News..
|
News..
|
|
NEWS FROM LOWER RYE FARM. Updated: 22/04/2008
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Farmer's Guardian Feature. The Lowerye flock has been featured in the Farmer's Guardian newspaper. Click here to read the article. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2008 lamb crop. The 2008 lamb crop is something to behold, mostly sired by the highest muscle stock rams in the Charollais breed. Culling has, as usual, been vigorous, encouraged by spring lamb trade that saw our lambs average £124/head in the run up to Easter. As a result, the lambs that have been retained for breeding are an outstanding bunch. We have some cracking shaped lamb by all of our main stock sires. L.Eric (ZVY 4090), now only seeing limited use, has once again left some good carcass lambs. His son, L.Great Guns (ZVY 6084), has bred some big lambs with tremendous loins and hindquarters. Handling some of those, I wouldn't be surprised if we see a new eye muscle record at scanning this year, the breeding of some of them has the potential, being ET born from some of the top muscle ebv females in the breed. New purchase, Rainbow House of Letterawe (XPU 7009) has produced some very thick lambs out of Eric daughters. We also have some smart lambs by the unrecorded ram that we used by AI, Inglis Chalky (CN 2048). A couple of his lambs from Eric daughters are outstanding, as are two twins from my best L.Charlie (ZVY 2019) daughter. I await their scanning results to see if there will be a new stock sire amongst them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Signet report (Sept 2007). The Signet final report for the 2007 lamb crop confirmed L.Great Guns (ZVY 6084) as the highest index stock sire in the breed at 486. A late born ram lamb out of his twin sister is also the 2nd highest index lamb in 2007, at 476. He weighed 79kg at 21 weeks, not bad for a teg's lamb! By Crogham Five Star (AB 5085), he has a breed topping growth rate ebv of +15.24kg combined with a muscle depth ebv of +3.76. His dam, ZVY 6085, is the highest index female in the breed at 485. She has a scan weight ebv of +11.49kg and a muscle ebv of +5.25mm. She is scanned in lamb for December to the sire reference ram, Dalby Galactico (PE 6077). L.Great Guns' 2007 born full brother, ZVY 7200, is the 7th highest index ram lamb, with an index of 452. The female line is also the one that bred the superb L.Eric (ZVY 4090). Looks like that family is shaping up quite well! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ New Purchase for 2007. Having judged the 2007 Staffordshire Show, I was able to privately purchase the lamb that I placed first in the ram lamb class. Rainbow House of Letterawe (XPU7009) was shown untrimmed and stood out from the moment he walked into the ring. He has a masculine head and displays power and width throughout and has an incredibly dense, tight fleece. When enquiring after the show I discovered that he had scanned with an eye muscle depth of 40.9mm and had performed well in the CT scanner as well, with a gigot muscularity score of 7.91, one of the highest this year. He is by the multiple show champion, Southam Exotic, who has also sired progeny to 7,600gns and, I think, is his highest index son to date. I have been so impressed by this lamb and how he has developed over the summer, that I have used him over more than 100 females in 2007. His progeny from daughters of Eric should be quite outstanding. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Signet report 2007. The Signet Sheepbreeder report showed another good year for Lowerye bloodlines, which accounted for two thirds of the top 100 ram lambs. The stock sire list is headed by L.Great Guns (ZVY 6084) who is consistently breeding his superb muscling qualities. He has been used through AI and ET in 2007 on some very high muscle and very high indexing ewes (up to 470!), so look out for some serious muscling in the 2008 lamb crop! New ram Crogham Five Star (AB5085) took a bit of a tumble on his muscle ebv through breeding some low muscle progeny in some of the other Sire Reference Scheme flocks. Thankfully, his use exclusively on Eric daughters has meant that we have a number of good muscle individuals with his power and length, not least is L.Humpty Dumpty (ZVY7061) who was selected as a reference ram for 2008. L.Gigolo (ZVY6069) has left us some powerful lambs with strong heads and great width, but his muscle ebv has also dropped, to a still credible +3.01mm, still placing him in the top 15% of the breed for muscle depth and scan weight ebvs. L.Eric (ZVY4090) managed to maintain his fantastic figures with only a slight move to an index of 417, his muscle ebv being +5.39mm, which is one of the very highest in the breed. His index is now based on 768 recorded progeny in a 23 different flocks, he has also seen a large amount of use, through frozen semen, in unrecorded flocks. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ultrasound Scanning 2007. We again scanned the lamb crop for eye muscle and backfat depth on 2nd May, the oldest lambs being 149 days old. Rising star, L.Great Guns (ZVY 6084) certainly produced the goods with 2 of the top 3 lambs (based on raw scanning data) being his progeny. ZVY 7074, the lamb that has been picked out by several visitors already, scanned the best overall with an eye muscle depth of 40.3mm at a weight of 70kg. He is a superb individual and absolutely correct in every way, he comes from a 6 year old Foulrice Lionheart daughter that has bred many, many good sheep through extensive ET and natural service. She will be flushed again this year to Great Guns. Lowerye Gigolo (ZVY 6069) sired some good lambs including our second placed lamb and a ewe lamb with an eye muscle depth of 41.6mm. L.Eric again made some extreme muscle sheep while his grandsons by new boy, Crogham Five Star (AB 5085), are huge and strong with a couple also having eye muscle depths in excess of 40mm. In all we had half a dozen ram lambs and a couple of ewe lambs over the magical 40mm eye muscle, to a top of 41.9mm (L.Eric x L.Double Entendre) and ten over 70kg liveweight, to a top of 75kg (L.Eric x L.Del Boy). All in all, a satisfying result showing the flock's performance continuing to make steady progress at the same time as fine tuning the stamp of sheep that I feel suit the market. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2007 lamb crop. I consider the 2007 lamb crop to be our best yet, mostly sired by our highest muscle stock rams yet. It is getting increasingly difficult with each passing year, to select enough lambs to cull, but ruthless culling I believe is essential to make progress. Our lambs have done exceptionally well this year, with all bar 5 of our culls sold before Easter in early April. We were again the first spring lambs in our local mart, with a dozen lambs in danger of going well overweight by Easter. We have some superb lambs this year by Eric again, but also many lambs from his daughters by Crogham Five Star, by Eric's maternal brother L.Gigolo, and by his best son, L.Great Guns. Progeny of the latter have certainly been "going great guns" and he has become the first Charollais ram to exceed 500 index points based on their 8 week weights. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Flock Competition 2006. We have again won the Champion flock in the Central Region (South) flock competition. It was, very ably I must say, judged by Tony Skuse. We were also awarded the Champion Shearling ewes. We were however, pipped to the post in the overall Central Region competition, getting Reserve Champion again. The overall Champion award went to R&J Gregory's Edstaston flock, perhaps the half share they have in Lowerye Del Boy helped (?). Congratulations to them both. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Crogham Five Star (AB 5085), our new boy! After seeing the shearling Sire Reference ram, Crogham Five Star (AB 5085) at the sire reference selection day in June, we managed to buy a half share in the ram from Stuart Dunkley's Hyde (SU) flock. I had been so impressed by his immense size and power, his superb masculine head and the depth of sound breeding behind him. He is an ET son of Crogham Deuce (AB 3095), a huge Rutland Alamos son that is the highest growth rate ram in the Signet scheme, and out a Crogham Commissioner (AB 8148) daughter that was a triplet sister to AB 9312, that started a successful new male line in the Dalby (PE) flock. The dam of that Commissioner daughter is AB 7069, an Envoy daughter that has bred almost all of the highest indexing sheep in the Crogham flock in recent years. Five Star's sire, Deuce, is also out of a Commissioner daughter from the female line that bred the incredibly powerful Crogham Cannon and Crogham Cracker, that line has input from several successful high priced rams including Gall Marauder (AM 0031), top price at the Watcombe (AC) dispersal sale in 1994, and Drumhilla Danny Boy (ZXY 5017), who was top price at the Northern Ireland Premier Sale in 1995. Five Star is a huge, long ram with a powerful head, strong bone and a great depth of hindquarter. He has an index of 368 and has been used over 90 daughters of Lowerye Eric (ZVY 4090), it should be a match made in heaven. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Premier Sale - July 2006. Despite the sale being of a "patchy" nature, with what was generally agreed to be too many poorer quality rams forward, our entry of 6 ram lambs sold well to average 950 gns, with a top of 1,300gns. All 6 were sons of Lowerye Eric (ZVY 4090) and had done well in the breed evaluation the previous day with 1 Bronze award, 1 Silver award and 1 Gold award. The Gold lamb, ZVY 6093, was the 5th highest pointed lamb in the evaluation and had the highest loin score and the highest hindquarter score (by 5 points!) of all the ram lambs in the sale. He had been scanned with an eye muscle depth of over 40mm and was the highest index sheep in the sale. He sold into Wales at our top price of 1,300 gns. A handful of Eric sons presented by other breeders also sold well. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ultrasound Scanning 2006. Ultrasound scanning for backfat and eye muscle depth was carried out a little earlier than usual on the 2nd of May, with the lambing date having also been a week later. I was a bit concerned that scanning at an earlier age would make our actual results seem less impressive but I needn't have worried, the progress made by the flock in the last 12 months has more than made up the difference. Our heaviest lamb weighed in at 77 kg and our best eye muscle measured at a new breed record of 44.5mm! We had 6 ram lambs and 2 ewe lambs measuring in excess of 40mm eye muscle with a lot of others "knocking on the door". The heaviest lamb was out of Eric's dam by double Royal Show winner, Rutland Ensign, he also scanned with an eye muscle depth of 40.9mm and will be retained for use in the Lowerye flock, he may even be a better ram than Eric! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2006 Lamb Crop. We again have an outstanding crop of lambs, the result of many years of rigorous, ruthless culling for type and index. Almost all exhibit width and power with strong heads and heavy fleshing through the loin and gigot, just what we are aiming for. They are predominantly by Lowerye Eric (ZVY 4090), who has 175 ewes in-lamb to him this season, but there are also a few of the last lambs by L.Double Entendre (ZVY 3162) that are looking good. The most exceptional lamb to catch your eye this year is ZVY 6069, a single ram lamb by reference ram and double Royal Show winner, Rutland Ensign (ZFY 4036). His is growing at a phenomenal pace and has incredible presence whilst having strong fleshing in the loin. He is an incredibly masculine ram with a tremendous head but with just a less hindquarter than Eric's progeny, but he oozes style. He is out of ZVY 1057, one of my very best breeding ewes that is also the dam of L.Eric. Ensign has also sired a couple of other good lambs from Lionheart daughters showing it to be a successful cross. Only time will tell how well these lambs develop. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Flock Competition 2005. We were, yet again, awarded Reserve Champion flock in the Central Region (South) flock competition, ably judged by Geraint Lloyd. We won 1st prize in the Junior Stock Ram class with Arjane Flasharo (ZRF 5017), 2nd in the Stock Sire class with Lowerye Eric (ZVY 4090) and 1st prize in the ewe lamb class, predominantly with Eric's daughters. It was pleasing to see that we are "in the running" with so many different types of judge. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2005 Premier Sale. We had a very successful sale at Worcester Market in July. We sold 4 ram lambs to average just short of 1,000gns. - L.Firefly (ZVY 5121), who was 1st prize ram lamb at the 3 Counties Show in June and had a breed index of 399, joined the Few's flock in Worcestershire at 1,000 gns. - L.Firestarter (ZVY 5086), my favourite lamb in the pen and with a hindquarter to die for, had a breed index of 355 and sold at 1,000 gns to E.Probert & Sons' Mortimer flock. - L.Frankie (ZVY 5089), an ET brother to L.Firefly that had scanned with an eye muscle of 40.5mm and had a breed index of 371. He joins the Carnevas flock of Roger Brewer in Cornwall at 900 gns. - L.Ferdie (ZVY 5073) was a very showy lamb by L.Evangelist out of a L.Aristocrat daughter with a tremendously strong head. He had a breed index of 322 and sold at 1,000 gns to Dave Smith's Nympton flock in Devon. Many thanks to all who purchased and good luck. New Purchase. We also purchased a ram lamb from Arwyn Thomas' Arjane flock a little later in the sale. Arjane Flasharo (ZRF 5017) is a very smart lamb with massive hind quarters by last year's top priced shearling ram, the 6,000 gns Galtres Dominator (ZKT 3025). Flasharo is the highest index son of Dominator to date, with a breed index of 310. He is out of a daughter of Highway Mr Softie who was Champion at the Royal Show in 1999 and is the sire of Lowerye Bert (ZVY 1001). The ewe has already bred several stock sires and has been flushed for ET this year. Flasharo is a three quarter brother to the 2 Castellau ram lambs that sold later in the sale at 5,200 gns and 4,400 gns, both being by Galtres Dominator and out of a Highway Mr Softie daughter. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sire Reference Selection Day. We were pleased to have a son of Lowerye Eric (ZVY 4090) selected for use as a sire reference ram for 2006. ZVY 5068 is a long, tall ram with a perfectly level topline. Like his sire, he has fantastic width throughout and scanned at 39.6 mm eye muscle. His index is 423, placing him right at the top end of recorded sheep. His dam, ZVY 1164, is an incredibly fleshy daughter of Rutland Archie, successful stock sire in the Inglis flock and siring rams to 2,200 gns. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3 Counties Show (June 2005). Having not shown anywhere since 2000, we decided to have a go at the 3 Counties Show at Malvern. We were delighted to win both the ram lamb and ewe lamb classes with progeny of Lowerye Eric (ZVY 4090). The ram lamb (who will be at the Worcester Premier Sale on 9th July) has an index of 399 and the ewe lamb, described by the judge as "the only E grade lamb that he handled on the day", was our joint highest index ewe lamb at 462. Who says that high index sheep don't look the part or lack shape! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Signet report (June 2005). Wow, Eric has certainly produced the goods! 14 of the top 20 index lambs are from the Lowerye flock. Our average lamb has an index of 332, which is in the top 10% of recorded stock. The performance of Eric's progeny has increased his scan wt ebv, his muscle depth ebv and his fat depth ebv. He now has an overall index of 405 and an eye muscle ebv of +6.84mm. All that on top of being "one hell of a ram". The next highest eye muscle ebv is that of Eric's sire, Westonvale Apostle (XBB 0004), at +6.12mm, and the next highest after that is +5.47mm. Several of Eric's progeny have eye muscle ebvs of +5mm or more and I can see no other lambs of any other breeding in the report with that level of fleshing. Most of our top rated lambs are by Eric, however, the top index lamb in the breed is by reference ram Rutland Domingo (out of a Lionheart daughter of course!). He has an index of 487 and I had sent him up to be CT scanned as I felt he had more full loin than had been shown from ultrasound scanning. I turned out right when he was shown to have the highest eye muscle area ever recorded, that area is 10% higher than last year's top lamb, Lowerye Ernie. The CT scan picture shows that his eye muscle, the meat in the chop, is incredibly full to it's full width. That picture would make a good advert for performance recorded stock! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ultrasound Scanning 2005. Ultrasound scanning for backfat and eye muscle depth was carried out on 11/5/05. The results showed further progress had most definitely been made. Our heaviest lamb weighed in at 87 kg (a Westonvale Apostle triplet and Scrapie group 2 of course!) with half a dozen more at 80kg or more. The best eye muscle depth recorded was 42.7mm, which I am told is the best muscle recorded so far this year by quite some margin. In all we had 4 ram lambs and a ewe lamb with eye muscle depths in excess of 40mm and quite a number more "knocking on the door", all of these top muscle lambs are by new stock sire Lowerye Eric (ZVY 4090) and should confirm his position as the highest muscle Charollais ram ever recorded. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sire Reference Selection Day 2004. The selection of sire reference rams for use in the scheme in 2005 resulted in selection of the "Dream Team". The team consists of the 1st prize ram lamb from the Royal Show 2004, Rutland Ensign, the highest price ram lamb from the 2004 Premier Sale, Logie Durno Earl of Dunbar, and our own Lowerye Eric, who is the highest muscle and muscularity ebv charollais EVER recorded. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Flock Competition 2004. In the 2004 Central Region flock competition we were again Reserve to the Champion flock. We again showed the whole flock of 140 ewes and 60 shearlings in its entirety (with even the ET recipients left in!). We were again awarded the Champion flock of ewes in the southern area and 2nd prize junior stock sire (with Lowerye Eric, ZVY 4090). Double Entendre was awarded 3rd prize in the stock ram competition and the shearling ewes were given 3rd prize. We showed all of our 85 ewe lambs as a single group and were awarded 2nd prize, perhaps I should have hidden half as the rules allow! My thanks go to Roger Brewer from Cornwall for doing what must be an incredibly difficult job and nearly getting it right! Oh well, perhaps next year. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Is the National Scrapie Plan Working? Analysis of genotype results gathered by the NSP so far shows that breeding for resistance to scrapie is having the desired effect of reducing the number of susceptible sheep in the population. Click here to see report. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Market Prices (spring 2004). Having about finished lambing our commercial flock at the end of March, we took 140 cull ewes, the last 12 hoggets and the first 20 early lambs over the next fortnight. Our cull ewes sold to an blistering trade with the 90 Texel X and 50 Charollais ewes making to a top of £86 and averaging £76. The hoggets made to £68 and the culled Charollais lambs made to £76. Not a bad couple of weeks work and certainly a good advertisement for the live market! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Flock Competition 2003. We are proud and delighted to have been awarded Champion flock in the Southern Area of the Central Region flock competition. We were also awarded the Champion flock of shearling ewes in that competition and 2nd prize junior stock sire (with Lowerye Double Entendre, ZVY 3162). It is the first time that we have entered in 3 years and we showed the whole flock of 140 ewes and 60 shearlings in its entirety (with even the ET recipients left in!) and I must say they look to have thrived on the non-existent grazing that we have had this year. My thanks go to the judge, Clive Hopper from the Gogwell (NF) flock in Devon, for the excellent job that he did!!!!
Lowerye flock ewes (Oct '03). The overall Champion flock in the Central Region was awarded to the Blythe flock of Mary Madders and Stuart Johnson. Congratulations to them both. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ram Sales 2003. Wow, what a year! The only rams that we have sold at auction have been at the Premier Sale. We have sold the other 75 shearlings and 7 ram lambs from home, including 3 cracking sons of Lowerye Bert exported to Eire and 2 high index ram lambs to a trial at Hillsborough in Northern Ireland. I only wish that I had more rams to sell and have ended up buying on behalf of a customer at Builth II in September as I had not got enough rams for him. In the next 3 weeks after Builth I received 7 phone calls from farmers trying to source strong shearling rams. I don't think there can be many left in the country and next year will be the same as many rams are being sold as lambs to a fantastically buoyant trade. The Charollais breed is certainly gaining market share in the terminal sire sector as the breed proves itself from the lowlands to the hills. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Premier Sale 2003 (5/7/2003). What a sale! The sheep trade is buoyant, everyone was confident of a good ram trade and everyone wanted a new stock ram. All of the rams at the sale were of R1 genotype for the first time and all were subjected to breed evaluation for the first time (instead of judging!). This is a system where the rams are individually scored by teams of three evaluators (of which I am honoured to be one) on each of a number of traits giving a description of the strengths and weaknesses of the animal, the scores are then added together and a Gold, Silver, Bronze (or no) award is given. The new system worked well, although perhaps needs speeding up in future, and the best rams were given the top awards regardless of who had bred them (unlike so many times with normal judging!). The buyers obviously had great confidence in the new system as the prices achieved closely followed the evaluation score. The trade got higher and higher as the sale progressed as it became more and more evident that there was immense competition for the best sheep. Our first lamb, Lowerye Dare Devil (ZVY 3070), made our best ever price of 1,800gns to the Wraycastle (DW) flock of J&R Geldard. Our second lamb, Lowerye Double Diamond (ZVY 3132) sold to the Camphouse flock of R. Towers for 1,050gns and our pen of 5 averaged a very pleasing 900gns. Our Shearling pen did not fare so well with the 3 making 400, 500 and 600gns. They had been marked quite low on the evaluation scheme as they lacked the fat cover of some of the other shearlings forward. They certainly proved to be the bargains of the day, the first made 600gns to J. Maxwell's Fordham flock who later told me that he had been prepared to go to £1,500 for him. I had been told the previous day by several noted breeders that he would be top price of the sale! Our second shearling made 500gns to John Davies' Windmill flock. John used him on his flock and then resold him at Builth Wells in August where he was 3rd prize shearling and made the joint top price of all breeds in the sale at 900gns. Well done John, now that's what I call a profit margin although I am sure that you will regret selling him when you see the lambs!!!!! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ultrasound Scanning 2003. We have scanned the lambs a little earlier than usual this year (6/5/03), the oldest lambs being 156 days old. As a result, our actual eye muscles and scan weights are slightly lower than usual, that said, our best eye muscle was from our very best looking ewe lamb, ZVY 3084, which is the result of ET of Rutland Chieftain on a Lionheart daughter. She scanned with an fantastic eye muscle depth of 39.3mm and a fat depth of 4.3mm. Ram lambs scanned to a top of 38.7mm for ZVY 3122, a son of top choice sire reference ram, Lowerye Charlie out of a daughter of Bryncaer Bouncer (WX 5032). That same ewe had a grandson, ZVY 3132, by Mortimer Majestic (HH 9026) that scanned with a useful 34.3mm and 4.7mm fat. The general run of lambs scanned quite pleasingly and averaged around the mid-thirties for eye muscle depth. One disappointment was the progeny of unrecorded ram Mortimer Majestic, whose lambs look incredibly well fleshed but mostly scanned at around 30mm eye muscle. Lambs by reference ram, Hyde Bombardier, who has an exceptional eye muscle EBV, scanned well but not exceptionally. Lambs by Lowerye Bert, Lowerye Charlie and Lowerye Clyde all compared well and are much more pleasing on the eye. The progeny of Lowerye Casper, a high index son of Bert, are extremely stylish and fleshy but have perhaps not excelled in eye muscle depths, as predicted from his EBV. Our lambs by Rutland Chieftain, a full brother to top ranked stock ram, Rutland Alamos, are variable with some scanning exceptionally well and ranging from 28mm to 39mm. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Older news items are archived to save download time. Please click HERE to view.
|
