The overall winners of the FBD LambPlus Award will be announced on Tuesday, 12 July2022 at the Sheep Ireland Breeding Conference & Farm Walk.
The awards are an opportunity for Sheep Ireland to give recognition to the breeders who are leading the way in performance recording and genetic gain and to those flocks that have made a significant genetic improvement over the past number of years.
There are six finalists, across two categories: the highest achieving flock and the most improved flock. Prize funds are sponsored by FBD.
The three nominees for the Highest Achieving FBD LambPlus Award are:
- Michael & Sarah O’Neill, Charollais, Bolinaspect
- Liam & Eoin Dunne, Belclares, Tubber
- Liam Delaney, Belclare, Coolgarragh
These three breeders are at the top of their game with all three boasting DQIs of 90% or above.
The three finalists for the Most Improved FBD LambPlus Award are:
- Christy, Margaret & Brian Gallagher, Texels, Pullagh
- William J. Hutchinson, Suffolks, Chapelizod
- Michael Clarke, Suffolks, Ballyhine
All three of these flocks have made significant genetic gain over the past number of years through improved breeding strategies and performance recording.
All LambPlus flocks are automatically entered into the awards simply by being a member of LambPlus. The flocks are then pitted against each other with flock linkage, DQI, €uro-Star values and index accuracies all being assessed to rank them. Flock data is considered when choosing the overall winner of each category.