News

Performance recorded sheep continue to achieve top prices at recent sales across the country.

Utilising technology to make informed breeding decisions and identify animals with superior muscle across the carcase can increase carcase yield and the profitability of sheep enterprises. Laura Eyles, Senior Signet Breeding Specialist, explains how levy funded research and investment in the late 1990’s has allowed this world leading technology to be used within our sheep industry.

We have had a busy summer collecting data from our nine commercial farms involved with RamCompare this season and it has been fun getting to know how our new farms operate as we have worked alongside them collecting 8-week weight and 12-week weight /ultrasound scanning data from their lambs. This season we are collecting data from over 5,600 lambs, from around 95 different sires. Mating plans have been confirmed and many rams now through the quarantine and being put out with ewes.  

The Lincoln Red Cattle Society have recently announced their intention to provide all their members with free access to Signet’s services. As part of this new initiative with Signet, the Lincoln Red Cattle Society will fund the recording costs of any paid up Society member; effectively removing the financial barrier that may have previously limited smaller herds from engaging in weight recording.

Join Dr Nóirín McHugh from Teagasc as she talks about projects in Ireland that have set out to measure methane emissions in Irish sheep flocks. Together with Samuel Boon from AHDB they will discuss how selective breeding can be used to reduce methane emissions in the national flock and why genetic solutions are so important in enhancing this aspect of sheep production.

In this episode of the Food & Farming podcast, our Signet Breeding Manager at AHDB, Samuel Boon, talks through the role of CT scanning when making breeding decisions, whilst Signet consultant Laura Eyles speaks to Kirsty McClean and John Gordon from SRUC to find out the how and the why.

Performance recorded ewes topped the female trade, a shearling ewe from the Cavick flock 21WVW01215 sold for 3800gns to the Ingram family. Other top p ...

Friday 8^th April saw the first ram sale of 2022 at Exeter Livestock Centre on behalf of the Centurion Group of Dorset Breeders.  An entry of 61 Signet recorded sheep, which sold to buyers from across the UK.

The Dorset May Fair continued to follow the positive start from the Dorset Centurion sale for performance recording breeders that took place at Exeter earlier in the month.

Different animals are known to react differently to changing climatic and weather conditions, and part of these differences may be genetic. Therefore, breeding for enhanced animal resilience to climate change has been proposed as a possible mitigation strategy. 

The aim of the present project was to examine the genomic profile of climate resilience in sheep, with a focus on identifying the desirable genetic profile of animals whose performance and growth do not change because of changing weather.