Texel sheep indexes have changed to make them simpler to use and understand. The changes have been designed to encourage more commercial producers to use performance information when buying rams.
The Society has worked closely with AbacusBio, global leaders in agricultural consultancy to implement the Society’s Breed Development strategy and develop two indexes for the Texel breed: a terminal index and a replacement index. These characterise the economic value an animal has for both terminal and replacement traits. In simple terms, the higher the value, the better the performance of the animal.
The new £ indexes for terminal and replacement traits are presented as simple £ figures and help to identify animals that best fit specific market outcomes. The economic value is the predicted extra profit per lamb born in a commercial setting, compared to the population baseline.
Each index is underpinned by sub-indexes that capture the benefits and value of related traits. These enable breeders and commercial producers to make more informed decisions where necessary and select animals that offer advantages in specific areas to suit their production goals.
The sub-indexes describe how the economic value is gained across traits including growth, muscle weight, fat weight, reproduction, and adult size (Figure 1). In turn these sub-indexes are underpinned by the breeding values that breeders have used for decades to identify and select animals to breed from.
“Your choice of ram has a large impact on your progeny
for the year and, therefore, your bottom line.”
Figure 1: Sub-index weighting in the terminal and replacement indexes.
Test your understanding!
To test your understanding of the new indexes please have a go at the examples below.
Here are four good rams:
- Ram A – Terminal Index of £9.40
- Ram B – Terminal Index of £5.60
- Ram C – Replacement Index of £8.50
- Ram D – Replacement Index of £6.30
You sell all lambs as finished lambs, which ram would you choose?
Ram A
You want to breed female replacements, which ram would you choose?
Ram C
Here are another four good rams:
- Ram E – Terminal Index of £7.20
- Ram F – Terminal Index of £8.80
- Ram G – Replacement Index of £7.30
- Ram H – Replacement Index of £8.75
You manage a breeding & finishing system, which ram would you choose?
Ram H
You sell all lambs as finished lambs, which ram would you choose?
Ram F
See the FAQs page for more information.