Our aim is to breed sheep with a naturally low carbon footprint to help English sheep farmers make a positive contribution to the journey towards Net Zero for UK agriculture. We are an alliance of forward-thinking sheep farmers and breeders who apply genetic science to the breeding of our sheep so that they can make the best, most efficient use of grass and forage to produce sustainable and healthy lamb of high nutritive value. Making use of grasslands by way of sheep grazing also helps sequester carbon into the soil. We collectively believe we can improve the sustainability of our sheep further by using genetic science and breeding to naturally reduce the amount of methane, which is a natural by-product of their forage digestion process, and therefore reduce the carbon footprint of sheep farming. This project will allow us to collect and build the necessary data, and develop the tools required to genetically reduce the methane emissions, and in turn, carbon footprint of sheep; and demonstrate the impact of using low-carbon sheep may have on whole farm carbon footprints. To achieve this, we will develop on-farm protocols to measure or predict methane emissions of sheep, alongside health, production and efficiency traits at the individual animal level, through using new innovative tools and technologies. We will investigate biological relationships between the genetic potential of sheep to emit lower levels of methane with rumen size and microbiota and with ewe productivity, efficiency and health, as we want to avoid any unintended changes in sheep physiology, health or welfare. To widen the impact of the project beyond our own flocks, we intend to carry out a wide-reaching programme of communication with other sheep breeders and farmers throughout England, in collaboration with supply chain partners and wider industry bodies. The integrated knowledge exchange programme will identify the most effective ways of communicating the outputs and implications of the project's work to other farmers to help educate and support them to make genetic changes in their flocks that will improve their productivity, sustainability, resilience and profitability.

Enhancing ovine performance and reducing environmental impact through genetic improvement is key to a sustainable UK sheep industry. Artificial breeding enables breeders to enhance and accelerate genetic gain in commercially important traits. ABEurope has developed In Vitro Production (IVP) in cattle, offering a successful alternative to Multiple Ovulation Embryo Transfer (MOET). Preliminary work suggests ovine IVP could transform the UK sheep industry by offering a new, less invasive approach to assisted breeding. This project will evaluate IVP in sheep by comparing IVP and MOET in a cohort of selected females and will identify the components that are key to success.

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.