A Powys farmer says he has reaped the benefit of studying sheep genetics, as he urged other commercial sheep farms to follow his lead.

Alwyn Nutting from Glascoed Farm, Aberhafesp, has praised the RamCompare progeny project as they call out for commercial sheep farms across Wales to join the project and “support its drive to improve sheep genetics across the country.”

Mr Nutting who is involved in the project said: “Our interest in using performance recorded stock began when we selected a bull based on figures some years ago.

“Our interest then moved on to achieving the best from our commercial flock. The project is enabling us to trial high genetic merit rams of different breeds which are selected on specific traits which are believed to best suit our system.”

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RamCompare is jointly funded by Hybu Cig Cymru – Meat Promotion Wales (HCC) and AHDB and works with partners across the supply chain to drive faster rates of genetic improvement in the UK sheep industry.

The project provides data from commercial farms and abattoir records for genetic evaluations, delivered by Signet Breeding Services.

HCC’s Dr Heather McCalman, Research, Development and Sustainability Executive said: “We are keen to see more farms from Wales joining this pioneering work which uses on farm data to drive genetic improvement within the UK sheep industry.

“There are many benefits for the farms involved in RamCompare including engagement in one of the UK’s leading sheep breeding projects, the provision of recorded rams for natural mating, funding to undertake AI and access to AI sires for a portion of the flock, as well as a farm payment.”