LIVESTOCK | FEEDING
Selecting for body condition score BY: VICTORIA O’SULLIVAN
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s it worthwhile having body condition score (BCS) as one of your selection objectives when chasing efficiency in your ewe flock? That’s the question that provided the basis for Massey University student Isabel Vialoux’s PhD thesis, which saw her analyse pedigree-recorded sheep BCS datasets captured by stud flock breeders since 2008. “We wanted to know whether it was possible to select for BCS in sheep,” says Isabel. “If a ewe is a certain BCS, will she pass that on to her offspring, and will those ewes be a similar BCS? And is it beneficial to go to a ram breeder that records BCS or not?” Optimal BCS is considered to be 3-3.5
with anything outside this range generally considered inefficient. Isabel found BCS was passed on and showed similar heritability regardless of the time of year it was measured. “It doesn’t matter if you measure it prior to mating or at weaning, there are similar genes in effect at all those different time points,” she says. She looked at different sheep profiles and how the BCS changed through the year, and found the relationship backed up what is visually recognized on many sheep farms – the ewes that had the ability to lose more body condition could use this energy to produce milk to feed their lambs, whereas the ones that held on to condition were more likely to wean singles. She says triplets continue to be a huge issue for many farmers so it’s important
Isabel Vialoux: ‘The weaning weight of the lamb is what the farmers are interested in.’
to have triplet ewes at a BCS 3.5 mating through to scanning. Isabel suggests using BCS at mating to ensure ewes have enough condition to carry them through winter and to feed the lambs up until weaning. At weaning use BCS to draft out the lower
TURANGANUI ROMNEYS Survival, one of the few traits you will never get too much of
At Turanganui we have always paid attention to Lamb survival, demonstrated above where the red line denotes Turanganui’s progress, the blue line is the average of 1199 SIL flocks.
Left to right: Nico Butler, Keiren Brown, Holmes Warren, Guy Warren, Mike Warren, William Warren.
CONTACT 027 446 5312 06 307 7841
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Thursday November 26th On-Farm, Fairlie and
Online at www.meadowslea.co.nz through the Yourbid platform. David Giddings 027 2299760 George Giddings 027 656 3323 giddingsfamily@xtra.co.nz
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October 2020