Castle Milk Moorit Breeding Programme May 2007 Update

Very early days but still good progress With your help we have a improved the data available to us for decision making We have wide-spread awareness by members of the actions they could take to be part of the programme We have tangible evidence of people considering genetic line when choosing rams to keep/buy Highlights so far – Increased the number of sheep with ‘significant’ line 1 genetics from 139 to 167 (20%) – Increased the number of sheep with ‘significant’ line 2 genetics from 235 to 253 (7.6%) – Increased the number of sheep with ‘significant’ line 3 genetics from 249 to 276 (10.8%) – Maintained or enhanced the overall percentage of Lines 1, 2 and 3 in the overall flock ie we have stopped the decline We need to work on – Continuing to preserve the male lines – Where possible ensure the preserved male lines are matched to females with the same genetic lines

June 2006 vs May 2007 All data assumes: – Birth notified animals born over 4 years ago that have not been registered are dead or permanently non-breeding – Castrates have been excluded from all figures – Animals over 10 years old are non-breeding A review of current data shows that out of 130 ewes over 10 years shown as alive in the flock book only 5 had lambs registered in – The original analysis data was checked and amended to ensure it used the same principles (it assumed animals over 10 years were dead but did include older birth notified animals) – 2007 Data includes all animals notified/registered up to 1 May and does include some 2007 lambs. – ‘Significant‘ is: Greater than 0.05% line 1 genetics Greater than 1% line 2 genetics Greater than 2%line 3 genetics

Ram Data Number of significant rams vs ‘the rest’ Number of significant rams as % of total ram flock % of line genetics in the total ram flock We have increased the absolute number of genetically significant rams in all 3 lines and increased the % of rams in the flock carrying significant line 1 genetics but the overall % of these lines in the flock is still very small, but with both line 2 and 3 improving.

Ewe data Number of significant ewes vs ‘the rest’ Number of significant ewes as % of total ewe flock % of line genetics in the total ewe flock The absolute number of genetically significant ewes has increased only slightly and as a % of the total ewe flock has fallen. This may be due to significant ewes becoming non-breeding as they age, an effect that is less pronounced in rams as we have much fewer 9+ year old rams still alive. Overall the total flock % is holding steady inspite of these loses and a large increase in ewe numbers (+362)

Total flock data (2104 sheep as at 1/5/07) Number of significant sheep vs ‘the rest’ Number of significant sheep as % of total flock % of line genetics in the total flock The absolute number of genetically significant sheep has increased overall but as a % of the total flock has fallen because of the ewes. Though due to the efforts to preserve more of the significant rams the overall total flock % is holding steady and for line 3 increasing.