Check out below for more information
Farmstay and Backpackers open on farm....
For details and reservations click here
On farm practical training for international students: Click here
Looking for Easy Care, Prolific & Profitable sheep...
Otapawa Perendales & Poll Dorsets. Stud Sheep bred for the Hill Country.
Poll Dorset Progeny Trial report by Dr Patricia Johnson, Ag Research.
.National Expo & Sale Otapawa High Energy 3048 sells for top price of $21,500.
Dartagnion's Progeny & daughters of Donor Dams. Latest stats and photo of Otapawa High Voltage 3004
Latest Comparative Hereford Statistics updated now...
The Otapawa Poll Dorset Progeny Test
By Dr Patricia Johncon, Ag Research, Invermay.
What is Progeny Testing?
Progeny testing is a way to estimate the genetic merit (breeding value) of rams for hard to measure traits, based on the performance of their progeny.
For example We can easily take the weaning weight of a ram lamb and estimate his genetic merit based on his own weaning weight and that if his parents and siblings, but weaning weight is only part of the story we are also interested in the carcass traits. But, if we hope to go on and use a ram lamb as a stud ram we can't kill him, so we need some other way of estimating his genetic merit for carcass traits.
Though generating progeny from commercial ewes which are killed, we can estimate the rams genetic merit for carcass and other traits based on his progeny and be able to select the top ram to be used extensively across stud ewes to improve the flocks genetic merit for carcass traits and other traits.
The steps involved:
# Top rams are identified based on their genetic merit for "other traits"
# These rams are then mated to a group of random, commercial dams
# Either use: Single sire mating and lambing to determine a lambs sire
Multi sire and DNA testing to determine a lambs sire
# The lambs are then measured for traits of interest: ie growth traits and carcass traits
# An estimate of the genetic merits of the rams ( a breeding value) is made based on the measurements of their progeny.
Traits of the Future
One of the keys to successful stud breeding is to look into the future and determine what will be important traits in a few years time, as it will take that long to make progress and have rams that are improved for the "new Traits" when there is a market demand for them.
With this in mind Otapawa have identified two traits - Improved Carcass Yield and Feed Efficiency as two traits that are likely to be important in the future.
Improved carcass Yield
Meat processing companies are trialing technologies which will estimate the cut distribution (% leg, % loin etc) and composition (muscle vs fat) of carcass, with the aim being to pay based on this. Carcass yield cannot easily measured on the live ram (can estimate using eye muscle scanning or CT scanning), and so progeny testing offers the best opportunity to obtain accurate Breeding Values for rams.
There are three cuts of interest to try to improve because of their overall contribution to carcass value, the French Rack and Loin are the most valuable cuts in carcass, so by improving the contribution these make to carcass weight you can increase the value of your carcass, for a set carcass weight. The third cut is the leg ( hind legs), although they only have an intermediate value, they make up about 25% of the carcass weight and so further increases to this cut will further add to the importance of the leg.
Feed Efficiency
Stocking rate is one of the key drivers of farm profit, if you can have a higher stocking rate with maintained production you can increase profit. When considering finishing lambs one such way to achieve this is to have lambs which are more efficient at converting their feed into growth, you can either adopt a higher stocking rate and get similar growth rates or maintain current stocking rates and have faster growing lambs for a given amount of feed. Either way your production will improve.
However stimulating feed intake of growing lambs on pasture is not easy, although techniques such as using alkane capsules and measuring content in fecal samples can be used.
So What Have Otapawa Been Doing?
Click here to continue......page 2