Looks aren’t everything, ram-buying workshop told

Decisions: At a ram-buying workshop at Marton, John McIntyre, of Focus Genetics, right and David Smith of Holly Farm, Marton, discuss their choice of ram.

Farmers listened to information about ram buying on objective production figures – not just on looks – at a better ram-buying workshop held north of Marton.

Manawatu Standard: 6 Nov 2012, by Jill Galloway

After listening to what they should be buying their rams on, the figures, they put it into practice with a mock auction.

About 20 farmers, vets and geneticists went to last week’s workshop at the Tutu TotaraStud. They came from Manawatu, Rangitikei and Whanganui regions.

The group checked out 23 Kelso two-tooth rams and teams had to ‘buy’ rams suitable for the farm scenario they were given.

Each team had $5500 to spend on rams for 350 ewes, but they needed different traits fortheir farms.

The mock auction was run by Sharon McIntyre, who works for Sheep Improvement Limited (SIL), the sheep genetics engine, which records the performance of sheep.

It came about after similar seminars for beef buyers were well received earlier this year.

McIntyre said SIL wanted to run one for ram buyers.

‘‘I’m giving farmers skills to buy rams that better match their desires and breeding goals for the properties. The best ram for one farmer may be different to another’s needs.’’

It was all about reading the figures for the rams and making sense of them.

‘‘Some people might have quite a good lambing percentage and if it goes any higher, they’ll have more triplets, which may be a problem. But they might want to increase growth rates.’’

In that case, a farmer may look for a ram that is a maintainer of fecundity, but they might want more emphasis on survival and growth, McIntyre said.

Someone else might choose a different ram for fecundity and growth.

‘‘It could be a totally different ram that they choose.

‘‘I am giving them the tools to do that better.’’

She suggested choosing a breeder that met the person’s goals.

‘‘If you are having a problem with worm resistance, then you want to find a breeder that is doing a lot of work in parasite resistance,’’ McIntyre said it was a combination. ‘‘A ramp needs to be structurally sound, and last. It is a combination of figures and you have to buy an animal you like. SIL will have numbers on many things, but not on everything.’’

Beef+Lamb is running 12 sheep genetics workshops throughout the country. The north Marton seminar was the fourth.

Geneticist Mark Young said these were practical workshops communicating a few simple concepts.

‘‘Farmers will go away better able to use SIL data to buy rams that deliver value.’’

He said the workshops were designed to give more farmers the confidence to use genetic information when buying rams.

Traits were recorded on the sheep’s genetic system.

Source: https://www.pressreader.com/article/282067684198767 2/2