A short review showing the impact that 50 years of levy investment has had upon performance recording services and the impact it has had on our sheep industry.

Over 94% of breeders would recommend Signet’s performance recording services to other pedigree breeders, with 70% telling us about the financial difference recording has made to their business. Find out more about what we scored well in and what we are going to improve during the coming year.

Inspired by SBRT presentations over recent months and some great work coming out of New Zealand, here is a short article on the opportunities for genetics in reducing methane emissions in the national sheep flock.

Signet clients can produce genetic trends for their flock or herd for any of our measured traits and for rates of inbreeding. Take a look to monitor your flock or herd's progress.

Sheep genetic trends

Beef genetic trends

This short video explains how clients can enter sheep onto our Signet “Sheep for Sale” page and create a mini-catalogue at the same time.

AHDB is engaging with levy payers this spring to talk about how their levy is invested. The vote will influence how funds are split between marketing and research, including genetic research to enhance the services that Signet provides and subsidising the fees paid by ram breeders for recording and scanning services.

Please note: AHDB only collects a beef and lamb levy from English levy payers. In the case of livestock born in Wales and Scotland, but slaughtered in England, the processor (i.e. the abattoir) will be eligible to vote, but not the farm that bred these animals if the farm is not located in England. It is worth highlighting that levy derived from cross-border movement to slaughter is repaid to the country where the economic value was created, so this levy spend does directly benefit producers in those countries where the animal was bred.

Are you ready for calving and lambing? Let us know about any new animals arriving onto your farm for this breeding season and take the time to complete a flock/herd census to get your records up to date.

Sheep census

Beef census

With new breeding values for ewe mature weights and body condition just around the corner for lowland maternal and hill flocks recording with Signet, please submit any weights collected at tupping time and bear in mind the value of this data when you are sorting through ewes in the future.

How to Performance Record Your Pedigree Flock

The National Hill Sheep Evaluation

The Sheep Breed Survey 2020/21

Read how Norfolk farmer, Richard Evans, is trying to enhance the efficiency of his Lleyn flock through selective breeding. By measuring both lamb growth rates and mature size, he is finding the most efficient ewes in the flock, enhancing output whilst limiting large increases in ewe weights.

The Sheep Breeder’s Round Table online conference in November was a massive success. Over 641 people watched the event live and nearly 1,500 have already watched the recorded sessions back via our YouTube channel. To re-visit any of the sessions, head to the Signet website.

In case you missed it, you can watch again to an evening presentation for hill sheep breeders all about “How to obtain and use breeding values produced by Signet”. Whilst the content was aimed at hill producers, the principles are the same for all of our sheep breeder clients.