David Coen is Head of Sheep Breed Improvement at Sheep Ireland. In this presentation, he shares his experience and knowledge on why sheep farmers should make the effort to performance record their flock, especially where the have invested or are looking at investing in improving handling and weighing facilities such as Cotter Crates! David goes into the workings of Sheep Ireland, how to performance record your flock, the process involved in creating economic breeding values (EBVs), the make-up of a 4 or 5 star ram, the economic benefits of 5 star vs 1 star rams, and some excellent take home messages.
The above clip was recorded on May 22nd at the 2024 Smart Sheep Farming Open Day Series presented by Cotter Agritech. This part of the series took place on the farm of Brian Nicholson in Johnstown, Co. Kilkenny. The event started with a farm walk where Darren Carty from the Irish Farmers Journal chatted with Brian about the farm system.
Participants then moved to the handling area to see Brian's new facilities, where the Cotter Crate Sheep Handler was demonstrated, as was the NEW Small Trailer and Large Trailer options. The Automed automatic dosing gun was also demonstrated.
Speakers and exhibitors at the Smart Sheep Farming Series included Teagasc, the Irish Farmers Journal, Sheep Ireland, Organic Trust, the Irish Organic Association, the Easycare Sheep Society, Cormac Tagging and TrueNorth Technologies.
00:00 - Intro
03:54 - How to performance record your flock
07:32 - The €urostar index
13:04 - What to look for when buying an indexed ram
14:59 - Update on Sheep Ireland activities
20:55 - The € value of performance recording
24:07 - Recommendations and conclusions