Leading sheep breeder lists Sheeplan benefits

Press, 18 March 1983, Page 20

Leading sheep breeder lists Sheeplan benefits

Sheeplan, the. national flock recording system, has been wholeheartedly endorsed by one of its longest users, Corriedale breeder, Mr Arthur Blakely, of “Clifton,” at Waikari, North Canterbury. - . Mr Blakely has listed what he sees as the benefits of Sheeplan for the stud sheep breeder.

First on his list is the .“incredible” amount of time and work saved during the year in recording and updating pedigree books. Mr Blakely commented that perhaps in the initial years of Sheeplan, which started in 1976, he might have had some slight lack of confidence in the figures. Arthur and his father, Mr J. F. G. Blakely, have been with Sheeplan since the start. “But the longer it goes the better it gets,” he said.

The sire and ewe summaries were beginning to be useful pedigree records and about three-quarters of his stud flock of 1100 Corriedales now had pedigree details in the Sheeplan summaries. As long as the lambing sheets were entered into the Sheeplan system correctly all other work flowed easily during the year, he said. Mr Blakely has adopted the time-saving practice of transferring all ewes, in their year and number order, into his field notebook from the post-weaning. selection list sent out by Sheeplan. The notebook is first used in late summer when ewes are culled. All drafting is done in covered yards and ear-tag numbers are checked. The notebook is used again to check tag numbers when the ewes are grouped for the rams and the sires’ numbers, as well as a “family” letter copied into the notebook.

Then on the lambing beat twins are marked in the field with aerosol sprays but tagging is done some days later in the yards. By checking each' ewe ’against the notebook, and entering its progeny details, the “missing” ewes — who are usually dry — are quickly identified and despatched to .the commer-

cial flock or to the works. The slower alternative oi recording tag numbers, perhaps in the field, as ewes lamb, usually results in a greater number of “missing” sheep when the lambing list is filled in for Sheeplan.

So Mr Blakely sees the use of the field notebook as a tool in producing a comprehensive and complete lambing list as a major factor in the success of his work with Sheeplan. Another major advantage for the system was its national uniformity and practicality. “Regardless of. any performance use, Sheeplan is an excellent recording system,” he said. “It is clear cut and once it is understood and used properly, it is hole proof.” Mr Blakely warned that breeders would get into difficulties with Sheeplan if shortcuts were taken. Everything had to be recorded, even lambs which were culled at lambing. It was important that gaps didn’t appear in Sheeplan records, leading to confusion. So while Mr Blakely might .tag all his cull lambs in the stud flock, he does so in the opposite ear for quick identification.

“Once a tag is used and . then taken out for any reason, throw it over your shoulder or something, but make sure it is never used again,” he said. “But don’t, whip out the tags of a cull mob straight away. Keep the culls aside for a. few days to give them a second chance in case, when you were doing the first selection, you were having a bad day.” To guard against the very rare problem of a lost tag, he ticks in his field notebook those top stud sheep he is running in a separate mob. If one of these really good ones . turns up without a tag, its 'number can be found by a process of elimination using the book.

Mr Blakely is not selecting his stud sheep purely on Sheeplan records. First choice is done on eye appraisal because if the Corriedale

breed type is not right, he will not keep it. Then he checks the records, using the indexes and the breeding values.

“Keep the pedigree records away from the culling procedure,” he advised. “If you don’t, you will find any number of reasons, usually sentimental, why you should keep an animal marked for culling.”

The post-weaning selection list is an invaluable tool in ruthless lamb culling to reduce the number of unproductive mouths going into winter.

Two-tooth ewes are appraised by eye for culling and then, out of what is left, all minus-index ewes are mated in one mob to the one ram. This enables their progeny to be evaluated more carefully. The ram is usually an outcross or a high recording ram, though.

“I would be doubtful about ever carrying on with a stud ram from one of these ewes in the separate mating mob,” he said.

Also any ~two-tooths which don’t produce a lamb are culled.

Mating in the main stud flock is done on “family” lines, retaining some of the flavour of the traditional stud breeding operation. Letter prefixes to tag numbers keep the families identified and although these are also recorded in the field notebook, they are not part of the Sheeplan records. They could be entered in the breeder’s comments column, though. Mr Blakely believes that "family” mating may help him to get a more even line of sheep, rather than trying to get a stud ram out of each individual.

Around about 350 ram lambs are kept for stud evaluation and they are screened very hard in autumn, with most of the minus recorders being ejected. Out of the pluses stud sires are selected, then stud sires for sale and then the balance go as flock rams, to commercial breeders.

Commercial buyers might

not ask for the Sheeplan records, such as two-tooch selection list, but they know the Clifton stud is on Sheeplan and that “all sheep are being screened for basic faults,” according to Mr Blakely.

After close observation over many years, he believes that use of a better performing Sheeplan ram wouldn’t necessarily lead to a greater twinning rate. But it would definitely lead to a better conception rate. “Lambing percentages still go up and down with the seasons, which is a good thing in this dry climate and with this breed,” he said.

Commenting on his selection progress under Sheeplan, Mr Blakely said he now felt he had 1100 sheep in the stud flock in which he had total confidence because they had full records. He knew they all had satisfactory performance because it had been measured. He had also seen the clear influence of Sheeplan in the show ring.

Whereas years ago a ewe with twins was not considered for the ring, now all top show ewes had twins.

“The top show sheep are now the top recording rams.

“I wouldn’t select or feed a ram to show unless his figures were also right,” he said.

He provided as an example the records of his top ewe at the Christchurch Show in 1981. It is still showing a lamb production breeding value of 257, a number of lambs breeding value, of 100 and a mothering ability breeding value of 101. It has had eight lambs in four years. Another advantage of Sheeplan was its effect on any of the breeder’s staff. Instead of the “boss” carrying all the information around in his head, staff could see the objectives and be involved. . Nor was Sheeplan considered expensive by Mr Blakely. In combination with the stud society fees, recording was becoming expensive, but Sheeplan fees were reasonable, he thought.