PORTLAND SHEEP BREEDERS GROUP ANNUAL EVENT AND AGM NSA SHEEP 2010 TUESDAY 3RD AUGUST 2010 THREE COUNTIES SHOWGROUND, MALVERN, WORCESTERSHIRE WR13 6NW The Portland Sheep Breeders Group Annual Event will be at the NSA SHEEP 2010 on Tuesday 3rd August 2010. This is an amazing event totally dedicated to all things sheep. If you have never been it is well worth a visit. Among the displays and attractions are sheep dog trials, all manner of handling equipment, British native and commercial sheep as well as continental sheep, also a fleece competition in which the overall winner receives the trophy for the Golden Fleece. Fiona MacKenzie was the winner in 2006 with her Portland fleece! We will have the Breed Stand there together with a display of Portland sheep. We are also holding our own fleece competition open to our members where the Elizabeth Harris Chalice will be presented for the Best Portland Fleece. In the past at this event exhibitors of fleeces also received a free entry ticket to the show. Please join us for a glass of wine in one of the Conference Tents next to the exhibition halls late afternoon for the Portland Sheep Breeders Group AGM. The precise time and directions to the tent will be displayed at our Breed Stand on the day. In the evening we have booked a table at The Swan Inn, Worcester Road, Hanley Swan, Worcester WR8 0EA for an informal meal. The Swan Inn is situated a few miles outside Malvern. If you would like to join us please email the webmaster with your contact details. The Showground has ample free parking and tickets will be £10 on the gate, £5 for NSA members, (NSA membership card must be shown) or a booking form can be downloaded in May from the NSA website for reduced price tickets. Please
visit the website below for more information regarding tickets, accommodation
and directions: www.nationalsheep.org.uk
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Schedules
will soon be dropping through letterboxes across the country for the
coming showing season. Last year there was a noticeable reduction in
animals entered in Portland classes at a number of the shows. This has
forced some show organisers to amalgamate Portlands into other classes
for this year because of a lack of numbers. Please try to support shows
that have separate Portland classes or if you do not have any in your
area enter the mixed classes instead. If enough Portlands are entered
they will eventually have their own classes! Visit our ‘Show Page’
for dates of shows and help on how to go about showing!
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BLUETONGUE UPDATE - 23rd SEPTEMBER 2009 There have been no confirmed cases in Britain in 2009. However, sheep owners still need to keep vigilant. You can download the updated version of the UK Bluetongue Control Strategy for 2009 and also all the up to the minute information regarding licences amd movement restrictions from the DEFRA website by following the DEFRA link on this page Links: http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/notifiable/bluetongue/latest/ http://www.nfuonline.com?x26679.xml If we all act now we may be able limit the damage caused by this serious threat. DON’T HESITATE – VACCINATE! |
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CALKE
ABBEY EVENT 4TH & 5TH JULY 2009
Some thirty Portland breeders gathered at Calke Abbey by kind permission of the National Trust to see the Calke founder flock at home within the park and to hear presentations on their history, Portland genetics and the potential for using pedigree data, DNA analysis and Artificial Insemination (AI) and Embryo Transfer techniques in a breeding programme to conserve Founder lines. Norman Jones told the story of how Sir Henry Harpur brought his original sheep from Portland to Calke in 1770 where he had realised that they would be better suited to the limestone geology than some of the local breeds of the time. We were reminded of the controversy surrounding their inclusion in the flock book in the late eighties (all documented in Norman’s book on the breed history) before moving on to hear Lawrence Alderson’s analysis of the contribution of the Harpur-Crewe line to the breed profile since the early days of the RBST. Techniques for constructing breed profiles now include computer analysis of pedigree data (currently using ‘Geneped’) to identify the contribution of founder lines to any animal, and the coefficient of inbreeding, together with DNA sampling to characterise the genetic makeup of the breed. There is ongoing interpretation of the sire lines for a new RBST led Portland conservation breeding programme, and we hope that this will soon include the ewe lines. (A summary of Lawrence’s talk can be read below.)
In the afternoon we were treated to Calke Head Warden Bill Cove’s knowledgeable introduction to the Calke sheep themselves. Bill has been closely associated with Calke both before and during the late Norman Clarke’s time as Warden. We saw the ewe flock at close quarters, and helped to sample ten ewes for Lawrence’s DNA analysis (a small drop of blood from the nose is blotted onto a pad) and Kate Kershaw’s ongoing wool analysis project (a sample of wool from the flank was collected).
We are very grateful to Alison Thornhill (Events Manager for Calke, and herself a Portland breeder), Bill Cove and Stephen Lathaen and the Calke Staff (especially Dawn, who looked after the Breed Stand and fleeces during the morning session) for making us so welcome and giving us such an enjoyable visit. The data-projector was kindly loaned by Sturminster Newton High School. |
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PORTLAND BREED PROFILES
1)
geographic distribution; Portlands are not at risk from geographical
concentration Breed
structure profile Value These limitations need to be addressed, and a continuation of the breeding programme using breed analyses is not possible until a full founder analysis (i.e. including females and non-Portland founders) is available, and until the male founders have been rationalised. Harpur
Crewe (HC) influence Summary Breed
DNA Profile Value
Figure 1 A high frequency (more than 60%) at 12 loci [see also figure 2]: enhances the ability to detect aberrant alleles and suspect animals; samples were collected from other breeds for comparison (e.g. Herdwick, Hill Radnor)
4) screening Supplementary Register applicant animals; effective to
98% certainty given the completion of a breed profile as above. Lawrence Alderson lawrence@clltd.demon.co.uk |
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Chairman’s
Report to AGM for 2008 - 2009
In
a year dominated by the credit crunch, anxiety over the impending introduction
of Electronic tagging and the continuing threat of bluetongue infection,
there have been many uncertainties over the effect on farming and rare
breeds in particular. These issues continue to cause concern that fewer
people will breed pedigree Portlands. However, the year has also seen
a full programme of breed promotion and events, together with new initiatives
on breed conservation and analysis. It is to be hoped that Portland
Breeders will respond positively The Breed Stand was taken to Sheep South-West 2009 by Norman & Michelle Jones where Michelle’s Portland wool entries were once again successful in the Fleece Competition. Tessa Hucklesby has co-ordinated the Stand’s appearance at a number of Events and Justin Coke has toured a number of shows with it to promote the Breed. In contrast to last year’s disruption of the Showing Calendar by Bluetongue restrictions (and weather), all the planned shows have gone ahead including our Premier classes at the New Forest Show where Leona Shaughnessy’s ram took the Portland Salver and also the Reserve Interbreed Championship. Our thanks are due to all those who give up their time to exhibit and promote the Breed and inform the public of the qualities of our sheep. There is room for many more to contribute in this way. At the Combined Flock Book Breeders meeting in May Tim Brigstocke updated us on the situation regarding EID, and the importance of vaccinating against Bluetongue. Two new and exciting RBST initiatives were introduced and these look set to give us more precise information for the conservation of rare gene pools: DNA profiling of the breed is now well under way, and Geneped analysis of pedigree data from birth notification and registrations has given rise to a new breed conservation programme to monitor and increase the contribution of under-represented founder animals in the National Flock. A Portland sub-committee has been formed with myself as Liaison Officer which has met with Dawn Teverson to discuss the analysis of Portland bloodlines and six have been identified for attention this year. A number of breeders are already selecting rams to maintain these rare lines and several rams will be contributing to the RBST semen bank. The programme will be reviewed annually and it is envisaged that female founders will be added to the analysis next year. The analysis depends on accurate recording of pedigree information and so it is vital that all breeders update Grassroots with birth notifications for all pedigree lambs and continue to register their sheep. To encourage this registration transfers are now free (as are birth notifications) and measures are to be introduced to reduce the burden of registration fees for larger flocks. These are practical conservation programmes that we can all be involved in, and which will benefit the Breed. This year’s Annual Event took place at Calke Abbey where some 30 members were privileged to see the Calke Foundation line sheep in their spectacular setting. Blood samples were taken from ewes for the Breed DNA profile and wool samples for inclusion in fleece analysis. The programme also included presentations by Norman Jones on breed history, Lawrence Alderson on Portland bloodlines and Julie Finch of Innovis on AI and embryo transfer in sheep. The fleece competition, judged by Stephen Spencer for the Elizabeth Harris Chalice (previously awarded at Melton Mowbray) was won by Michelle Jones. We then enjoyed a superb dinner in the Abbey restaurant. We are indebted to the National Trust, and particularly Alison Thornhill and Bill Cove for their hospitality and knowledgeable contributions to the programme. My thanks are also due to Tessa Hucklesby for all her help in organising the Event and making it such a success. The fleece analysis project begun as part of the five year plan can now be completed thanks to Kate Kershaw’s efforts and successful application for the remainder of the funds allocated by the Trust, (Kate herself should be congratulated for all her work, as well as for her fantastic performance at the Singleton Show where her fleece achieved a perfect score of 100%, and she won both Champion and Reserve in the Ring.) The committee has discussed making a new application for a further five year programme to benefit the Breed and suggestions from members for inclusion in this would be welcome. Breeders now have the opportunity to use the finishing unit for Portlands set up by Steve Gould, who is actively promoting mutton in South Dorset. This is a very welcome marketing initiative, and we hope that it will raise the profile of our high quality meat in the run up to the Olympic sailing events to be held on Portland and in Weymouth Bay in 2012. A suggestion has been made for a meat production related Event to be held in the area next year. The ‘new’ Website has been well used this year, with a number of members advertising through the classified pages. Many thanks go to Jo Jones and Tessa Hucklesby for managing the site. New material, particularly pictures would be welcomed to refresh the pages, please contribute. After four years of editing the Newsletter, Sheila Wellman is stepping down; she has made stirling efforts in producing and updating it for which we are extremely grateful. I have been honoured to act as Chairman for the last year, my thanks go to the committee for all their hard work, especially to Esther for her conscientious efforts as Treasurer, to Tessa for her unfailing organisation as Show Secretary, to Normans & Michelle Jones for their tireless commitment to promoting Portlands and as membership secretary, and to Andrew Jenkins for his undaunted approach to his first year as Secretary. Fiona
MacKenzie |
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The
recognition that there are rare lines within the Portland breed and
awareness of the threat posed by disease outbreaks such as FMD prompted
an invitation to Dewi Jones of Innovis (the company conducting the
RBST’s semen collection project) to speak to us about the practical
aspects of AI in sheep. Dewi was unable to attend but we were fortunate
that Julie Finch could take his place and give us a fascinating talk
on the need for a laparoscopic insemination in ewes due to their complicated
cervical anatomy, and the potential for using Embryo Transfer to conserve
ewe lines. These techniques are routinely carried out by Innovis in
their centres at Edinburgh and Hereford, and are less invasive than
one might imagine, nor as expensive.
The
Calke sheep were seen to have the characteristically darker face and
leg colouring expected, and some exhibit a little lighter shading
around the eyes and the muzzle, though this is not as pronounced as
in sheep of the Dorset type. Many have a velvety sheen to the hair
on the face. We noticed a straighter profile and flared nostrils,
together with a prominent eye and swept back horns. The sheep were
smaller than many of us had expected, and were estimated to be within
the 38 – 40 kg range dictated by the breed description; they
were also finely boned in contrast to some of those of Calke descent
outside the foundation flock. They are a homogenous group with a clear
Portland identity. Bill confirmed to us that the Calke Abbey sheep
had never been outbred during his memory. He pointed out one older
and paler ewe and noted that the colour became less strong with age.
Bill described some lambing difficulties due to horn buds (Lawrence
considered that this could be due to the fly-away tendency of the
horn growth producing a more upright and prominent horn bud); several
of the ewes were fostering commercial Suffolk cross lambs having lost
their own. Bill finds that they are good mothers, though those that
do not wish to foster cannot be persuaded!
Some
twenty rams were also brought closer for us to see. Again they were
dark in face and leg but not noticeably larger than normal. Bill sells
rams occasionally when asked, but generally keeps around half a dozen
for breeding, swapping them after a couple of weeks of tupping and
changing the raddle colour for pedigree purposes. 
We
returned to the Stable Block to hear the results of the fleece competition,
judged in our absence by Stephen Spencer, who gave every entrant notes
on the score card, and described the attributes of the winning shearling
fleece as primarily uniformity and fineness with strength, together
with even crimp and colour. He also noted the ‘bloom’
of the fleece giving a luminous quality. Stephen went on to describe
other fleeces to illustrate the qualities of the fleece being judged.
Tessa
Hucklesby then pointed out how fleece qualities are important for
handspinners. Congratulations to Michelle on winning the spectacular
Elizabe
th
Harris Chalice, which was presented following the Dinner in the Abbey
Restaurant. The excellent menu was of local ingredients, and Portland
hogget from the Estate.