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2001 to 2002
In 2001, one aspect of the foot and mouth disease outbreak in the UK was to restrict the movement of animals from farm to farm. Therefore, where members had shearling rams to be assessed for sale under the Blue Sires banner or to be retained for group use as 'core' rams,the judging panel visited members farms and under strict biosecurity selected those rams which showed good body shape and size,strong muscling, good movement and breed character.

Picture of judging at Tucks Farm 2001
Judging at Tucks Farm 2001

At Tucks Farm, 5 rams were chosen.. All were genotype 1 or 2. All had a SI >155

Table 2001/1 summarises this review.

Identity
Sire
EBVs

 

 
EBV ranks  
SI

SI rank
Blue Sires rank
scan wt (kg)
muscle (mm)
fat (mm)
scan wt
muscle
fat
JH W567
AP T5
+4.56
+2.05
+0.70
1
1
10
176
3
1
JH W512
JH V502
+3.30
+0.47
-0.38
6
9
3
171
4
2
JH W558
AP T5
+4.12
+0.52
-0.05
3
8
5
162
6
3=
JH W559
AP T5
+2.95
+1.15
+0.10
7
4
7
161
8
3=
JH W601
SHA M2
+1.90
+0.29
-0.50
9
10
2
155
9
5

Table 2001/1 : Review of shearling rams at Tucks Farm 2001

Some of these rams had been assessed as lambs(e.g. JH.W558) but only as shearlings were their true conformation apparent. Therefore a decision was made to assess potential top stock sires solely as shearlings (about 18 months old).

In 2000, Robin Johnson introduced one of his rams Whinholme Viking AP.V10 into the SRS. Another of his rams Template AP.T5 had been used at Tucks Farm in 1999 and had sired JH.W567 and JH.W558. These two rams AP.T5 and AP.V10 had a huge impact on improving the muscling, leanness, and weight gain of the ram lambs sired by them.

Picture of Viking at Rumwell

In 2001 AP.V10 sired 21 of the 42 ram lambs gaining a SI >160.

In 2002,19 of his lambs and 23 by JH.W567 out of a total of 57 lambs had a SI >163.

Sadly AP.T5 was lost to a contiguous FMD cull at Robin's Farm in May 2001 but AP.V10 survived as he was in the Midlands.

Identity

EBVs

Scheme Index

8 week wt (kg)

scan wt (kg)

muscle (mm)

fat (mm)

APV.10

+3.27

+6.02

+2.40

+0.27

249

Table 2001/2: Viking's Statistics

Table 2001/3 shows some of the stock sires with a SI >170 who were used in SRS flocks during 2001 and 2002.

Identity

EBVs

Scheme Index

8 week wt (kg)

scan wt (kg)

muscle (mm)

fat (mm)

JH.W567

+3.21

+5.14

+3.29

+0.47

258

AP.V10

+3.27

+6.02

+2.40

+0.27

249

JH.V581

+2.37

+4.16

+1.11

-0.07

195

SHA.M2

+2.49

+4.44

+0.40

-0.40

190

CHB.W11

+1.10

+1.98

+1.88

+0.05

187

JH.V537

+1.25

+3.75

+0.54

-0.35

186

JER.T6

+1.45

+3.46

+1.14

+0.05

178

JH.W558

+1.49

+3.89

+0.72

-0.05

174

CHB.W101

+1.34

+3.19

+01.20

+0.15

170

Table 2001/3 Top Stock Sires used in 2001 and 2002. Scheme Index >170

Hall of Fame

Picture of JH.W567
JH.W567

Picture of Viking
AP.V10


Picture of Churchbridge Warrior
CHB.W11

 

Presentation of the 'Top Tup' Trophy

At the AGM in October 2002, a new trophy carved by Robin Johnson in bas-relief from a single piece of oak and representing the Blue Sires logo was presented to John Hastings of Tucks Farm for the best ram bred within the group.This ram was judged to have been JH.W567.

 

Picture of Top Tup JH.W567

Presentation of the 'Top Tup' Trophy to John Hastings.

Robin Johnson is holding the 2 shear ram JH.W567

 

Plans are now well advanced to produce a Ewe 'Register of Merit' from 2003

 

______________________

 

Genetic Trends
Table 2001/4 summarises the mean genetic trends for three traits, growth rate, leanness and muscling in all SRS ram lambs recorded each year from 1999 to 2002.

Year

EBVs

Scheme Index

8 week wt (kg)

scan wt (kg)

muscle (mm)

fat (mm)

1999

+0.30

+0.60

+0.17

-0.02

100

2000

+0.50

+1.00

+0.25

+0.08

103

2001

+0.85

+1.70

+0.45

-0.05

130
2002 +1.10 +2.00 +0.55 +0.02 135
top 25% +1.85 +3.33 +1.05 -0.09 163
top 10% +2.48 +4.29 +1.63 -0.23 198

Table 2001/4: Genetic trends from 1999 to 2002

By the fourth year of recording all ram lambs having a S.I. > 135 points could confer an improvement in these traits on their offspring. For example, scan weight (about 21 weeks) shows an increase of 1.4 kg from 1999, i.e. lambs are heavier at 21 weeks with greater depth of scan muscle but similar fat.

The EBVs for the top performing lambs (top 25% and 10%) reveal a dramatic improvement in all features.

These high EBVs make AP.V10, JH.W567 and other rams together with their male offspring valuable rams within the SRS.

All their genotypes are type R1 ie ARR/ARR

CBS Technologies have taken semen from AP.V10 and JH.V537 This will be available for sale to S.R.S and non-S.R.S members from 2003.

Ram lambs and shearling rams by AP V10 and other stock sires are
available for sale in 2003 and 2004

from

Blue Scanned Indexed Recorded Evaluated Stock

B L U E S I R E S

The Bleu du Maine Sire Reference Scheme in the UK

The Signet On-line Breeders Directory can be found at:
http://www.signetfbc.co.uk

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