Sheep farmers are set to take advantage of a new online tool which makes it easier to find the right ram for a production system.
The newly upgraded Signet Breeding Services helps commercial and pedigree producers profit from performance gains associated with genetic improvement.
Designed by Scotland's Rural College (SRUC) and backed by AHDB, the website now has better data entry tools and improved online reporting, including the ability to produce real time genetic and inbreeding trends.
Online data entry also enables breeders to supply weights throughout an animal’s life, providing a greater understanding of overall efficiency.
The new database also has improved data export capabilities, integrating not just with office applications such as Microsoft Excel, but also many of the main farm software providers.
It is now easier to find the genetic merit of sheep, expressed using EBVs (Estimated Breeding Values) and breeding indexes to find breeders with sheep for sale, using Flock Finder, a service that inform farmers about ram breeders in their region.
A new Sheep for Sale section enables producers to browse listings of rams, ewes and semen sales from farms and auctions.
Sam Boon, AHDB's animal breeding senior manager, said: “We know producers can benefit by £4-5/lamb by selecting the right ram, with greater gains when selecting improved genetics within maternal breeding programmes.
“It is now easier than ever to find the right ram for your sheep production system.”
Each sale post is live for a fixed period of time, to ensure only recent and relevant sales are visible.
