 Ewes & Ram The Hampshire Down is docile, easy to manage and suited to flocks both large and small.
Whether you are looking for a breed with great commercial potential for your farming business or for a good looking flock to manage your few acres the Hampshire Down is definitely the sheep for you to discover.
A Pedigree flock run on commercial lines:
Signet’s Sheepbreeder scheme is helping producers to stay a head of the field by improving flock performance and their subsequent returns. Among them are Hampshire Down breeders, Henry and Hilary Derryman who say the initiative is ‘a must’ as a management tool. Genetic progress is proving to be cumulative and permanent in the Derryman’s Yarcombe flock of Hampshire Downs. During the past 10 years, careful selection of sires for performance traits has led their lambs’ breeding potential for growth to rate 2.1kg higher than the average lamb on the Hampshire Down Signet Sire Reference Scheme. That figure has brought a substantial improvement of almost one week in lamb finishing time. In addition, Yarcombe lambs are also much better muscled across the loin.
The flock which is based at Peterhayes Farm, Yarcombe, near Honiton, has recently produced two high index rams for use across Hampshire Down flocks within the SRS scheme. Furthermore the Derrymans were declared winners of the Hampshire Down Sheep Breeders’ Association Flock of the Year 2002 Award.
Aware there was more to selecting new rams and ewe replacements than just using eyes and hands, the couple have been dedicated to performance recording since MLC introduced a programme in the 1980s. “It has enabled us to identify the highest performing ram lambs within the flock, those which leave lambs with higher growth rates, greater muscling and reduced fat cover, and we select our replacements from the top 30%, Henry explains. “We’ve also found it’s been a great guide to selecting the best females for maternal ability and also prolificacy.
“Nowadays, our purebred flock is achieving an acceptable 150% lambs from ewes put to the ram, and more than 90% of ewes lamb within the first three weeks,” he says. “We turn our ewes and lambs out two weeks after lambing in December to grass and supplementary fodder beet, hay and nuts. Lambs which aren’t selected for breeding purposes are reaching 40kg finishing weight off milk and grass from 12 weeks, they kill out at an average 18kgs to 19kg deadweight and consistently within the targeted E and U classes.
The couple who farm in partnership with their sons, Peter and Robert, have been committed to Hampshire Downs since the pedigree flock was established in 1968 as an added value enterprise at Peterhayes. The Yarcombe flock rapidly grew to its current size, replaced the unit’s commercial flock and complements the family’s 140 cow commercial dairy enterprise on their 400 acres owner occupied farm.
“Back in the 1960s, Hampshire Downs were among the most popular as a terminal sire for finished lamb production. Then in the 1970s the industry experienced the invasion of the Continental breeds and we were among the first to realise we needed to modernize the Hampshire Down by introducing carcase length, reducing backfat and improving conformation,” Henry explains. “However at the same time, we were only too aware that we had a native breed with valuable commercial characteristics – exceptional fast growth rates, very high feed conversion efficiency, motherability and hardiness – all of which had to be retained.
“Our objective was to take the lead and breed a Hampshire Down which would match if not exceed the performance of other key terminal breed sires in what is a very competitive marketplace. It’s been a lengthy process, however 20 years on and we believe we’ve achieved our goal. We’ve had a recent noticeable increase in the number of commercial producers, including repeat buyers, from throughout the UK who are seeking a high performance terminal sire which also demonstrates longevity, and many now think no further than Hampshire Down.” The Derrymans have also traded stock to pedigree breeders as far a field as Belgium, the Netherlands and Ireland.
Scrapie genotyping was introduced to the flock in 1998 with RR as the minimum criteria for rams selected for breeding purposes. In addition, in the last few years they have looked to New Zealand to source new genetics. “The Kiwi sheep population has evolved to suit the country’s large scale easy care management systems. NZ sheep producers are now focusing on high performance low maintenance genetics including Hampshire Downs,” Hilary explains. “While our ewe flock continues to remain closed, we introduced a pure NZ bred Hampshire Down ram to a portion of the flock and we’re finding a 25% blend of NZ genetics is resulting in progeny that are even hardier and easier to lamb without losing any of the breed’s original and performance characteristics.”
She adds: “In future, we plan to continue to use Signet’s Sheepbreeder scheme to further improve our flock’s genetics and ensure it continues to deliver a modern terminal sire which meets producers’ discerning demands.”
Liz Snaith |
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