New low maintainence sheep launched

A new breed of sheep looks set to revolutionise the sheep industry by eliminating crutching and dagging. Innovative research by AgResearch scientist Dr David Scobie has resulted in a sheep with bare breeches and bellies, dramatically cutting costs for farmers. Scobie's 12 years of research has been picked up by ram breeders John McDonald and his Cheddar Valley Station partners. Many of the 80 farmers spoken to by Country-Wide at last month's launch of the Snowliner, Cheddar Valley's bare breeched terminal and maternal breed option, say it is not before time. Much of the workload in running sheep is directly related to wool-crutching and dagging. While swinging a hand piece or dagging shears certainly creates a thirst, it is time consuming and the costs involved are simply a drag on the bank account. Scobie's research that makes sheep with bare breeches and bellies a reality can change all that. Cheddar Valley's Snowliner ewe flock is made up of 900 fully DNA-recorded ewes, to which have been added another 300 ewes. Ewes are non-breed specific and have a bare breech "Snowline' pattern from three through to six. Animals are being visually assessed using the criteria developed by Scobie and his Lincoln based AgResearch team. McDonald says it is about adding a physical attribute that, unlike some others in the past, actually has a purpose. Scobie's research clearly shows these attributes add real value to sheep farmer returns. McDonald says monitoring on the group's North Canterbury property, Cheddar Valley Station, shows up to 40% of the main mob of ewes require dagging prior to shearing. This compares with 7% of the first generation Snowliner ewes. Mated separately, pregnancy scanning rates and subsequent lambing performance of both groups is similar. While the trait may involve a complicated gene pattern, visually assessing and scoring each animal using Scobie's graded scale is a simple task and sure beats whipping dags off.