More to buying a ram than meets the eye

01-12-2009 | Not Specified

I sympathise with farmers making decisions about the rams or bulls to buy.

Those genetic choices are never far from any discussion about farm performance and certainly are always part of any package to lift farm performance. I am always quick to remind farmers of something that I reported on earlier in the year.

It was that large award-winning East Coast farm that has lambed over 130% this year from the same ewes that have a long history of peaking at 105%. For all farms the silver bullet is in the management, but genetics are important and must be looked upon as part of the long-term vision.

Of course terminal-sire choices can influence the outputs hugely within 12 months yet it seems to me that less effort is put into those choices than is put into maternal choices.

So how are these decisions made?

A recent Sheep Special publication from this newspaper was littered with advertisements for breeding rams. I enjoyed the read but wondered just how any of those advertisements would entice me as a ram buyer to go to that breeder and at least look.

Every one of them was promoting the high performance of the rams they were selling. Every one promoted how sound and hardy their rams were. I wondered how photos of the breeders themselves could add credibility to the claims being made.

Using digitally enhanced or time-warped photos surely could not make a difference. Why would I go to any of these breeders? Barring some specific qualifications I believe this advertising adds little to making rational breeding choices. How should these decisions be best made?

The long-promoted approach is still valid - know what you want and get it from a breeder who is making effective performance selections. The first bit ought to be relatively easy, but is not a process many farmers go through.

I start by clearly identifying what is limiting the productivity of the flock, remembering that most of that limitation is management-based.

Since wool production is no longer in the list and if, as it is for many farms, fecundity is no longer limiting, the door is open to totally focus on other productive traits.

Weaning weight is often the obvious one and its highish heritability makes it attractive to pursue.

It is perhaps opportune now for many flocks that have secured the basic productivity objectives to look further a-field.

Facial eczema protection I believe is being under-valued as a tool to underpin flock performance on so many farms. At least with this animal health trait relatively rapid progress can be made, which is more than can be said about other animal health protection traits being marketed. Incorporating some of the specific productivity genes like Loinmax and Myomax could also be in the mix, even for maternal breeding.

Other than facial eczema protection, these traits will deliver value only when they accompany selection for the background traits such as growth rate and eye muscle, for example. So the torrent of advertisements could point me in those directions.

I have had two experiences recently that highlight the above issues.

The first was when I was with a family breeding Simmental sire bulls. They had an extremely impressive breeding programme in place and were offering for sale bulls of high genetic merit. Their breeding programme was so robust that superior genetic value would transfer into productivity gains on any farm.

Yes, there is variation in what confidence can be put around any particular advertised genetic value being translated into production. My question to this family was how did their clients sort out which were the best bulls for them to buy? Faced with a mountain of data, how was that used?

The answer was both encouraging and challenging.

"We find out what the client wants and then we suggest what bulls are most likely to meet that need," was the answer.

They were so genuine in their desire to meet their clients' needs and knew so much about their bulls that I would be absolutely confident that any bull buyer would be satisfied.

There is no way that breeder value can be described in a newspaper advertisement. Just advertising that we have the highest-performing Simmental bulls would not attract anyone, because the rest are saying the same. Credibility, honesty and I guess passion are hard to convey in an advertisement.

Not even a mug shot (of the breeder, not the bull) could do that. As is the case in so many things, personalities, relationships and respect are highly influential in determining outcomes.

On the other hand the very next day I was driving through some terminal sire ewes with lambs at foot. The lambs did not look anywhere near as good as they should have for the condition of the ewes and the feed available. So worms and B12 were put up as the first reasons.

I prompted a discussion about the rams that were being used. They were of unknown origin, but I was reassured that all was in hand for the future because some top terminal-sire ram lambs were being selected at weaning from a local breeder. I was able to ascertain that no performance figures came into this selection and that the weaning selection was to be based on size.

I pointed out the folly of this approach but was expecting that to be tempered by them being cheap. I was astounded when I was told the price, which was way up there with the two-tooth rams being sold backed by performance selection.

"But he uses top sire rams" was given as justification for this price. What makes top rams worth so much is largely to do with the dam database behind the breeding programme. Just using top rams puts it in the same league as most commercial flocks.

Such is the lot of stud breeders. How can special qualities be advertised effectively and, despite lots of investment, commitment and plain hard work, non-selected sires can still be in the hunt.

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