SusSheP - sustainable sheep production in Europe

Sheep systems in Europe vary in production, breed types and management systems. To be sustainable, they must be underpinned by environmental and welfare friendly practices, as well as being profitable and labour efficient.
SusSheP is a research project funded under the European Research Area Network, Sustainable Animal Production Framework that aims to address some of these sustainability and profitability issues. The project is set across four
countries (Ireland, France, Norway and UK) and focusses on key industry problems, namely the length of a ewe’s productive life, farm labour and carbon hoofprint, and welfare-friendly sheep artificial insemination (AI) methods.
The key objectives of the project are to provide new genetic tools for farmers to increase ewe longevity, quantify labour input and carbon hoofprint in contrasting sheep systems, develop other methods of AI to replace laparoscopic insemination by characterising ewe breeds differences in cervical function, and maximise knowledge transfer and uptake of these alternative approaches by the farming community. This paper will present some preliminary results of the project, and, in particular, will focus on the carbon hoofprint (using AgriCalc) and labour efficiency of three contrasting production systems in the UK and Ireland. It will also present preliminary results of breed effects on cervix characteristics to develop cervical AI, as well as common factors affecting ewe longevity in an attempt to determine the best longevity traits for inclusion in breeding indexes. SusSheP will ultimately provide farmers with better information and tools to enable them to make their own system more sustainable, thus ensuring uptake across the farming industry in Europe.