The commencement of the OviFlock project, financed under the European Innovation Project fund, is a positive development and provides an opportunity for hill sheep flocks to implement breed improvement programmes. The project provides funding for flocks which are members of a breed society to have females genotyped, and lays the foundation for the establishment of flockbooks.

Eamon Wall gives an overview of the project on page 46 and outlines plans to get the initiative up and running quickly. There will be demand for approximately 7,000 genotyped lowland/hill rams in 2025 under the Sheep Improvement Scheme. It is important for hill flocks that the sire of rams destined for sale under the scheme is genotyped, so that parentage of its progeny can be verified.

It is not just hill sheep that there is an opportunity to identify superior-performing genetics in – the next couple of months are important for lowland pedigree flocks and also commercial flocks, to ensure the best genetics are available for retaining, or where selling, to ensure they can be marketed as top-performers.

The extension until 1 September 2025 of the up-regulation of antiparasitics to prescription-only medicines will take the pressure off farmers in sourcing antiparasitics in the coming months. This legislation was due to come into place in June 2025, but farmers will now be able to continue to purchase antiparasitic veterinary medicinal products for food-producing animals without a prescription until 1 September.

It is a key time period for blowfly protection and the most common options and a summary of available products are detailed on pages 48-49.

There is a packed summer of sheep specific events in the calendar, with a few new additions. Shearfest will be held on the June Bank Holiday weekend (see page 50), while Sheep 2025, the major sheep industry event held in Teagasc, Mellows Campus, Athenry, will take place on 21 June.

NSA Sheep NI 2025 will take place on 1 July on the McFarlane Family Farm, Dungiven, Derry, BT47 4QP.