Influence of BCS and Weight on Sheep Performance

Influence of BCS and Weight on Sheep Performance

This article was written by Kristy Blankers and Delma Kennedy Introduction Animal efficiency is important to a livestock farm’s bottom line. Therefore, it is beneficial to select for animals that are able to wean more kilograms of lamb per kilogram of mature body weight. Animal performance is influenced by a ewe’s body condition score (BCS) and body weight. To effectively select animals that are more efficient, body weight and BCS must be taken into consideration. Over the past four years, BCS, body weight, and performance data has been collected on farm with the objective of being able to create a genetic evaluation model to select animals that can maximize production per kilogram of mature body weight. With three breeding seasons…

GenOvis Februrary 2013 Top Ram Lists Released

The GenOvis website  has updated the Canadian Performance tested Top Ram and Improver Ram lists for February 2013. Top Ram Lists The Top ram lists allow purebred producers to easily find the best evaluated rams in the GenOvis program. To appear on these lists, maternal rams must be in the top 10% for Growth Maternal Index and paternal rams must be in the top 10% for the Growth Index. The Top Rams List can be found here. These rams aren’t recommended for commercial producers: the purchase cost compared to expected profits isn’t as advantageous as for improver rams. Improver Rams Lists The Improver Rams lists allow producers to find animals performance tested in the GenOvis program which are improvers for…

Volume 27 2012 Sheep and Goat Research Journal

The volume 27 2012 Sheep and Goat Research Journal is now available on the American Sheep Industry website. The new journal articles available are: Research Symposium Utilization of Genomic Information for the Sheep Industry Performance of Meat Goats Control-Grazed on Winter Annual Grasses Effects of Supplemental Dried Distillers Grains or Soybean Hulls on Growth and Internal Parasites Status of Grazing Lambs The American Sheep Industry website hosts the online journal articles from 2002 to 2012.

GenOvis Top Animal Reports

The GenOvis website  has updated the Canadian Performance tested Top Ram and Improver Ram lists for November 2012. Top Ram Lists The Top ram lists allow purebred producers to easily find the best evaluated rams in the GenOvis program. To appear on these lists, maternal rams must be in the top 10% for Growth Maternal Index and paternal rams must be in the top 10% for the Growth Index. The Top Rams List can be found below: GenOvis Top Rams These rams aren’t recommended for commercial producers: the purchase cost compared to expected profits isn’t as advantageous as for improver rams. Improver Rams Lists The Improver Rams lists allow producers to find animals performance tested in the GenOvis program which…

2011 Canadian Sheep Performance Results

Are you looking for performance tested sheep? Do you want to see how your sheep measure up? GenOvis is the Canadian genetic evaluation program for sheep producers.  All Canadian producers are eligible to join the program. All data from across Canada including Ontario is merged for genetic evaluations producing Canadian national evaluations. In 2011, 160 producers participated in the program in Canada testing about 42,000 animals representing 25 different breeds. The following table shows the average performance for all breeds and crosses of animals that were born in 2011 and tested in Canada. Breeds # Ewes # Born # Lamb- ings Ave Born Per Lamb- ing Ave Weaned Per Lamb- ing Ave Birth Wt (kg) Ave Adj 50 Wt (kg)…

2011 Genetic Trends

GenOvis is the Canadian genetic evaluation system for sheep.  Genetic trends graphs are now available for the five (5) breeds with the most lambs tested; Dorset-Polled, Polypay, Rideau, Romanov and Suffolk. In 2011, there were 3124 Dorset-Polled, 1460 Polypay, 10,412 Rideau, 3739 Romanov and 1464 Suffolk lambs entered on the program. The genetic trends of breeds with large numbers of animals tested are a more reliable indicator of the change occurring in the breed. The genetic trend graphs are derived from the database that is used to run the EPD (estimated progeny difference) evaluations in Canada. This database includes all data collected in Ontario since 1986 and all data collected in Quebec on the old Federal Record of Performance Program…

2011 Genetics Survey Results

A 2011 Genetics survey was circulated to GenOvis participants and to the general industry in English and in French.  This survey was done to gather information for the research project “Genetic evaluation and selection tools for profitability improvement in Canadian sheep production” underway at the Center for the Genetic Improvement of Livestock at the University of Guelph with funding from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs, the Ontario Sheep Marketing Agency and the Centre D’expertise en Production Ovine du Quebec. The response to the survey was excellent with a total of 375 surveys completed. 78 GenOvis participant surveys and 297 industry surveys were filled out.  The average flock size of those participating was 208 ewes with representation…

Choosing Breeds for Producing Profitable Market Lambs

A new factsheet is available from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. The Ontario sheep industry has yet to determine an optimum production system for profitability or what specific breeds and breed crosses will result in the most profitable enterprise to produce today’s premium lamb under Ontario conditions. New entrants to the industry are faced with many breeds to choose from and little objective data. As a result, it is important for producers to have a strong business plan formulated before choosing breeds. When starting in the sheep industry, it is important to determine the production system and the market product for the business before choosing the breed or breeds of sheep that will be used in…