Marketing Gimmicks:

Selling rams today is somewhat different to years ago, in that it is no longer simply word of mouth, it is much more competitive and accordingly many breeders market their rams strongly.   There is nothing wrong with this of course, however a lot of the marketing and promotion of so called positive attributes of breeding philosophies and/or rams are simply marketing gimmicks that has no bearing on the quality or genetics of the rams or indeed in some cases when the total story is provided, it may be a negative attribute of the ram.  They aret quite simply marketing gimmicks that have no merit and simply used as a gimmick to sell rams.   The following is examples of what I consider to be such and why:

"All Rams for sale from top 35% born, or 25% born" 

What the hell does such claim like this mean?  Its just farcical!!!  35% based on what, that their alive when they go to sell them, so thats why they are in top 35%, great, most of us like buying rams that are alive at the time.  Or top 35% on SIl, which may mean that some of them good, or at least good for their flock, and some of them will have great figures, again for their flock,  but will be mongrels (I guarantee that to be the case, if that is the sole culling criteria). 

Realistically such a claim as this simply means that what they have got left for sale, is 35% of what was born, as they have culled the rest, well isn't that just unbelieveable, I think I will rush off to buy their rams!!!.  Presumably they are talking ram lambs born, but not necessarily, if it is ewe lambs as well, then it's even less impressive.

Most ram breeders including myself, who sell a dual purpose breed would only be selling 25 to 35% of those ram lambs born, I would be in the vicinity of 20% this year perhaps (the 2011 crop).   In fact this year my rams lambs I thought were that good, I could have put up  for sale:40 to 50%  of those born, but you got have a market for them, an unsold ram is as much use as ...... (Note the Terminal sire % put up for sale would be  higher). 

I obviously consider what I put up to be in my top 25% as thats why they are still here, I don't know many ram breeders who, in their opinion at least,are culling their best ones and selling their bottom 25%, but who knows perhaps there are some out there!!!!!

I think if someone claims they are selling 50% of their ram lambs born as rams, then that is actually more impressive if when you go and look at those rams; they are good line of rams as this means good genetics, consistent type, ie bloody good sheep that are more likely to pass on the characteristics and performance they have because of the depth of quality.  Yes I consider that scenario to be much more impressive than the claim above by a country mile !!!!

"We only retain Twins in our flock and only use rams that are twins" 

If you have already read the page entitled "Breeding Philosophy", you will already know my view on this.  It is my clear understanding that the genetic fecundity heritability of single and twin sheep is essentially no different.  What is important is the overall fertility potential of the animal at question.  This can be determined by the following formula (2* (Dams lifetime of lambs/no of lambings)  + (Sire's dams lifetime of lambs/no of lambings) +(Dam's dams lifetime of lambs/no of lambings)).  Some consider this formula rather crude and that the SIL NLBV is more accurate as it considers related siblings etc to come up with a breeding value. (Please note my comments regarding SIL later on).

For example a single ram may have a fertility potential in an excess of 200% because the dam and grand dams have had a stack of lambs, while a twin ram could conceivably have a fertility potential of 120%, ie the dam and grand dams of this ram have had a stack of singles.   Therefore if you had to choose betwen these two rams as to which was likely to leave a greater percentage of multiples, the answer is a no brainer, the single ram with a FP in excess of 200%.

If you limit yourself to only selecting twins, then you are severely and unnecessarily limiting your choice on other traits, the job is difficult enough without making it harder than it has to be. 

I am not saying don't worry about twins or singles, if hypothetically there were two rams that are exactly the same in every respect, except one is a twin, then I too, would select the twin.  What I am advocating is don't get sucked in by the one line promotion "we only keep twin ewes and use twin rams" because that on its own, is in my opinion, simply a marketing gimmick.

Its not just me, take a look at the following page on the SIL website where it identifies what it considers important in this regard.

DNA testing of parentage.

This is something that I consider to be a total marketing gimmick that some big corporate breeders such as Rissington and Kelso are using.  It is marketing Gimmick because the DNA test is not good enough to ascertain both the animal's sire and dam.   It is perhaps at best 80% accurate, for most animals the test will be able to identify the sire, but it will have major problems identifying the dam, the problem being the close relationship in bloodlines (ie the pedigree). Note: if you pay enough it can be identified, but that test is simply uneconomic. 

Accordingly any person claiming they do not shepherd their ewes and rely on DNA testing to ascertain the pedigree cannot supply you with accurate records of the sire and dam and therefore accurate records as to its siblings, granddam, grandsire etc is.  What does this mean, it means that any SIL figures provided by a breeder using such a DNA test,  are likely to be of less value and perhaps even of no value to the ram buyer, because their pedigrees are not as accurate as they should be.  In theory the more accurate the pedigree, the more accurate and reliable the SiL figures will be as an animal's SIL's figures takes into account the peformance records of its siblings, and other related animals to give a more reliable gauge as to what that animals genetic potential may be.  Needless to say if you have got the pedigree wrong and the SIL software is taking other animals performance data (which in reality have no bearing on the genetic potential of the animal in question) then the SIL figures are of course a total waste of time.  

It is because of this need for accuracy that I for one shepherd my ewes at lambing time to ensure that I correctly record the correct dam of the lamb (as far as is humanly possible),  An added bonus of shepherding with my pocket Pc is that I can also accurately record other issues such as survivability, lambing difficulties, milking difficulties etc etc, (This information ensures that you are culling the right animals and bloodlines, if their appears a common problem). However a Stud breederwho does not shepherd at lambing time and relies on this inaccurate DNA test or tagging at tailing time, will simply record (if they can) no lamb, or poor lamb etc, which in my opinion is not good enough if you have taken on the responsibility of breeding and selling rams (it clearly is not the same information that I collate on an animal).  I know which breeder I would prefer to get my rams from, I trust others feel the same and won"t be sucked in by this marketing of a DNA test.

Please note that when a DNA test is very close to 100%, I too will probably change to such a test, provided of course its not cost prohibitive, as I would prefer not to go around the ewes, as I believe I create more problems by going around the ewes.  However until then I will continue to shepherd my ewes and of course when I do that I will sacrifice the collation of other data I referred to above.

"Easy Care Lambing, we do not shepherd our ewes"

Marketing of this kind is quite simply crap that does not mean anything to a ram client.  On the contrary a ram client should be extremely wary of a breeder who claims this. 

Firstly and most importantly, if you shepherd your ewes at lambing time, the primary reason you do this is to ensure that you (as far as humanly possible ) are recording the correct dam of the lamb and thereby also recording the correct sire of the lamb.  Accuracy is important in assessing the genetic potential of any ram, without accuracy you can only go by the quantitative and qualitative data pertaing to the animal itself only.  Without accuracy in the pedigree any SiL figures are basically a waste of time.  Read my comments pertaing to DNA testing regarding the need for accuracy in SiL figures. If a breeder is relying on scientific DNA test or tagging at tailing time, then quite possibly they are recording incorrectly 20% (perhaps more) of the lamb drop, a major concern for ram client of such a breeder.

Secondly shepherding your ewes at lambing time, enables you to record other relevant issues, such as lambing problems (if any), milk production, good/bad udders, constitution of the ewe etc etc.  Much of this will be not be visible at tailing time, when lots of grass is around, lambs have either died, or a ewe has dried off etc, or perhaps such ewes will be overlooked completely.  I believe that it is better to record problems (in my case on my pocket pc, that has all the studs on it) and then cull later on, rather then let death be the uneconomic culler..

Thirdly, shepherding your ewes does not mean they are easy care at lambing. Ignorance is bliss.  In 2003 I lambed 6 ewes out of thousand, 2004 12, that in my opinion is easy care lambing, the only reason I know that is because I shepherded them.  "Easy care lambing because they don't shepherd their ewes" as represented by some breeders, may simply equate to unshepherded lambing with high mortalities, (ie lots of dead ewes and lambs). So ask more questions before you accept such a statement as being true.

Again in my opinion such statements that breeders use to sell rams are in fact statements that should raise serious concerns in a farmer about that breeder, which means either the farmer steers clear of that breeder or alternatively raise these issues with the breeder'concerned and only when satisfactory explanations are given that allays the farmers concerns, will the farmer consider buying rams off such a breeder.

"Rams bred under Commercial Conditions".

What does this mean?  I know from my experience that this sort of advertising can be incredibly misleading.  I only run Stud ewes, but I know that my ewes do it considerably harder than a lot of commercial farmers in the area.  

I visited a colleagues farm in August 2004, who has stud and commercial romney ewes, which were in magnificent condition, so much so,  that I questioned myself as to how hard I was doing my ewes. I did perhaps do them a bit hard that year, but the key thing at Waidale, is it only  the ewes that you can work hard enough to ensure that your ewes have the hardiness and constitution to survive all climates and terrain.  You cannot make your hoggets work, in my opinion, you would be an irresponsible person to do so.   So I focus on the ewes, any that struggle are recorded as such and culled once I have weaned lambs from them.

Accordingly a statement such as this means nothing, unless you actually know the farm in question and their management practice.  In my experience it is often used as a justification for having small hard done rams.  Rams bred under commercial conditions does not equate to little rams.     So I simply suggest that you ask a few more prudent questions and inspect the farm in question to satisfy yourself that they are truly "bred under commercial conditions"