The UK-based Sheep Breeders Round Table 2019 took place in the East Midlands from Friday to Sunday, 15 to 17 November. The event was organised by several industry bodies across the UK including the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), AgriSearch, HYBU CIG CYMRU (Wales), the National Sheep Association (NSA), Quality Meat Scotland (QMS), iSAGE and Scotlands Rural College (SRUC).

A theme running across all presentations was the important role performance-recording plays in underpinning genetic progress.

Without performance-recording, genetic progress is constrained as the more information we can collate the greater the accuracy will be in making decisions that will bring about genetic gain.

Session one of the conference focused on developing a resilient UK sheep industry but the topic of resilience came up in many other sessions. In his presentation, Professor Georgios Banos, SRUC said sheep sectors worldwide will have to prepare to deal with increased weather volatility.

He said that a potential benefit of changing weather patterns may be a longer growing season but the advantages of this are likely to be well counteracted by weather extremes such as intense rainfall, flooding and extremes in temperature. This, he said, is coming into the spotlight following record temperatures in the UK and across continental Europe in 2019 while recent flooding has also highlighted changing weather patterns.

A trial looking at how weather affects the performance of Scottish Blackface sheep has shown that growth is affected to varying degrees between sheep. The performance of some sheep suffers while others maintain stable growth irrespective of weather. As such, Georgios said it will be possible to breed sheep with enhanced adaptation and resilience.

However, initial research has shown that there is a downside to basing selection on resilience as there is an antagonistic relationship between growth and resilience. This means that sheep that are more resilient to weather extremes tend to have lower growth rates.

He said that further work is under way to see what the optimum level of resilience is to select and potentially incorporate into breeding programmes.

Further research is also required to see what effect focusing on resilience could have on other important production parameters.

Genotype/environment interactions

Another presentation delivered by Ann McLaren, researcher with the SRUC hill and mountain research centre, looked into genetic resilience and genotype and environment interactions. Scottish Blackface sheep of comparable genotype were run across two very different environments.

Overall, a low level of genotype x environment interaction was observed despite 30 different rams being used.

There were small differences identified for lamb birth weight and pre-mating weight, while there were significant differences on the ram side, with some sires re-ranking heavily across different environments.

Since 2012, the trial has also been looking at parasite resilience including faecal egg counts, dag scores and liveweight gain.

Ann says a positive outcome is a favourable correlation between genotype and different parasites with a positive correlation between high genetic merit ewes and faecal egg counts. This means that genetic selection can take place without negatively affecting productivity in this area with ongoing assessment taking place.

The importance of breeding or running sheep that suit the terrain in which they are farmed was also a strong message coming from this trial. Lleyn sheep performed well in the same environment as Scottish Blackface sheep bringing advantages in terms of lamb growth rate, slaughter, performance, etc. However, when the “beast from the east” hit in 2018, Lleyn sheep were less well equipped to cope with the weather and endured significant losses. In comparison, losses in the Scottish Blackface breed were lower with these sheep better equipped to cope with the cold snap.

Meaning of sustainability

Marion Johnson from the Organic Research Centre told conference delegates that sustainability is a word that is increasingly bandied about and that we should question what it means. She cited an example of palm oil being hailed as a sustainable product, yet its production had led to the destruction of rainforests in some countries.

She said that the sheep industry needs to be careful what we push for in sustainability labels and take care that an accurate message is being portrayed.

Marion is heading up a new initiative, iSAGE sustainability assessments, and the development of an iSAGE sustainability toolbox.

This will give farmers the power to assess their own systems to see how sustainable they are across numerous production parameters and also identify areas where improvements can be made. The target is to have the toolbox up and running in December.

Positive developments but more work needed

There is a growing focus around climate change and weather extremes and it is good to see work being completed in the area of resilience. It is very much at a starting phase with the big question on how selecting sheep for better resilience for weather volatility affects other important production traits.

While the research is ongoing, farmers can make positive developments on their own farms by starting to record performance and focusing on identifying breeding lines that naturally excel in the terrain in which they are run.