A ram can rank in the top 1% for maternal worth, growth, worm resistance or fertility — but if he can't walk the hills, mount ewes, or stay sound through joining, none of those genetics get passed on. Structure is what allows every other trait to actually be expressed. It's why "structure first, above all else" sits at the top of the breeding strategy for that Coopworth, Suftex and Coopdales flocks at Triple Farms, ahead of figures, ahead of pedigree, ahead of everything else.

The advantage of this cross is that it adds maternal performance without giving up Romney hardiness. Crossbred progeny generally retain the Romney's hill-country ability, sound feet, weather tolerance and constitution, while gaining the Coopworth's extra fertility and growth. The result is a medium-framed, fertile, milky, long-lived ewe that adapts well across a range of environments. She’s a genuinely useful replacement ewe, rather than a compromise between two breeds.

Efficiency gets used loosely in the sheep and beef industry to mean getting more from less, or making the best use of what you've got. It's not a new pursuit. It started decades ago with cutting costs, then moved through lifting lambing percentage — more lambs from fewer ewes — and now extends to pasture utilisation, growth rate, and producing more meat with less methane per kilogram. The current push toward low-input sheep as a breed direction is really just the latest chapter of the same story.

It's also the harder one to get right, because low-input, worm resistance and lamb survival all share the same problem: management and environment have as much influence on whether the trait shows up as the genetics do.

Genomics doesn't change what makes a good sheep. It changes how early and how accurately we can identify one.

At Triple Farms, every lamb is DNA tested with sire and dam verification, and all three flocks — Coopworth, Coopdale and Suftex — are fully recorded on SIL. Genomics builds directly on that foundation. Instead of waiting for an animal to produce its own performance record or progeny before its true breeding value is known, DNA information is combined with pedigree and performance data to give a far more accurate estimate of breeding value from birth.