Tullamore Farm sheep update: lambs gaining 310g daily at 40-day weighing farmersjournal.ie - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from farmersjournal.ie Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
May 6, 2021, 6:10 am
High-index sheep produce less greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per kilo of carcass produced, according to Alan Bohan of Sheep Ireland.
Alan spoke last week the Sheep Ireland industry meeting. He compared 5-star ewes to 1-star ewes and explained how the latter, during a study carried out between Sheep Ireland and Teagasc, was found to produce more GHG per kilo of carcass produced.
The model used was a 20ha farm, stocked at 12 ewes/ha. 257 ewes were joined to the ram, while a lot of central progeny testing (CPT) background data was used.
The premise of the study was to compare 1-star ewes joined with 1-star rams, and 5-star ewes joined with 5-star rams, and to then look at the results from the concluding progeny.
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The global recommendation is not to exceed an inbreeding coefficient of 6.25%, particularly for pedigree breeding stock.
Sheep Ireland held its annual industry meeting last Thursday with three presentations on the latest research implemented into the national breeding programme and the €uro-Star indices for 2021.
This article summarises some of the most significant updates. Over 80% of LambPlus stock rams are now genotyped via the Sheep Ireland’s genomic service.
This has increased the accuracy of the evaluations produced in 2021, and Sheep Ireland intends to get closer to 100% over the next few weeks by continuing to engage with the breeders about outstanding information.
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Grass supplies are in a tricky position and require a significant lift this week to increase the average farm cover which currently stands at about 500kg DM/ha.
The 2021 lambing season is drawing to a close on Tullamore Farm with just 11 ewes/yearling hoggets left to lamb as of Tuesday evening.
Lambing started around 12 March and, after a slow start, over 85% of the 143 mature ewes lambed down in the first three weeks of the lambing season.
A three-and-a-half-week breeding period in the yearling ewe hoggets has also resulted in a relatively tight lambing period with this batch of hoggets mated to begin lambing after the first breeding cycle in mature ewes.
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