The Farmers Mart Apr/May 2016 - Issue 45 | Page 25

Great Yorkshire Show
FORAGE BRED PERFORMANCE LED
Ram Sales; North England Ram Sale, Cumbria, Penrith Thursday 18th August, 2016 Northumberland Ram Sale, Alnwick Tuesday 9th September, 2016
INNOVIS- BREEDING INNOVATION- WWW. INNOVIS. ORG. UK INNOVIS, Peithyll, Capel Dewi, Aberystwyth, SY23 3HU Tel: 01970 828 236 / Fax: 01970 822 018

A new perspective on sheep breeding

Dewi Jones, Innovis
HEBRIDEAN SHEEP
Hardy, versatile, economical sheep
Succesful cross breeding with all commercial rams, and produce excellent half-bred ewes.
Come and visit our stand at the Great Yorkshire Show, opposite the sheep lines and have a look at pure bred and half-bred ewes with lambs at foot.
Breeders will be on hand to answer your questions
The Hebridean Sheep Society represents breeders of registered pedigree Hebrideans throughout the UK.
For further information visit www. hebrideansheep. org. uk or email info @ hebrideansheep. org. uk
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INNOVIS STARTED breeding its own sheep lines in 2005 in response to a growing demand for forage bred, performance recorded tups selected for commercially important traits. British breeds were used as a base for the Innovis lines with some New Zealand genetics added later to improve functional traits. The main maternal line is Aberfield, based on Bluefaced Leicester genetics, the main meat sire line is Abermax, originally based on a genetic combination of Charollais and Texel.
Innovis also partners with Focus Genetics to offer pure New Zealand bred animals in the form of the maternal Highlander and fast growing meat ram, Primera which dominate New Zealand’ s independent ram evaluation system, giving UK farmers access to some of the best genetics on offer down under.
The Innovis breeding program is based on having a
large nucleus flock of ewes run under challenging commercial conditions on an upland farm in mid-Wales. The ewes are expected to lamb outdoors and perform on grass and root crops with feed blocks at key times. Sheep are rotationally paddock grazed or behind electric fences for most of the year in this environment.
Embryos are collected from the finest ewes and transferred into recipients to establish Breeding Partner Flocks, who produce shearling rams sold through Innovis. There are currently 23 Breeding Partner Flocks spanning the whole of the UK, ranging from the North of Scotland to the South West of England. Rams are grown out on good forage based systems so that the looks of the animal match its performance and rams can cover lots of ewes while holding body condition.
See more at GYS or call 01970 828236.
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