Managing ewe body condition

Getting hands-on with monitoring your ewes' body condition is a more effective way of identifying the sheep that you need to prioritise feed for than drafting by eye. Giving each ewe a body condition score (BCS) at key times throughout the breeding cycle – weaning, mating, scanning, set stocking and tailing – is a quick and effective way to ensure that the right ewes are getting the additional feed that they need.

We have put together a fact sheet on the benefits of optimising ewe body condition and a simple guide for monitoring how close your ewes are to the optimum BCS of three. 

Feel free to contact the NZM production science team if you would like to learn more about condition scoring and the positive impact it can have on your ewe flock's overall productivity. Click here for more information about ewe nutrition. 

Rejuvenating clovers on uncultivable hill country

The New Zealand Merino Company, with the assistance of Dick Arnst, ran a trial at Glentanner Station to investigate the effectiveness of glyphosate and haloxyfop-P in controlling low-quality grass species and promoting the existing, naturalised clovers.

Chemical topping can be an effective way to reduce competition from low quality grasses, allowing the resident clovers to re-establish. Following the spray treatment with good grazing management, and allowing the clover to set-seed and regenerate, will allow long-term persistence. Click here for more information. 

Stonyhurst takes out Supreme Award at Canterbury Ballance Farm Environment Awards

NZM would like to congratulate the Douglas-Clifford family of Stonyhurst in North Canterbury, who were named winners of the Supreme Award at the 2017 Canterbury Ballance Farm Environment Awards. The award recognises their ongoing preservation and enhancement of Stonyhurst's natural resources, as well as the success of their sheep, beef and deer farming operations. 

In addition, the Douglas-Cliffords won the Massey University Innovation Award, the Hill Laboratories Harvest Award and the Farm Stewardship Award in partnership with QEII National Trust and New Zealand Farm Environment Trust. For more information, click here and here.

Update from the central progeny test

We shared the latest data, including estimated breeding values (EBVs), for the CPT sires at an Open Day on 14 February 2017. Click on the links below for more information:

• Handout from the CPT Open Day.
• Pen cards for the 2013 CPT sires.
• Pen cards for the 2014 CPT sires.
• Pen cards for the 2015 CPT sires.
• Estimated breeding values for the 2013 CPT sires.
• Estimated breeding values for the 2014 CPT sires.
• Estimated breeding values for the 2015 CPT sires.

These EBVs were current as at 24 January 2017 and were based on all known data for the rams (and all known relatives) where this information has been submitted to Sheep Genetics for analysis.

We have also included links below to two handy tools for using EBVs. Contact Skye Rutherford if you would like copies sent to you by post.

• Estimated breeding values - a guide for ram buyers
• Breeding objective tool

Contact Mark Ferguson in the NZM Production Science team if you would like to discuss your personal breeding objective and the traits that are likely to be most important for your particular production system.

Individual Animal Management - Hannah Marriott's Nuffield Scholarship Report

As part of Hannah Marriott's Nuffield Scholarship in 2014, she visited NZM and several of our growers to find out more about the potential for technology like EID to enable more profitable farming through more effective breeding selection and management decisions. You can check out the Executive Summary and Recommendations below - or click here for the full report.

Executive Summary

• The need to combine on-farm productivity gains with specifications of the end product is more important than ever as the demand for consistently safe, high quality and ethically-grown food increases. Productivity gains on farm are a mainstream way to increase profit under a largely commodity-driven pricing structure. However, in the absence of adequate and accurate product feedback, productivity gains alone could limit the ability to produce product to market specification. Linking feedback on the products being produced in the sheep industry (lamb, wool and sheep meat) back to production and reproduction is very important. Current technology such as electronic identification (EID) can facilitate such linkages in a simple, practical and cost effective way.
• A focus on the full range of animal performance data - rather than the average - through Individual Animal Management (IAM) allows for more accurate identification of superior and inferior stock. This information can be used to make precise decisions around genetics and nutrition. For example, the top 25% of ewes can be more than twice as efficient as the bottom 25% of ewes, under identical management. Therefore, having the ability to identify the animals that fall below the average on an economic measure allows for greater gains through more precise selection pressure.
• Matching a ewe to her progeny, using EID, will enable a weaned litter weight to be correlated to her. Currently Pedigree Match Maker (PMM) is the most efficient commercially available tool for matching ewe and lamb. Work is being done on creating a sensor tag which will remotely link ewe and lamb through near field technology. This will be an area that will continue to evolve.
• A ewe efficiency index can be calculated if the liveweight of the ewe and weaning weight of the lamb(s) is collected. This is a key profit driver, which can be optimised, and enables greater selection pressure by producing surplus replacement ewes. It also supports selection of favourable component traits including fertility, number of lambs born, lamb survival, lactation and lamb growth rate.
• Individual Animal Management in a commercial setting requires a resource commitment and must be practical. Data collection should be integrated as part of the annual management calendar to ensure greatest efficiency in time. Typical measurements that align with annual animal husbandry are pregnancy scanning, liveweight and condition score, sex of the lamb, age of the dam, lamb marking weight and weaning weight, wool cut, sire group (and their genetics) and matching ewe and lamb.

Recommendations

• Look at the full range in animal performance data as well as the average, and identify animals below average.
• Use a combination of visual and objective assessment to allow underperforming animals on a commercial basis to be identified and culled from the main breeding flock.
• Estimate ewe efficiency by linking ewe and progeny, recording weight of lambs at weaning and correlating this to the ewe liveweight. Further work needs to be done on remotely linking ewes and lambs to identify the most productive ewes.
• Streamline data collection to only include what is needed as defined by the KPIs of the business. Use this information to link product feedback with on-farm production.
• Implement the use of ASBVs when introducing genetics into the flock and target areas most limiting profitability.
• Add carcass traits to the selection criteria in Merino breeding systems to optimise returns from meat and wool.

Click here for more about NZM growers using EID to unlock greater potential in their sheep farming businesses. 

Pain relief now registered for use in sheep

Metacam (Meloxicam) has been registered for use in sheep in New Zealand. Metacam is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antipyretic drug, which can be administered by injection to sheep and lambs 14 days of age or older to alleviate pain and inflammation. Click here for the Metacam fact sheet. 

NZM is using Metacam at the central progeny test site.