David Coen from Sheep Ireland joins Ciarán Lynch on this week’s OviCast to explain genotyping rams. 

David outlines the benefits of genotyping rams and the kind of information it can provide from scrapie genotypes to parentage verification to genomic evaluations.  David and Ciarán also discuss the processes and costs involved for producers. 

David then explains the ram genotype task in the Proposed DAFM Sheep Improvement Scheme highlighting the criteria for both lowland and hill flocks. 

Finally, in relation to hill flocks, David discusses how genotyping could lay the foundation for breed improvement programmes within hill breeds. 

For more episodes from the OviCast podcast, visit the show page at:
https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/sheep/ovicast-sheep-podcast