As the nights draw in most people feel like curling up in front of the fire but our minds turn to selecting tupping groups!
This is surprisingly time consuming, as we study each ewe and decide what her good and not so good points are, then we try to match them with a ram that suits her best, ensuring that the progeny improve as much as possible.
In many ways, it’s a bit like what an online dating app does but for sheep!
This involves making around 150 decisions as this dictates the best genetic matches possible and this will be what dictates the type of lambs we will have to work with in 2025 and beyond.
Rams chosen for use this year include the following (click the name to find out more about each):
Once mated nature takes over and the sheep carry and lamb naturally but the mating selections made hopefully will ensure that future generations improve for the commercially important traits that we select for.