SHEEP BREEDING AT CANNON

The breeding flock at Cannon is made up of fully recorded Hardy, Welsh Hill Speckle Face sheep.

The breed originated in the hills of Mid-Wales and is believed to have been derived from the crossing of Kerry Hill sheep and Welsh Mountain sheep. The breed became uniform with the establishment of the Breed Society in 1969.

The natural habitat of the breed is the uplands of Mid and North Wales. The winters in these areas can be tough and a high annual rainfall.

As part of an ongoing effort to continually improve the flock at Cannon we record every sheep as part of a Sire Reference Scheme. This involves recording the sire and dam of each lamb born. The lambs are then weighed at 8 weeks of age to get an indication of the maternal traits of its parents, and then weighed and an ultrasonic scan taken of it's loin area at 21 weeks. This gives an indication of it's genetic merit, and, when sires are recorded across a number of flocks it gives an indication of the value of the sire and dam.

Although recording a large number of ewes does require a great commitment and effort, the results more than justify the investment in a greater value carcass and increased value of breeding stock.

To help with the record keeping each sheep has an electronic tag or bolus. This can be read be a hand held reader that identifies the animal and can record tasks. This has speeded up the recording process and removed many of the errors made when recording with a pen and paper.

One of the greatest challenges to a sheep is another sheep. This is because they all shed ineffective internal parasites, or worms. Until recently conventional farmers could control these internal parasites with chemical drenches, but due to their over use and incorrect use, there is an increasing incidence of worms becoming resistant to the chemicals in the drenches. Organic farmers,of course, have never relied on the prophylactic use of chemical wormers but have had to rely on management skills such as rotational grazing or mixed grazing. At Cannon we have been monitoring the faecal egg output of our stock and selecting breeding replacements only from animals showing a genetic resistance to worms. These sheep will not only be of high value to organic farmers but also to the conventional sector as intestinal worms become increasingly resistant to chemical drenches.

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