Genotyping an animal now gives a breeder a lot of information on an animal including parentage verification and predictions (Where parents have also been genotyped), DAFM approved Scrapie and Genomic Evaluations.

The most influential animals in any flock are the stock rams, and therefore ensuring that their parentage and evaluations are as accurate as possible has a knock-on effect throughout the entire flock and breed. We have current cases where the parentage of stock rams is incorrect. Parentage errors are inevitable as human error will always occur to some degree. The important thing is to correct these errors as early as possible in the ram’s lifetime; this allows the breeder/owner to adjust their breeding policy accordingly.

Since 2020 (Lambing 2021) as a condition of the LambPlus Programme, all stock rams must be genotyped for their lambs to receive EuroStars in that flock. The definition of a stock ram is a ram that sires lambs in the flock that he resided at the time of mating.

Breeders should start genotyping any new or existing stock rams ASAP, ideally before the breeding season begins. There will be unfortunate cases where rams die between now and next spring, making it impossible to collect a tissue sample from that animal. To avoid this scenario, samples should be collected and sent for testing before mating.

The cost is €15/sample for all LambPlus flocks. To order a genotyping kit for your rams, go to Genomic Ordering on your online profile and select your stock rams. Once they are selected click on check-out and follow the on-screen instructions from there. If you have semen that you want to genotype please contact Sheep Ireland directly to proceed with genotyping.

Call 0238820451 or email [email protected]