetic/physical data
• e.g. gaining a new born lamb weight outside, gathering ewes/lambs from moorland
• The cost of technologies to assess meat yield (CT)
Objectives
• Identify Swaledale sheep with better carcase traits (loin, hind leg and shoulder) and use them within a breeding programme to improve carcase quality and consistency
• Develop new ways of data collection and new and novel data sets that can be used in genetic evaluations for hill sheep carcase traits
• Develop existing ultrasound scanning technologies to provide a measure of total muscle area
• Take lambs from the breeding programme and assess them through trial finishing systems
Progress to date
• Year 1 data is just being finalised
• 4 farmers have set up nucleus flocks in year 1, an extra farmer has joined the group for year 2
• It’s a long process!
• Nov 2016 tupping through to April 2018 last lambs sold
• Small batches finished and performance monitored
• Year 2 lambing data collected and submitted
Progress – 26 tups used in Year 1
UK 0 105963 01599 UK 0 128014 00065
Percentile Top 25% Bottom 25%
No. lambs 22 17
Av. adj 8WW (kg) 17.1 15.5
Average scan wt. (kg) 31.2 29.2
Average muscle depth (mm)
17.4 16.3
Average age at scan (days)
147 146
Farm 3 – comparing progeny performance
Extra 2kg lamb at same age, with an extra 1.1mm muscle in loin
Progress – risks when sharing tups - health protocol created
Progress – lamb finishing work
4
34
4
9
3
1
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
O2 O3L O3H R3L R3H P
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
12,5 13 13,5 14 14,5 15 15,5 16 16,5 17 17,5 18 18,5 19 19,5 20 20,5 21 21,5 22 22,5 23 23,5 24 24,5
Carcase weight (kg)
Dissemination - Open Day
Dissemination - Open Day
Website
Press – social media
Next steps
• Year 2 lambing data collected and 8 week weights in June
• Open day no.2 in August
• Tracings of eye muscle images
Lessons learnt
• Lots of time is needed to facilitate and keep the producers on track
• Life gets in the way, second baby took priority!
• Challenge of producers IT skills – hand holding needed
• Finishing work – centralised finishing option year 2
