Farm News

Baber Ewe Lambs Top of Suffolk Evaluation

Like everyone across all industries, we are operating in extraordinary times and undoubtedly the full
consequences of COVID-19 on our sheep businesses is yet to fully materialise. However, whatever the
changes ahead, the essence of our sheep breeding philosophy remains unchanged, to produce high
performance, fit and fertile rams, with high libido which thrive on an all grass diet.
Currently one of our ewe lambs (UK 0 3639455 09547) is the top sheep ever in the Suffolk evaluation, and
in the 2019-born lambs there are currently 12 animals with indexes of over 400, of which seven were
bred in our flock. We have bred the top 3 Stock Sires in the Suffolk evaluation, and within the Texel breed,
one of our home bred ram lambs (UK 0 3639455 09464) is one of the highest indexed stock rams in the breed.

For the last 15-20 years we have been recording and selecting for ease of lambing and lamb vigour in all our breeds with a view to lambing all our ewes outdoors. The Exlanas have always lambed outdoors and over the last few years we are now lambing most of the Suffolks and Texels outdoors as well, including the ewe lambs lambing at 12 months old. Both 9547 (the highest Index ewe lamb) and her twin sister 9548 lambed this year, as a ewe lambs, outdoors.

We have now supplied 6 rams into the project, and this helps to underpin the accuracy of the BLUP evaluation of our rams. We were thrilled when our ram held the top overall ranking position in the first run of the Ram Compare Project and five years later is still looking impressive. Once again, we are delighted with our performance figures of the rams we have on offer this year and of our lambs born in 2021.

Next Exlana Ram Sale  3rd August 2021  It’s welcome news to be able to promote the 7th Annual Exlana Ram Sale.  This year will again be a mix of a traditional sale ( kindly conducted by our auctioneer Kevin Bateman )  coupled with live on-line web cam bidding,  supported by  sellmylivestock.com  – click here to Log In or Register or ring Exlana SIG group members Peter Baber 01647 252549 / 07967595098 or Tim White 01985 845063 / 07880983593 for further information about this year’s sale.  With the ongoing current restrictions those wanting to purchase at the sale must Log In beforehand.

Read our July 2021 Newsletter for more news from the farm.