40 years of sheep breeding in the UK

1. 40 years of sheep breeding in the UK Geoff Pollott Senior Lecturer in Bioinformatics and Genetics

2. Survey 2012 Headlines • Decline in purebred ewe numbers continues • Increase in ad hoc crossbred ewes • The continuing rise of the Texel as a terminal sire and as part of a crossbred ewe at the expense of the Suffolk • Further imports of new breeds to Britain and the decline of established British breeds • Yet more new composites

3. Background • June and December Census data collected annually (well almost!!!). • No information on breeds or matings. • In 1970, the newly formed MLC set up study groups to determine technical direction of each species. • No comprehensive information was available on sheep breeds in Britain – initiated 1st survey at tupping 1971. • Subsequent surveys carried out in 1987,1996, 2003 and 2012.

4. The last 40 years in contextTotal sheep numbers in Britain – June census 75 breeds 90 breeds 60 breeds 30 breeds

5. The rise of the crossbred Britain - Source: MLC/Defra/EBLEX Sheep Breed Surveys

6. Changing hill breed numbers Hill ewes as a proportion of all ewes declined from 57% in 1971 to 31% in 2012

7. Disappearing purebreds?

8. Overall breed changes in 40 years

9. The era of the imported breed? • 30 breeds imported over 40 years • - 5 not found in 2012 • ~ 545,000 ewes of imported breeds found in 2012 • ~ 20% of all non-hill ewes

10. The rise of the Texel ewe • Texel not found in 1971 survey • “In 1973, thirteen Lanarkshire sheep breeders joined forces with ABRO to import twenty-seven Texel females and thirteen rams from France.”

11. Terminal sire purebred ewe numbers

12. Terminal sire crossbred ewe numbers

13. Changes in regular crossbred ewe types (000)

14. A move towards more efficient sheep?

15. Composites – many a dashed dream? • 12 composites introduced in 40 years • - 4 disappeared • Meatlinc - the most enduring ~ 3,000 ewes • Easycare - the up and coming ~ 20,000 ewes

16. Conclusions and discussion points • Stratified crossbreeding structure still found • Balance shifting towards crossbreds • Many ‘irregular’ crossbreds • New breeds and composites still appearing • Breeds with real traits to offer find a place

17. Questions?

18. Demographic changes - flocks Source: BWMB

19. Demographic changes – breeding ewes Britain - Source: Defra December census

20. Demographic changes - Britain

21. Distribution of ewes and farms by breeding flock size 54% of ewes are on 13% of farms UK - Source: Defra June census 2012

22. Breeding ewe numbers by country Older ewes - Source: Defra December census

23. Scottish Hill ewes

24. English hill ewes

25. Welsh hill ewes