The Central Progeny Test Lambing period has started this next week. This is a very busy time for Sheep Ireland with a huge amount of the commercial data that contributes to the €uro-Star Evaluations being collected by Sheep Ireland Technicians over the next 3 weeks. Sheep Ireland technicians will give 24 hour cover to each of the 4 CPT Farms where they will monitor over 2000 ewes lambing down. Once a ewe lambs down, she and her lambs are scored on a number of traits, namely, Lambing Difficulty, Ewe Mothering Ability, Ewe Milk and Lamb Vigour. These four traits are recorded immediately as the ewe is placed in an individual lambing pen. To see how Sheep Ireland Technicians accurately record the traits, click here.  Foster lambs are also intensely recorded by the Sheep Ireland Technicians, who keep records of the Genetic Dam and also the Foster Mother. Capturing data around foster lambs, gives Sheep Ireland valuable data that contributes to the €uro-Star evaluations.

One might ask themselves, ‘Well how do they keep track of all the records?’. The answer to that is that on each individual pen, a board is hung on the front gate where all the information is written. This can then be wiped clean once all the information has been uploaded to the Sheep Ireland Database.