Many of the UK’s numerous breed societies came together recently at the National Sheep Association’s Breed Society Forum in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire.

All NSA-affiliated breed societies were invited to the annual forum, a one-day event which moves around the country since it began in 2012. Split into two halves, the morning session provided a platform for a number of speakers to update delegates on important industry messages.

A farm walk, hosted by NSA Central Region committee member Charles Sercombe followed in the afternoon and provided an excellent overview of his pedigree and commercial flocks and how he is future-proofing the family-run business.

Phil Stocker, the NSA’s chief executive, welcomed NSA affiliated breed societies to the event and provided an update on some of NSA’s current and ongoing work, particularly around Brexit and some of the challenges facing the industry relating to trade and the future of farm support.

Mr Stocker 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.”