Answer: Our rams are all grass fed. They have never seen concentrates in their life and they are bred from many generations of sheep similarly managed in New Zealand.

When heavily corned rams are put in with ewes it can take up to 6 weeks for their digestion system to swap from digesting concentrates to forage.

During this one time of the year, when they have to work, they are literally starving as their stomach cannot cope with the grass until the digestive processes change. EasyRams have no such check and indeed we have many reports of am lambs weighing more when taken from the ewes than when put into them.

Answer: New Zealand flocks are much larger and the labour used is much lower than in the UK. So lambing ease and lamb survival is one of the biggest requirements of all New Zealand Flock masters.

To optimise lambing ease Kiwi sheep have fine heads and shoulders and no short thick necks. Their bodies are also Wedge Shaped being wide and deep at the backend and then tapering as you approach the head with fine shoulders and not an over deep brisket.

Lambs born quickly and easily are the quickest to get up and suck.

Over 80% of EASYRAM TUPS ARE used on OUTDOOR lambing flocks many in the harder parts of the UK.

Answer: To get lambs to grow quickly and finish off grass you need 2 things:

• The correct genetics that allows a lamb to convert grass into meat as quickly as possible.
• The RIGHT AMOUNT of grass of THE RIGHT QUALITY ie it must be HIGHLY DIGESTIBLE.

Why are lambs sired by EasyRam tups better at finishing off grass?

WHAT HAPPENED IN NZ?

Because for the last 60 years progressive NZ breeders managed selected and culled their flocks under a system that mirrored their clients’ management. NZ ram breeders NEVER use concentrates or cereals as part of their normal feeding regime ( except possibly in extreme droughts)

Science proven Performance Recording became the norm and resulted in measurably more efficient and productive animals over each decade.

• Increased Rumen Volume proved to be necessary. A better performance required a bigger engine to process pasture, as pasture is the diesel of animal productivity.
• Superior performers were those that could compete in large grazing mobs. The adoption of rotational grazing meant that the most competitive grazers were the best performers.

WHAT  HAPPENED IN UK?

All UK Terminal rams and the majority of UK Maternal or Hill rams will have been fed concentrates at some time in their lives and if not in theirs then definitely their sires/G Sires will have been selected for their ability to thrive and grow on hard feed.

The result is sheep with small rumens ( no belly no gut and all the other show ring favourite terms) that are designed to convert cereals and not grass into meat in a word they have the constitution of a pig.

WHAT HAPPENS AT EASYRAMS?

• Rams eat zero concentrates
• Rams graze grass all year except winter forage from Jan to late march.
• All our sheep rotationally graze
• Our sheep run in large mobs of 400/500 sheep +
• Any EasyRam sheep that does not thrive on grass is culled ( IT IS NOT FED EXTRA CAKE)

INDEPENDENT PROOF

The Irish Agricultural research organisation Teagasc have been comparing NZ Suffolks and Texels with Irish Suffolks and Texels at Athenry in Co Galway for the last 4 years. Irish Suffolk and Texel genetics are identical to those found in the UK.

1 group of NZ sheep were compared with High and Low Performance Index Irish sheep.

Finnish OFF Grass NZ Irish Hi Irish Lo

% off Grass 96% 82% 69% The balance needed cereals to finish

Days to Slaughter 160 165 175

Lifetime Av DLWG 256 245 232

Answer: This is now a very frequent question particularly from Welsh Hill clients. We know from feedback that our EasyRams will survive and thrive on hills throughout the UK.

Their x bred lambs will finish both quicker and heavier than hill lambs. Many clients are keeping up to half their flocks pure for replacements and then putting the bottom half to a terminal rm.

EasyRam tups produce lambs that are easily born, great survivors, hardy and grow well on upland grass farms. This attributes make them unique amongst current UK Terminal rams.

ANSWER 1: Dirty back ends are a thing of the past with EasyRam NZ Suffolks. Although all NZ Suffolks originated from sheep imported from the UK during the first half of the last century, they have been bred totally differently to their UK cousins. Here Daggy ram or ewe lambs are culled NOT washed for sale.

ANSWER 2: NZ Texels have much better feet and a much smaller tendency to mastitis than their UK cousins. The first flock we imported our Texels from was run by a Welsh expat. He ran 1000 Pedigree ewes as a part time flock ( he had a full time day job ) and had an annual drug and vet med bill of UNDER £100 for the whole flock.

Large flocks allied to ruthless culling for basic faults that require extra labour if treated mean that NZ genetics have moved massively away from the UK. Economic pressures over the last 35 years have driven this step change.

EasyRams tups produced in one of the UK’s largest ram breeding flocks follow the NZ protocols for culling and selection and clients have the resulting benefits.

Answer: New Zealand Texels are obviously still Texels even though they originated from Finland and Denmark ( the only Scrapie free countries in Europe in the 1980’s.) By using a NZ Texel on your UK Texel X ewes you are virtually crossing with a different breed.

You will still end up with a “Texel” and a sheep that looks like a “Texel”. We expect the wethers to finish quicker off grass quicker than their UK equivalents.

The females will have much bigger a straighter Pelvises for easier and quicker lambing, better feet and much less mastitis.

Answer: By only using New Zealand Sheep Genetics we believe that we are able to short circuit and hopefully exceed flock improvements,that can only be achieved in the UK through massive investments in recording and selection and or by scale

We believe that all UK rams, regardless of how they are managed now, have been originally bred from what in NZ terms would be considered very small and traditional ram breeders. Our sheep on the other hand have all come from very large scale operators, who have not only relied on high levels of traditional and novel recording, but who have also thrived and succeeded over the last 35 years when 80% of all ram breeders in New Zealand disappeared.

Our NZ partner, Murray Rohloff, was a leading sheep researcher and then one of the most influential ram breeders operating in New Zealand over the last 35 years. His experience, industry knowledge and contacts have been vital in pointing us towards the absolute top operators in the Ram Breeding world in New Zealand.

This very large selection of contacts that we have made over the last 14 years means that we are accessing the very best genetics both in terms of physical performance and functionality. These are the benefits we offer to the UK sheep industry.