Adam chats to Innovis' geneticist Janet Roden about the science behind Innovis' pioneering breeding programme
Adam Henson and the team from BBC's Lambing Live visited Aberystwyth on the 31st of January to find out about Innovis' pioneering sheep breeding programme.
Adam and the team visited Mynydd Gorddu, the mountain farm where the Innovis elite nucleus flock is farmed under commercial conditions at 1,000ft. They saw Ros and her team DNA sampling Aberfield nucleus ewes as part of the new TSB project on genomic selection before taking a look at the ewes and chatting to Innovis geneticist Dr Janet Roden about the genetic progress that's been made over the past 6 years.
The visit will be broadcast on Thursday 27th March 2014 at 8:00pm as part of Lambing Live 2014. This year, alongside the day to day action on the farm, Adam will explore British Sheep farming in its many and varied forms from the science of growing grass to the cutting edge of breeding technology.
“Combine carefully selected Innovis genetics with detailed attention to management, and I don’t know of any other livestock farming enterprise that could beat sheep farming in terms of profitability for a starter..."
Jim Beary – Aberfield
“We’re having a trial run over a portion of the flock. Our first draw of Primera cross lambs reached 19kg target finishing weight at 11 weeks, both the twin Primera and Abermax cross lambs..."
James Teasdale – Abermax
Since introducing the New Zealand bred Highlander to his Devon unit three years ago, finished sheep production has increased by 42% to 342kg per acre while a traditional indoor...
Mike Tewson – Highlander
Producing tailored made replacement ewes featuring Innovis genetics within a traditional stratified system is proving to be a win win venture for two sheep farming businesses...
Ben Anthony - Aberfield Crossbred