EASY CARE MULE BREEDING Mule breeders could do much to improve the easy care traits in their sheep. Ability to lamb unaided is paramount. One man can expect to look after 600 Mule ewes lambing outside on a grass-only diet but 1000 if they are selected for easy care. The savings in costs are obvious. An easy care lambing comes from both management and breed changes. It is important to avoid disturbing ewes at lambing unless absolutely necessary. Set stock twin bearing ewes at 15-25/ha. depending on grass availability. Ewes and lambs are best left for days to bond on the birth spot and are not moved or mixed. Nutrition must provide adequate protein, iodine and selenium /vit E and promote high quality colostrum to aid survival. Recent SAC trials using Rumenco Lifeline buckets as a supplement to silage and pre-lambing grazing reduced labour and improved colostrum quality at low cost. Rather than do a lambing, do some recording – there are ways of doing this without having to write anything down! Lamb survival is very much a heritable trait influenced by the sire. Lambs stand quickly and suck when born from sires that received no assistance at birth. Other important traits such as mothering ability, clean backsides, footrot resistance and worm resistance can be quickly improved by vigorous culling of offenders. • Conclusion: Selecting stock on show characteristics rather than performance damages their health and your wealth. Time for change. HOW TO DO IT - THE EASICARE SELECTION TOOL BOX Use this if you want to reduce problems either in commercial flocks or purebred flocks. Selection for easy care at its simplest involves no paper records. Basically if you intervene and save a life mark the animal and do not keep its progeny. Interventions that occur outside of normal gatherings are recorded by permanently marking the ewe by ear notching or notching of flag type tags or putting an elastrator ring around a pin type tag. Use your own system and depending on how fast you want to go cull as hard as necessary- from 1-3 strikes and you are out. Mate young culls to a terminal sire, do not keep the progeny. Simple recording at lambing helps selection of replacements A simple recording system at lambing pays massive dividends if you want to breed from your own rams. In large flocks go through all the sheep and pick 400 to record from the very best, concentrating on old sheep that have lasted and left good lambs. Sheep bred from this nucleus can be used on the rest. An unassisted lambing has components from both the ewe and the lamb so record lambing ease, mothering ability and lamb vigour using the scoring system below Score -1 0 +1 Lambing Ease Assisted Very Minor Help No assistance Mothering Ability Leaves lambs Stands Well Back Follows Whatever Lamb Vigour Has to be Sucked Slow to suck Up and Sucked Lambs are tagged as the ewe and lamb are moved out of the lambing field /house and scores written in the diary. To score mothering ability note how close the ewe stays to her lamb when it is tagged. Basically no sheep should be retained with a minus mark, all ram lambs assisted at birth, from poor mothers or that had to be sucked are castrated. Records look like this: Ewe Tag Lamb tag Lamb tag Lambing Ease Mothering Ability Lamb Vigour R211 101(m) 102(m) -1 0 +1 R533 103(m) 104(f) +1 +1 +1 R425 106(f) 107(m) -1 +1 +1 Ram lambs 101, 102 and 107 would not be kept as replacements. An additional cull of ram lambs at 4- 6 weeks (marking gather) would be made for any lambs not having had sufficient milk to present as full bellied and thriving. Selection of female replacements would include their score together with considerations of size, quality and any notches acquired since birth. All sheep farmers should be using these simple recording techniques to get rid of problems at lambing time, they are effective and after 5 years of recording you will be able to cut out assisting most ewes. With good nutrition and outdoor lambing less than 10 ewes per thousand will need assisted lambing. DR. J. VIPOND SAC.