Public Funding for Dalehead Foods Limited

This project aims to enable the innovations that will enhance the supply of more efficient and productive breeding stock to the UK sheep sector through the development of the tools that will allow the exploitation of new genomic technologies. It brings together a consortium comprising Innovis, Dalehead Foods, and Waitrose and experts from Aberystwyth University and the Roslin Research Institute It will utilise phenotyping of around 50 traits alongside new genomic profiling and genotyping technologies for the first time, using the Innovis selection lines. It will yield genomic information that will lead to the use of Genomic Breeding Values to allow selection for sheep carrying traits that cannot easily be measured in vivo. The ability to utilise genomic selection to supply commercial breeding stock based on these traits will then enable the UK sheep industry to take advantage of enhanced production efficiency with the associated welfare and environmental benefits.

The need for traceable, sustainable home grown protein sources for livestock is increasing, particularly given recent price increases for feed and fertiliser. As such, ruminant farmers in the UK are under increasing pressure to maximise use of grassland-based systems to feed livestock. Forage proteins such as red clover and lucerne have been proven to improve feed intake, feed conversion efficiency and increase productivity among ruminants. This project aims to increase the uptake of least-cost, low-carbon forage proteins on UK livestock farms. Beef, lamb and dairy producers will work with researchers, a seed producer, processors and a retailer. Alternative forages and innovative techniques will be trialled through controlled scientific evaluations and on-farm research to determine successful forage strategies. The economic and environmental effects of the different strategies will also be assessed. Participating farmers are drawing on their own experiences to inform the selection of techniques and will run projects on their own farms. This participatory approach will help address some of the practical challenges and constraints experienced in the sector to date.