Brewster's Blog

A Christmas with snow, this is what we are suppost to get each year. All those Santa songs and films revolve around a white Christmas and for millions of people it was a novelty, even for myself.

That novelty lasted until around 10.39am as I slid a tractor off a hill road while trying to feed my ewes. It was one of these slow motion events, I knew I was in trouble, but not quite sure how much. Holding on to the oh bugger handles I kicked the door latch with my foot and it opened, gravity did the rest. How it stayed on 3 wheels and never went all the way over I'll never know, it should have!

It was a glorious day with the sun splitting the heavens and as I looked skyward I did wilt my cap to the Big Yin, Christmas isn't a day for major disasters. But getting home three hours later than promised was, and it wasn't just the turkey that got a roasting.

On Rotmell the ewes seem to have coped admirably with the weather, they have been getting a wee bite of feeding since the snow came. Once you start you can't really stop. Scanning is only ten days away when the most truthful man in Scotland arrives to give you the good news, I tend to get a bit nervous and then worry about the scanning result.

Riemore on the other hand has been a different kettle of fish. The tups were just coming to the end of their twenty one day stint when it went white. Have they, will they reabsorb I suppose time will tell. Thankfully there was some high energy tubs in store which were put out pretty quickly but the gimmers were a bit slow to react. It still took another three weeks to get the tups in.

By the beginning of June I won't be doing much lambing so yet again I will be tilting my cap to the Big Yin.

AJB

After I returned from Stirling tup sale my father didn't say much, as i gave my reply to his question. "How much did you spend?" I suppose it was the sharp intake of breath that stopped the words coming out. £4000 was a bit more than I would usual spend.

That amount of money in the past would have lasted me for 2 years and 8 shearlings. The problem was I was never quite sure what I was getting for my money. Some of these sheep would never see a second tupping, dying for a variety of reasons, always just outside the insurance period! The other major worry was the health status of the flocks I was buying from. Who has got what?

After bringing BVD into the cattle herd, shooting PI calves and the cost of getting rid of the disease it is not something I wish to go through again in cattle or sheep.

Therefore buying one tup has to be three times safer than buying in four.

While he is a big powerful correct sheep with breed type, what I was really chasing was a correlation in his EBV figures. Too many twins don't suit this unit and that is the problem I have at present. Buying a sheep with a lower than average litter size but with top 25% maternal ability I am hoping to breed my own shearlings with similar traits. Hence producing more singles but from milkier ewes giving me bigger weaning weights. This correlation is what the Americans call a "curve bender" as usually litter size and maternal ability run simultaneously as a measure of increased performance.

Or at least this is my justification for spending the money. I also think when looking at EBV the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. As every farm situation is different. I tend to use the index figure as a guide, but concentrate more on the different correlation of traits to influence my purchasing depending on the direction I feel my flock is needing to go.

What i am still pondering is whether £500 is dear for a sheep, or is £4000 cheap? If you kno nothing about a sheep how can you guarantee he won't infect you flock and that his off spring will be profitable. If you at least know his EBV, surely you must be half way to profitability.

As a footnote, when will sheep breed societies start driving flock health schemes so at least the buyer have an idea as to what health status they are buying in!

Alexander Brewster

Last night was the start of it for me. Back buying tups. I travelled up to W&C Ingram at Logie Durno to purchase a couple of Texel shearlings. This is the third year that i have made this trip north and really enjoy the lack of hassle with the way the sale is run.

The EBV of the tups for sale, are shown along with the lambing ease for Texel and hair cover for the Charollais. My first priority is to buy a "1" for lambing ease. Meaning DIY lambing, and out of 300 ewes so far I have assisted an unnoticeable few. They really do get up and go and if you don't notice them, they must be doing it.

The Texel tups are put to the offenders, which are a group of ewes that have not DIY'd in the past. Hence I don't want to keep breeding them purebred Blackface, regardless of looks or fashions and compounding small problems.

At present I'm putting the finishing touches to a new doseing race where I can also fit in my weigh crate to give me a three weigh drafting. This will enable quicker batching of lambs into sire groups or by weight gain through the EID drafting setup on my weigh head. This is what EID should be use for. A quick and efficient management tool first and fore most, traceability possibly second.

The sun has reappeared which just leaves me 700 ewes to clip outside three weeks later than I would really like.

10 Years ago in New Zealand I watched 2 sheep farmers picking Texel tups from a piece of paper. With an occasional look into the pen of sheep, the conversation was based around killing out percentage, meat yield, maternal ability and various other traits, which this young Scottish lad had no idea about.

In 2004 after a conversation with Signet I put forward 150 ewes and gimmers to be performance recorded. Read the reports, went through the lists of numbers and have gradually increased KO%, dead weights, lambs reared and have increased the profitability of my sheep flock substantially.

2007 saw the introduction of Sheep Focus Farms through QMS and I was asked to put my Blackface flock forward for this scrutiny. A comparison between High and Low index Tups a no brainer you might think, and it is. I was shocked to discover this past year that there is £25 a head difference between my high index and low index ewes.

The financial potential in 1600 ewes is, Inspiring.

To manage it, you have to measure it and to measure it, you have to compile data. To manage data it is easier to use computers and this has thrust me into the physical and verbal debate on EID. The Sheep focus group is happy to watch the practicalities on the ground, but my biggest driver for the use of EID is to speed up the recording process and management of data.

So far I have been able to take weights from my ewes at 6 a minute rather than 1 a minute.

Recording lambs to ewes, I have had to get the families into a small handling pen between fields. EID tag the lambs, and with a hand held reader link the lambs to their EID dams, also entering their sex and DOB at the same time. A slight futer. Rainy days are not an issue, there is no pen and paper and then a straight up load to the computer. From there the data can be manipulated anyway.

Up dates will follow about the pros and cons of EID on the ground.

Alex Brewster
Sheep Focus Farmer.

Alex and Alison Glasgow of Signet Breeding Services checking the EID equipment.

Trying this blogging for the first time. As easy as tagging.