Many UK sheep breed societies came together at the National Sheep Association's Breed Society Forum, and were updated on important industry messages.

Providing an effective information network for breeders is important to the association, and all affiliated breed societies were invited to the annual forum.

The one-day event, which moves around the country, is split into two halves.

The morning sessions provides a platform for speakers, and a farm walk, hosted by NSA central regional committee member Charles Sercombe was held in the afternoon.

Phil Stocker, NSA chief executive, welcomed breed societies to the event and updated them on the associations ongoing work.

He said: "One of the things we can do through this forum is make valuable connections between NSA-affiliated breed societies and organisations.

"The forum gave me a good opportunity to talk through the detail of some of NSAs work on Brexit, as well as some internal projects the organisation is involved in including a study into ram longevity and work NSA is doing on heritage breeds development.

“As ever breed societies were able to take part in presentations and discussions with a range of industry representatives who brought with them relevant and valuable information on genetics, zootechnical legalisation and a sheep gene bank update to name just a few.

"Sharing information is essential if we want to collectively tackle some of the challenges Brexit is posing, although there is clearly a lot of uncertainty at the moment.

"A zootechnical update from FAnGR proved a perfect example of this, and it is unclear whether updated EU legislation will be implemented by November 2018.

"The forum was an enjoyable and important event to debate a range of topics, and for breed societies to receive updates on current industry trends alongside NSA activity.”

With a theme of future-proofing the sheep industry, the forum provided the perfect opportunity to discuss potential industry challenges and prospects.

Speakers from NSA, NSA Ram Sales, Signet, The Farm Animal Genetic Resource Committee and Rare Breed Survival Trust save updates on how Brexit could impact their work.

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For more information please visit nationalsheep.org.uk.