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Performance Recording

You cannot improve anything unless you measure it.” This is why recording is so important to breed improvement.

Weights of all Brettles Charollais lambs are recorded at 8 weeks and again at around 17 weeks at which time a specialist scanner uses ultrasound scanning to measure the muscle depth and fat depth at a specified point on the loin of each lamb.

For the last ten years the best lambs from ultrasound scanning have been taken to Edinburgh or more recently Stoneleigh to be CT scanned. This is a whole body scan to determine the proportions of meat, fat and bone for each lamb and compare this with others.

All these details are fed into a Signet Sheepbreeder computer programme to identify those animals with the highest genetic potential to increase growth rates, increase muscle area and make sure fat levels are neither too fat nor too lean.

 

The programme takes into account data from recorded parents and grandparents as well as the animal itself to come up with EBVs (Estimated Breeding Values).