Column

Description

Scan Age

Age of the lamb at scanning

Type B:R

Birth type, e.g. 2:1 means that the lamb was born as a twin but reared as a single

Eight Wk Wt

Lamb’s weight at 8 weeks of age

Scan Wt

Lamb’s weight at scanning

Musc Act

Lamb’s actual muscle depth at scanning

Fat Act

Lamb’s actual fat depth at scanning

8Wk Wt EBV

Computer calculated EBV (estimated breeding value) for the 8 week weight of the lamb. This means that the lamb 462:R5042 should grow 3.08kgs better than average.

Mature EBV

EBV for mature weight. E.g. 462:R5042 could be 12.24kg heavier at maturity than average.

Litter EBV

EBV for litter size and reflects the number of extra lambs that the offspring of this sheep can produce.

Mat’al EBV

Maternal ability EBV reflects the ability of the ewe to a) have a reasonable number of lambs and b) to rear them quickly.

Scn Wt EBV

Scan weight EBV reflects (in kg) the genetic potential for superior growth rate of average to 22 weeks.

Mus dp EBV

Muscle depth EBV reflects (in mm) genetic potential for superior muscle depth. The muscle depth is measured over the loin but this bears a close relationship to the total muscling of the whole body.

Fat dp EBV

Fat depth EBV. SHOULD BE NEGATIVE! I.e. we are looking for rams with the genetic potential to sire lambs with less fat.

Index

This is the computer calculated summary of all the other measurements / EBVs which produces a simple index which is easy to compare ram to ram. In our flock the top 10% performers have a lean index over 148.

Genotype

This is the scrapie resistance genotype for the ram.

Worm resistance

NEGATIVE IS GOOD! This is a measure of the lamb’s resistance (or immunity) to worm infestation. We compare faecal egg counts at scanning time to achieve this extra measure.