Maternal Genetics: Unlocking the Extra Income at High Country Romneys

The Farming Connect Welsh Sheep Genetics Programme (WSGP) offers sheep farmers in Wales technical and financial support to enhance their flock’s performance, increasing flock profitability using improving genetics.

This article shows the impact that selective breeding makes at High Country Romneys - a family farm situated 1200 feet above sea level in the Black Mountains in Wales. 

Finding the most profitable ram

The greatest challenge when ram buyers are selecting rams to breed female replacements is that many of the important traits can’t be assessed simply by looking at the ram. 
To identify those rams whose daughters will lamb easily and rear a heavy pair of twins each year, you need to record the performance of the flock and select breeding lines that excel for future breeding.

This is exactly the philosophy at High Country Romney, where over 12,000 sheep have been performance recorded with Signet and SIL on a commercial, grass-based system to identify those sheep with the most profitable genetics.

The £5000 ram benefit: A tale of two rams

What often surprises ram buyers is the financial impact a ram’s maternal genetics can have on flock performance. The true value is shown nicely in this real-life example comparing two influential stock sires at Penny Chantler, Sam and Will Sawday’s farm in the Wye valley. 
Both rams were born in 2017 and used for several seasons, leaving 1,085 recorded progenies between them with 254 daughters retained for breeding. 
The genetic merit of the two rams is shown in Table 1. Both rams are above average for maternal ability (genes influencing milk production and maternal care), but there is a big difference in the genetic merit of Ram A for early growth rate and prolificacy.

Table 1. Genetic merit of sires

In the first generation the ram’s genes for growth were expressed by his progeny. Single born progeny by Ram A were 0.5kg heavier at 56 days of age than Ram B, twins were 0.8kg heavier.

However, it was in the second generation as daughters by each ram joined the breeding flock that the differences became more apparent. The daughters of Ram A reared considerably more lambs and heavier lambs – due to the genes they inherited from their sire.

Table 2. Performance of daughters by each ram

Using this data, we can work out what these genetic differences were worth each year for every 100 daughters in the flock. Ram A would rear 32 more lambs and taking into account the higher growth rates, this would result in an extra £466kg of lamb sold per 100 daughters – worth an extra £1258 every year.

Assuming the average ewe stayed in the flock for 4 years, this increase in production would have generated an extra £5000 simply by selecting the ram with the best breeding values. 

Table 3. Impact on performance per 100 daughters

Summary

It takes time and commitment to improve the maternal performance of the ewe flock through selective breeding, but commercial ram buyers can ride on the back of the work being undertaken in ram breeding flocks, like High Country Romneys, by using breeding values (EBVs) to select those rams with the traits required in their flock. 

Even small increases in the efficiency of the ewe flock can have a big impact on flock profitability, generating increases in performance that will be repeated year after year. 

Samuel Boon, Signet Breeding Services Samuel.boon@ahdb.org.uk

For more information 

• Welsh Sheep Genetics Programme
• Signet Breeding Services
• High Country Romney