Sheep breeders receive positive signals on sales
Sheep breeders receive positive signals on sales
By James Garner
SHEEP breeding sales are set to resume with the first live pedigree auction pencilled in for June 6.
The Dorset Horn and Poll Dorset Sheep Breeders Association will be the first society to stage a breeding sheep fair for nearly 16 months after foot-and-mouth brought about the suspension all live sheep auctions.
Guidelines on what rules will govern the event have yet to be issued, but DEFRA officials have told the society to plan for the early June date.
Whether this signals a return to a normal trading pattern for sheep breeding sales this summer and autumn remains to be seen, but sources within the industry are hopeful this is the first step and that amendments allowing store sheep sales will also follow.
DEFRA is giving little away, although a spokeswoman confirmed that some reforms could be expected by the middle of next month.
"In mid-May we will look at how things [the interim movement regulations] are working. We have been lobbied heavily on several issues, but any reforms will be based on science."
Traditionally, the Dorset Horn and Poll Dorsets are the first to hold a breed sale on the day after the sheep annual premium retention period for ewes ends, usually either May 15 or May 16.
This years event has already been postponed to June and couldnt go back any further, given the breeds early breeding cycle, says the societys breed promotion officer Jim Dufosee.
"We missed one May fair last year and we have missed a second one this year. We are now hoping for June, which will be 25 months since our last breed sale."
The organisers plan to stage the event at the Bristol Sale Centre, a concrete site that meets current biosecurity regulations, rather than its usual venue on a farm in Dorset. It will be restricted to registered pedigree sheep only.
John Thorley, chief executive of the National Sheep Association, says the organisations mid-May target for the resumption of sheep breeding sales was only just missed. "We flagged this date up in November and it is something we have been steadily working away at since then."
Breeding sales will not be run in the same way as before F&M, he adds. Instead, they will be part of a "new normality" and follow existing rules designed to limit the spread of any future disease outbreak.
It is likely that pedigree sales will be given the go-ahead first as individual identification allows animals to be traced after sale. A batch identification system could be adopted for breeding ewe sales.
As yet negotiations are ongoing over store sales. It could be that a colour coding system is implemented to prevent lambs returning to market within 20 days. *