- Location
- Near Colchester
They still have lanolin though, I was quite surprised how greasy it was when I picked up a handful the other day.
Selecting for fly strike resistance? Is it a selectable trait or not?
- Thread starter Coximus
- Start date
Danllan
Member
- Location
- Sir Gar / Carms
I think that the lanolin, rather than sweat, is the key - though I may change that view if I can find the paper mentioned by @Tim W and find it convincing. Shedders definitely do have lanolin, but it is significantly less than would otherwise be the case. Clearly the sooner we get to a 'hairy' sheep the better.
I'm still growing a new flock, starting with Easycare we will bring in Exlana as and when we think it right. The question for us is whether the genes carrying 'woolly' traits are also carrying traits we want to keep. Only time and careful recording will tell...
Coximus
Member
Well Ive been through my software today and started indicting the struck ones, and traced them all back on the inhouse flock to 3 ewes and 4 tups, all from the same 2 sources, (thats 27 ewes decended over 4 generations). Most of their sibblings have been culled for bad feet at some point or other, so they're linked to a larger family of 73 that has been culled out.
Facinating to go through the logs and look into this, Also find that these bloodlines all show 350g/day + growth and had the second best grades in my flock.... so it looks like I have a choice of culling these out for strike, and loosing nearly a 1/3rd of my best grading animals - Not the end of the world their are good U grading stock with no problems to breed from, but This group has the best growth rates and strike. Perhaps culling on a 2 strike policy may let me keep some of this genetic back.
Its all about choosing the traits it seems.
This year for financial reasons Ive had to cut the flock in half, so its been a great chance to practise a "Grand Cull" and reset the flock.
Facinating to go through the logs and look into this, Also find that these bloodlines all show 350g/day + growth and had the second best grades in my flock.... so it looks like I have a choice of culling these out for strike, and loosing nearly a 1/3rd of my best grading animals - Not the end of the world their are good U grading stock with no problems to breed from, but This group has the best growth rates and strike. Perhaps culling on a 2 strike policy may let me keep some of this genetic back.
Its all about choosing the traits it seems.
This year for financial reasons Ive had to cut the flock in half, so its been a great chance to practise a "Grand Cull" and reset the flock.
GrannyAching
Member
- Location
- Mynyddoedd Preseli
Can you differentiate between fly strike due to dirty bums and other areas? I'd tell you I don't get fly strike before shearing but this year is a nightmare - I'm at "big cull", too so reckon dirty bums and strike = out. Other strike areas - couldn't judge based on this year alone.
Coximus
Member
Dirty bums is a cull policy of mine, I hate dagging and I hate going out on 100ac of stubble to catch them, So I rarely see it, just one ewe this year with it, and she had eating lawn mowings and laurel leaves thrown over a hedge by houses, so had a reprieve.
GrannyAching
Member
- Location
- Mynyddoedd Preseli
So maybe two strikes to allow for seasons and keep the GR.
Coximus
Member
Interestingly as well, I've found that 12 ewes alive, and 23 past ewes, decended from suffolk x (suffolk x swaledales) have been found with signs of strike but had survived without me noticing they had been struck, and had not been done badly, so perhaps a trait their allowing them not to get eatten alive? The 23 culled were all culled for lambing difficulty as well, so the 12 remaining I may select out and put back to my new breeding group Im trying to form of good growth, good body, problem free sheep to go to an exlana or easycare this year.
Danllan
Member
- Location
- Sir Gar / Carms
It's on a file I have somewhere ----delivered at a presentation he gave a few years back at a hair sheep conference
I am trying to sell sheep at the cereals event but will take a look when I return
CopperBeech
Member
- Location
- A Welsh man lost in England
Hows that working out? Got a meeting next week, with another arable farmer, looking to put sheep back on the farm . . . . .
Danllan
Member
- Location
- Sir Gar / Carms
Thanks for that, I look forward to it.
Coximus
Member
The reference to primitives interests me as my tex x sufx heb sheep are the least struck of all
Coximus
Member
What if some people have almost problem free flocks of Suffolk (They do).... hardly a goat. The biggest problem is keeping flock size up.... especially when your cullingnon a wide range of traits. I had to relax my carcass traits or id of been culling more than I was saving.
But over time as negative traits go out of a flock, replacement rates become better and you can grow numbers
But over time as negative traits go out of a flock, replacement rates become better and you can grow numbers
CopperBeech
Member
- Location
- A Welsh man lost in England
In order to be commercially viable, if you don't have a big market for breeding stock, I think running an A and B flock, or even an A, B, C flock etc works well.
Got an A team here, which is made up of ewes that I really like, and tick all of the boxes, and have a B team, which is made up of ewes that have one issue or other, i.e don't fully shed, etc.
C team is Kebabs lol.
Breeding is a zero sum game. You can't make progress in all directions, there's always a compromise. There is no such thing as a perfect sheep and there never will be.
I'm thinking the p/head of Clic is much preferable to the lost performance in culling untreated sheep just because they're struck.
I'm thinking the p/head of Clic is much preferable to the lost performance in culling untreated sheep just because they're struck.
Coximus
Member
Really?
I Have treated 4 struck sheep this year, lost 1 of, but saved £120 so far in treatments, and at least 10 hours of my life, which at min wage is £75 - but I wouldnt scratch my bum for minimum wage, so the saving is more like £150, so £270 total.
Id like to think if it could be brought to close to 1 in 100 sheep per year, the saving would be substantial.
Yes really, because how much extra time to you spend checking untreated sheep and treating the struck ones?
Coximus
Member
0 Extra time checking untreated - theyre moved at intervals varying from 1 to 7 days and usually through a gate with a 10 yard race, or one set up quickly for that purpose, so I observe and pull out any I wish to look at, total time 5 to 10 mins per move without problems, + 10 mins per intervention.
Treating a Struck sheep - Generally My Approach is shear the whole thing with 12v shears any time of yaer if its struck, then treat with molecto, Remove from flock into quarantine/ death row paddock and if she has lambs, with those two.
General time, depending on where she is in relation to quarantine paddock, anything from from 5 mins to 45 mins If she needs driving their.
If I get more than 1 or 2 a month i would consider treating the whole flock.
If I have an outbreak of mucky bums (rare now since I started culling for it) I would treat the whole flock, with click, but those times appear past on the whole now thanks to culling.
Treating a Struck sheep - Generally My Approach is shear the whole thing with 12v shears any time of yaer if its struck, then treat with molecto, Remove from flock into quarantine/ death row paddock and if she has lambs, with those two.
General time, depending on where she is in relation to quarantine paddock, anything from from 5 mins to 45 mins If she needs driving their.
If I get more than 1 or 2 a month i would consider treating the whole flock.
If I have an outbreak of mucky bums (rare now since I started culling for it) I would treat the whole flock, with click, but those times appear past on the whole now thanks to culling.