Recording Hill Sheep Groups - an opportunity for the hill sector to improve

Ireland, along with other countries, had tried hill sheep breed improvement in the past, but ultimately it failed for several reasons.

These include: a lack of market for parentage recorded rams; no short-term gains seen; practical difficulties of recording parentage on a hill flock; and a lack of support from key industry stakeholders. Now, as Sheep Ireland’s David Coen explains, with the introduction of the Sheep Improvement Scheme (SIS), the hill sector has an opportunity for major development due to the demand for genotyped sire-verified rams.

This verification of parentage through DNA will allow for a natural development of flock books within hill breeds. These flock books are the key to assessing the current performance of hill flocks and lead to the development of breeding goals and strategies.

Presently Sheep Ireland has two hill flock books recording with them, the Mayo-Connemara ram group and the Donegal Wicklow Cheviot group. There is also a small number of individual hill farmers doing their recording across several breeds. These groups record the same level of data as that of lowland pedigree breeders. Which includes the following:

• Tagging lambs at birth;
• Assigning parentage;
• Lambing data including date of birth, lamb mortality and birth weights;
• Annual weight performance at 40, 100, and 150 days of age.

The development of these flock books has led to their inclusion in Teagasc research trials over the last few years. Performance recorded Mayo-Connemara lambs were purchased by Teagasc Athenry for hill lamb finishing trills, while breeders from the Donegal Wicklow Cheviot group were selected for methane research using portable accumulation chambers. The flock book information gives Teagasc the foundations needed for conclusive data analysis, while the research done all gets fed back into the groups using the Sheep Ireland database. This research will allow for further breed development.

With the SIS, hill farmers are now actively looking for sire-verified rams. Parentage and scrapie information are now a sought-after commodity and at the forefront of ram producer’s minds and discussions.

There are currently 17 different hill ram groups nationally that run ram sales. In 2023, nine of these groups ran their catalogues through the Sheep Ireland National Database. This was a huge step forward for the sector, with many purchasers and breeders alike delighted with the extra information available to them when purchasing their rams. The vast majority of this information was gathered from the genotyping carried out by the farmers to have their rams qualify for SIS.

Although the information is a step in the right direction, the information was limited to DNA alone. Unlike the Mayo-Connemara ram group and the Donegal Wicklow Cheviot group, the information available to purchasers lacked accurate date of birth information, any level dam information or maternal parentage, and any weights or performance data. There is strong optimism that this will come over time.

Something that has been raised to a very large degree by hill groups is the issue of poor mouths on hill sheep. This is an area that a sheep is highly scrutinised for in the hill sector. Premature loss of incisor teeth (broken mouth) is a major problem leading to early involuntary culling because affected sheep are unable to bite off short and/or rough pasture leading to malnutrition, poor production, and weight loss.

Sheep Ireland has been actively recording mouths of hill sheep in both recording groups since 2023, with over 2,800 records currently obtained and more to follow in 2023. Examination of incisor teeth alignment was performed by running an index finger along the dental pad, with the sheep's mouth closed and the head held in the normal resting position. This examination will reveal any teeth projecting forward or backward of the normal contact on the dental pad.

Each sheep also got a visual inspection of its mouth by moving both the top and bottom lip to reveal the animals full dental bad. Sheep were scored as Normal, Overshot, Undershot, and Broken.

Continued research in this area is ongoing. The hope is that mouth issues currently in hill sheep have a level of heritability and an index for the trait can be developed.

The targets for future development over the next 12 months are as follows:

• Increase the knowledge of what Sheep Ireland can do for the sector and continue to build up the trust and confidence of hill farmers;
• Have a much higher percentage of hill breeds running flock books;
• Have flocks performance recording (parentage, weaning weight, recording culls);
• Develop an index for hill sheep, with data recorded from hill flocks;
• Continue recording mouths of hill sheep.

In conclusion, the hill sector is facing a great opportunity to improve genetic gains thanks to the impulse of the SIS, with services being provided by Sheep Ireland and research being done by Teagasc. This will be again a demonstration that the Irish sheep industry working together is committed to keep on improving across all the production systems.

For more information on the work being undertaken by Sheep Ireland, click here.

Also read: Practical implications of conversion to organics on hill sheep farms

Also read: Improving returns in hill sheep with flock health and production planning