International sheep session Focus on Iceland Eyþór Einarsson 1, Eyjólfur I. Bjarnason 1 & Emma Eyþórsdóttir 2 1 The Icelandic Agricultural Advisory Centre 2 The Agricultural University of Iceland
Sheep farming in Iceland Number of winter fed sheep has been stable at 440 480.000 for the last 25 years 2422 flocks in December 2016. 195 sheep average per flock Iceland is sheep nation 338.000 inhabitants (1.1.2017) 1,4 sheep per person 20 kg sheep meat per capita Sheep farming provides the basis for year around habitation in many rural areas.
Sheep farming in Iceland Sheep meat is the largest meat production sector in Iceland with 34% of the production In 1996 sheep meat was 47% of the meat production Total production of sheep meat- 10,400 tonns Export about 4,000 tonnes per year MEAT PRODUCTION IN ICELAND 2016 DIVISION BETWEEN PRODUCTION SECTORS Horse 3% Beef 14% Sheep 34% Poultry 29% Pig 20%
The production system Nov - May Feeding mostly indoors April May - June Lambing Normally inside 1-7 days after birth Aug Sept - Oct June Sept. Sheep on common mountain pastures. Farmers making hay. Sheep gathering. Slaughter time Lambs slaughtered directly or on pasture for 4 to 6 weeks.
The Icelandic sheep North European short-tailed breed Brought to Iceland with the Vikings for more than 1.100 years ago Isolated breed with none or little influence from other breeds
The Icelandic sheep Double coated fleece Both horned and polled types Variation in colours, most sheep are white (82%) Main emphasis on improving carcass traits, milking ability and fertility Mature ewes weigh 150-160 lbs. and rams 200-220 lbs.
The Icelandic Leadersheep A unique breed in the world!
The Icelandic Leadersheep Sheep with special leader characteristics This breed had an important purpose in former times Population size is around 1.500 individuals Many flocks have 1 5 leader sheep among the regular sheep
The Icelandic Sheep Recording System Long tradition of sheep recording in Iceland Natural mating was the breeding goal since Iceland was settled until 1900 First sheep breeding consultants in Iceland around 1900 Their knowledge based on visit to Scotland Dr. Halldor Palsson was the leader of sheep recording around 1940 Oldest sheep in pedigree data was born 1907 Oldest information in the sheep recording database since 1953 Calculated by hand the first years
The Icelandic Sheep Recording System History of Recoding System Computer database since 1977 On a web client since 2006 Each farmer has access Record information about his flock Have access to variable reports Information about 90% of all sheep in the database
What do we register? All animals have individual IDnumbers based on birth year, sex, flock and number within the flock Sheep that are moved between flocks keep all information Due to costs EID tags are still uncommon But possible in the database
What do we record? Recorded information: Date of birth, litter size, sex and colour Dam and sire ID Slaughter date, carcass weight, EUROP scores Cause of death (slaughter, culling, other losses) Optional: Weaning weight, ewe weight, pregnancy scans Ultrasound measurements of muscle and fat of breeding candidates
The breeding work The Recording System (Fjárvís) is base for all breeding work Ultrasound scanning and live judgement About 65,000 lambs are scanned per year (10%) Selection of replacement animals Progeny testing for weight and carcass quality
Averages of rams lambs sired by AI ram Year Number of lambs LW UMD UFD UMD shape Leg score Total score 2003 4.955 48,0 27,6 3,2 3,7 16,8 81,7 2010 6.266 47,0 29,1 2,7 4,1 17,4 83,1 2017 4.690 48,2 30,4 3,1 4,1 17,7 84,3
Information from slaughterhouses EUROP classification Individual information for all carcasses sent automatically to the database Carcass weight is used for calculation of breeding values, not life weight Differences compared to breeding work in other countries Live weight of replacement lambs converted to carcass weight Ewe production index is the selection trait, based on lamb carcass weight BLUP EBV Sheep farms Fjarvis.is - Database All lambs with individual ID CW and EUROP score Slaughterhouses
Disease regulations Due to risk of spreading the scrapie disease is Iceland divided into several isolation zones Movement of live sheep between zones not allowed In some cases is movement of live sheep across flocks within zone prohibited AI is often the only option for farmers to get new blood into the flock
Artificial insemination The first sheep AI trial was made 1939 Regular every year since 1963 Around 30.000 ewes inseminated annually Mainly with fresh semen Farmers inseminate their own sheep Breeding season is Dec. 1 21st Non-return rate 66% with fresh semen in recent years Some farmers get up to 90% nonreturn rate every year Costs 6-7 per ewe
Artificial insemination Approximately 60% of replacement ram lambs and 15% of replacement ewe lambs are sired by AI rams Selections of AI rams are based of information from the sheep recording system
Fertility Breeding goal: 2 lambs per adult ewe and 1 lamb per one year old ewe. A gene causing increased ovaluation rate, is known (Thoka gene) The Thoka gene has been imported to Cheviot in Scotland Confirmed mutation in the gene GDF9
Fertility The average ewe delivers 1,81 lamb born. 30% of farms (with 100 ewes or more) have more than 1,9 lambs born per ewe joined. The average ewe delivers 1,64 lamb for production (replacement or carcass)
Milking ability and growth rate Breeding goal: Maximize growth rate so optimum carcass weight can be attained on summer pastures Results from 2016: Adult ewe with twins weaned 33,8 kg calculated meat production Average carcass weight was 17,0 kg Average age at slaughter 140 days
Carcass traits Breeding goal: All carcasses should reach conformation class E, U or R and fat classes 2 and 3 In 2016: 553.000 slaughtered lambs Conformation class E 3% U 32% R 58% Total 93% Fat class 2 46% 3 40% Total 86%
Development of carcass traits Since 1999 carcass weight has increased (15 kg to 17 kg). Score for conformation has risen from 6,34 to 8,97 Fat in carcasses has declined Development of phenotype records EUROP score and carcasses weight. (Conformation: E=14, U=11, R=8, O=5, P=2; Fat: 1=2, 2=5, 3=8, 4=11, 5=14).
Sheep economy The sheep farming is currently in a crisis in Iceland Farmers price for meat dropped by 30% from last year 2015 4,3 /kg 2016 3,8 /kg 2017 2,5 /kg
Research on sheep breeding Hestur experimental farm
Progeny testing of rams in Iceland Initiated by Dr. Halldór Pálsson in 1957 Among the first organised progeny tests in sheep in the world Methods developed on the basis of Dr. Pálsson research at Cambridge Emphasis on carcass conformation many measurements on individual carcasses Rams that scored high for slaughter lambs further tested for daughter productivity S. Thorsteinsson presented this work at SBRT in 1995
Progeny testing at Hestur Progeny tests with similar organisation are still run at the research farm Hestur Ultrasound has replaced many carcass measurements Top rams selected for AI in most years
Ultrasound measurements of lambs First used at Hestur in 1991 Results showed high correlations with carcass measurements of carcass measurements of the loin Used in regular breeding work shortly after and ever since Advisers travel between farms with the equipment and advise on selection of breeding rams (and ewe lambs) Measure fat and muscle depth at the 3rd lumbar vertebra
Recent reports on carcass weight and quality A review of genetic studies up to 2010 Genetic parameters of EUROP scores and ultrasound traits 2001-2013 Genetic trends Usefulness of UMD and UFD as correlated traits for carcass quality
Genetic trends of ultrasound and carcass traits EUROP fat EUROP Conformation UFD UMD (Jón Hjalti Eiríksson, 2014)
Main results (Eiríksson & Sigurðsson, 2017) Heritability estimates are medium to high little change Genetic correlations between muscle and fat scores seem to have decreased from 2006 Suggested reasons are changes in EUROP classification and/or selection of rams for AI with high EBV for both traits Genetic correlations between EUROP scores and corresponding ultra sound measurements are high Genetic trends are positive for all carcass traits Including ultrasound traits as correlated traits in breeding value estimation will reduce bias due to unequal proportions of slaughter lambs between progeny groups
Image analysis of lamb carcasses Prediction of EUROP scores: 82% for conformation score ; ~7% upward bias of VIAscan 73% for fat score; 3% upward bias Prediction accuracy of Lean Meat Yield: VIAscan: 57-58% HCW+GR+EUROP: 55% Automatic prediction of LMY is provides an opportunity to the industry but development has halted due to high costs
Heritability and genetic correlations between selected traits Trait VIA_ conf. VIA_EUROP_conf 0.32 VIA_EUROP_fat 0.33 0.29 %LMY 0.46-0.61 0.46 VIA_ fat %LMY UMD UFD Leg score UMD 0.47 0.05 0.37 0.42 UMF 0.16 0.59-0.40 0.11 0.42 Leg score (15-20) 0.70-0.21 0.44 0.62 0.12 0.40
Genetic parameters of maternal traits Prolificacy NLB by parity r g below Ewe production index by parity, r g below
Weaning weight and carcass weight Preliminary results from a new analysis of large data (average from 10 single trait analyses) (E. Albertsdóttir, unpublished) Trait h 2 a h 2 m r am Weaning wt. 0.15 0.11-0.60 Carcass wt. 0.24 0.14-0.60 These estimates are lower than previous estimates of direct heritability of weaning weight but higher for carcass weight. Estimates for maternal heritability are similar to those reported by Einarsson et al. 2015 The negative correlation between direct and maternal effects appears very high.
Thank you for the attention!