Small Ruminants: Sheep Industry Flashcards
What are common problems for sheep?
Broadly
- Lambings/caesarians
- Sick ewes around lambings
- Flock based problems- lamenes abortion, lamb mortality, thin ewes
- Sudden death
- Vaccination/worming
- Flock health planning
What are the 3 different approaches to managing infectious/parasitic disease?
- Biosecurity- prevent entry
- Reduce disease challenge- managment, test and cull
- Improve animals resistance- vaccinate, breeding
What are the missing words?
What are the four different production systems for sheep?
- Pedigree
- Hill flocks
- Lowland flocks
- Store Lambs
What are the characteristics of Hill breeds?
- Hardy, thrive in harsh conditions
- Good mothering
- One lamb per ewe
- Male offspring
- Females kept as replacements or sold to upland farms where they are crossed with long wool breeds
What are the characteristics of Long Wool Breeds?
- Bigger carcasse
- Fast growth
- Prolifancy
- Milkiness
What breeds make mules and half breds?
Female hill sheep are crossed with male long wool breed
* Blue face cross called mule
* Border cross called half bred
How does lowland farm production work?
Buy in mules or half bred ewe replacements
Cross with terminal sire- growth rates, carcass conformation, hardiness
All lambs kept for meat
Keep ewes for 4-5 crops of lambs then cull
How do pedigree and hill flock systems work?
Pedigree- pure bred hill, upland or lowland for own replacement or to sell to other systems
Hill flocks- pure bred females as own replacements of to sell, cross breeding females for lowland system
Males for meat
What is the problem with stratification system problems?
Historically slow genetic improvement in UK flock
Breeding based on size and appearance rather then economiclly valuable traits
What are new trends to the sheep industry?
- Grass forage based- increase efficiency of grass/forage, less concentrate
- Changes to breeding- lambing ease, lamb vigour and disease resistance
What are the current genetic tools and uses for sheep production?
- Performance recording service for pedigree sheep producers
- EBVs
- Breeding indexes are generated to help producers
- Traits that are easily measures and highly heritable
How are EBVs produced?
A value which expresses the difference between an individual animal and the herd or breed benchmark to which the animal is compared
Baseline of 0 relates to average value in the year analysis was first produced
* Litter size
* Maternal ability
* Scan weight lamb
* Carcass composition
* Mature size
* Breeding values
What are the different indices currently available?
EBVs
Terminal sire index- helps breeders select animals fo progeny
Hill index- fertility and maternal traits
Welsh index- similar to hill
Maternal index- lamb survival
What are the production outputs and costs for sheep farms?
Production outputs- lambs (numbers, quality, weight, when), wool, cull ewes
Production costs- variable costs (feed, bedding, vets, replacments) fixed costs (rent mortgage, utilities, labour machinery)
