Richard Sparey with some of his Aberdale crossbred shearing ewes
Prolific Aberdales offer a high return
The Farmer, October 2009
This season commercial sheep producers have the opportunity to access the Aberdale crossbred, a brand new damline for low input, high output grass based lamb finishing systems, and the Sparey family, based at Lodge Farm, Garway, Hereford are starting to reap the benefits.
Aberdale crossbred ewes are smaller and hardier than other crossbreds and are naturally prolific and when put to a terminal sire they consistently achieve a lambing percentage of 180 per cent to 200 per cent without the need for autumn flushing. Consequently, the new genetics are proving to be conducive to the Sparey's grass and forage-based system.
"Our objectives are to maximise farm returns without increasing labour and other costs. Aberdale crossbreds offered us the opportunity to sustain our lambing percentage, at the 170 per cent mark, off a much smaller ewe and to maximise alternative use of the good grass in autumn," explains Richard who farms 840 acres in partnership with his brother, Bill and parents Mike and Rose.
"Twelve months ago we started to integrate Aberdale crossbreds into our 800 ewe Texel Mule flock. We kept the ewes mainly on land that is usually very dry and tends to burn off in the summer. We achieved a win-win situation; we kept my good quality autumn grass for finishing more lambs and for grazing the unit's 200 suckler cow herd, and the Aberdale crossbreds recorded a lambing percentage over 200 per cent."
Richard found that the Aberdale crossbred ewes lambed with minimal assistance and had plenty of milk to rear twins off grass. They were overwintered on swedes, housed one week before lambing and then turned out onto grass. The ewes lambed with minimal assistance and they made excellent mothers. In fact, the system worked so well that we're now considering lambing outdoors next season."
Initially inspired by a visit to New Zealand in 1999, on his return Richard adopted a grassland improvement programme which features reseeding annually 60 acres with ryegrass and clover.
"We're finding that the Aberdale crosses also fit in well with our forage based system which is also very conducive to our homebred Beltexl/Texel cross rams, all of which are reared off grass. This season we were able to finish all our Beltex/Texel cross Aberdale lambs off grass at 38kg to 41 kg target live weight. Furthermore, carcass quality was maintained with the majority selling to Farmers Fresh and hitting U3L export specification. The early August draw sold liveweight hit £1.70/kg, 21 p/kg above the day's average. He adds: "If Aberdale crossbreds can consistently achieve these levels, then they should have a sustainable and profitable future. "
The Aberdale crossbred ewe has been developed by Aberystwyth based breeding specialists, Innovis from its dedicated hill breeding programme. "Since 2005, Innovis has developed a breeding programme for commercial sheep which features an Aberdale nucleus flock based on British Texel genetics that also carries the naturally occurring Inverdale prolificacy gene that was originally discovered in flocks in New Zealand where is it now extensively used," explains the company's Dewi Jones.
"During the last four years, we have been working with hill farmers who lease Aberdale rams from us to use over selected hill ewes and who go on to contract rear female progeny. The hill breeds used in the crossing programme are Brecknock Hill Cheviot. Llandovery Whiteface, Talybont on Usk Welsh, Tregaron Welsh and Beulah Speckleface.
Apart from its smaller frame and hardiness, the Aberdale crossbred is natural prolific, each ewe carries a single copy of the Inverdale gene which naturally increases ovulation rates by 0.6 lamb thereby offering real benefits for commercial producers. Aberdale crossbreds consistently achieve a lambing percentage of between 180 per cent and 200 per cent without the need to use the best grass for autumn flushing. Consequently, the grass that is surplus to seasonal requirements can be used for either finishing store lambs or as deferred grazing into the winter months.
"Furthermore, when Aberdale crossbreds are put to the terminal sire, for example the Charollais, their lambs are going on to finishing from 12 weeks at 19kg target deadweight on grass based systems and with a higher specification grade," says Dewi adding "We now believe the breeding programme has reached the stage where the Aberdale crossbred has been used successfully in a number of flocks and it has gained sufficient economies of scale to roll out to commercial farmers,"
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