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Author Topic: AI and other breeding interventions in sheep - views  (Read 13134 times)

Marches Farmer

  • Joined Dec 2012
  • Herefordshire
Re: AI and other breeding interventions in sheep - views
« Reply #45 on: October 22, 2015, 04:39:52 pm »
Indeed not.  We see headline figures from some sales (often a joint purchase) but I saw an acquaintance of mine who was working with an auctioneer at the ram sale at the Royal Welsh showground last month and he said the rams that went through their ring were around £500-£600, which seems a reasonable price.

Old Shep

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • North Yorkshire
« Last Edit: October 22, 2015, 06:12:45 pm by Old Shep »
Helen - (used to be just Shep).  Gordon Setters, Border Collies and chief lambing assistant to BigBennyShep.

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: AI and other breeding interventions in sheep - views
« Reply #47 on: October 22, 2015, 06:28:48 pm »
I would think the proceedure is too expensive to be used across the board in commercial flocks so reduced fertility should not be an issue.

Au contraire, as I've said upthread, a friend has worked on a large commercial operation where this is used extensively on Scottish Blackface sheep, amongst others.

It's widely used in Texel breeding.

And if AI and other interventionist practises were not being used in commercial flocks, commercial breed tups would not be fetching £160,000 ;)

ETA I'm sounding disapproving; I'm not.  I want to understand more, hence this thread.


Commercial breed tups are not fetching 160,000.  :D

Here it is.

(I'm really not prone to promulgating unsubstantiated rumours, Porterlauren.  ;))
« Last Edit: October 22, 2015, 06:32:27 pm by SallyintNorth »
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

mowhaugh

  • Joined Jul 2013
  • Scottish Borders
    • Facebook
Re: AI and other breeding interventions in sheep - views
« Reply #48 on: October 22, 2015, 06:43:42 pm »
Me got there before me re the AI, and explained it better anyway.  Bearing in mind that you can potentially use the same tup on many more ewes, not really any more expensive, and if you have spent a lot of money on a tup, which dad had, you want to get your money's worth, I guess. Not for me, though, except perhaps saving a breed/bloodlines.

Re the above link, absolutely true, year on year, it's the Blackie Money-Go-Round.  If you offset the tups a small group of farms bought off each other, would be interesting to work out what they ended up having laid out.  Works as a very successful marketing strategy though, because there is no doubt that being seen to spend makes your tups just under the best 2 or 3 more sought after.

 

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