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…

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…