Challenge Sheep project

Summary

Sector:

Beef & Lamb

Project code:

61110054

Date:

01 October 2016 - 30 September 2024

Total project value:

£1,187,500

Project leader:

AHDB

About this project

Investigating the role body condition and mating ewes as ewe lambs or shearlings can have on lifetime performance.

The problem

It is clear that the management of replacements entering the national flock needs improving, as too many of them are not retained after their first breeding season due to premature culling or death. There is a lack of up-to-date information on this subject and the potential benefits of getting the management right.

The data from the Longwool project (2007) suggests that nearly 7% of ewes need culling in their first year with an additional 4% that die. The current average price for a replacement is around £120 per head, so if 250 shearlings are purchased with a cost of around £30,000. After one year, 7% of these ewes may be sold for £65 as culls and 4% have died, which equates to a loss of £2,162 or around a 7% loss in value per year.

With 7,057,000 breeding ewes and an average replacement rate of around 21% means that around 1.6 million ewes are entering the flock for the first time per year. If their value of around £100 is reduced by around 7% within their first year, it equates to £10.9 million of value lost per year due to culling and death in the first breeding year.

Aims and objectives

To understand the role of body condition and the impact of mating ewe lambs or shearlings on lifetime productivity, with the aim of optimising flock performance and reducing replacement costs through reduced premature culling of ewes.

The research is being done alongside an extensive knowledge exchange programme to ensure results are shared and taken up rapidly by the sheep industry.

The objectives are:

To understand the role of mating ewe lambs or shearlings and their body condition on lifetime productivity from a network of producers, researchers and consultants using participatory action research techniques.
To monitor replacements brought into flocks on 11 farms in 2017 and 2018 over their productive lifetime through extensive analysis of EID data and benchmarking.
To communicate the activity through a planned knowledge exchange programme with a range of approaches.
To collect additional information, such as DNA, health status and antimicrobial use to complement other projects.

Approach

Challenge Sheep will monitor replacement ewes that enter 11 flocks recruited from across England to represent a range of lamb production systems.

Around 7,000 replacements that enter the flock in 2017 and 2018 will be monitored until 2024 using electronic identification (EID) equipment. Information will be gathered on their weight and body condition score (BCS) at various points through the year and lamb performance and health records will be collected.

A project coordinator will work with the producers and their software providers to analyse the huge amount of data being generated.

Workshops will be held throughout the programme to gather expert opinions and to ensure information is being communicated back to consultants, advisers, vets and researchers.

We will hold on-farm events and discussion groups with each flock to provide more in-depth information and benchmarking to local producers.

A series of press and articles, social media updates, newsletters and webinars will be planned to ensure the results are communicated wider than the Challenge Sheep farms.

Surveys will be conducted throughout the programme to track changes in attitudes in producers who are attending events and those that haven’t attended.

The information gathered via surveys will be used within the evaluation process.

Related research projects

Challenge Sheep