The Rural Voice, 1985-11, Page 30A complete line of
HONDA
4 and 3 wheel ATV's
28 THF RURAL VOICE
Troubles with
the R.O.P. sheep program
Recently the Record of Per-
formance (R.O.P.) program
for hogs in Ontario was
under criticism for inconsistency in
indexing. Hay Bay Farms accused the
program of major discrepancies in
hog indexing. Now sheep producers
are findingproblemsin the Ontario
Sheep R.O.P. program. The reasons
for the problems may be different,
but the result is the same: the R.O.P.
program isn't as effective for pro-
ducers as it could be.
There are some legitimate excuses
for the sudden decline of the Sheep
R.O.P. program. One factor is the
sudden increase of producers joining
the program, which is now a compo-
nent of the new Red Meat Plan. Staff
can't handle the volume. The
workload tripled almost instantly.
At the same time, R.O.P. offices
moved from Toronto to Guelph,
creating delays until the new office
was organized. These two factors
combined with computer problems
have caused the standards of the
Sheep R.O.P. program to plummet.
Sheep producers exchanged horror
stories about the R.O.P. program's
recent inefficiencies at the combined
meeting of District Two's Ontario
Sheep Association — its last annual
meeting — and District Two's
Ontario Sheep Marketing Agency —
its first annual meeting.
Some producers are getting their
analytical information back from the
R.O.P. testing with gross inac-
curacies. There are examples where
the information is simply false.
Others are getting their information
back too late to help in ewe culling
and selection of ewe lambs and rams
for breeding flock replacement. In
these cases, producers have to guess
which animals to save or cull.
Sometimes when the culled lambs are
gone, the correct R.O.P. sheets arrive
and the producer finds he guessed
wrong.
Some producers aren't getting their
sheets back at all. Grant Preston of
Proton Station was told that his Has
"lost in the computer." Still others
are getting the wrong sheets back,
although the information from the
R.O.P. program is supposed to be
confidential. "It's the same as
someone showing your income tax
(statement) to your neighbour," said
one producer.
One local producer's R.O.P. report
(Oliver Mabee's) was enclosed with a
producer's from British Columbia.
Some of the mistakes like this one are
so far-fetched that they are
laughable, says Preston, District Two
chairman of the sheep association.
But the situation is serious, he adds.
"Almost every producer has some
problems with (Sheep) R.O.P."
Preston notes that he was once very
proud of the Sheep R.O.P. program.
As a former member of the Provin-
cial R.O.P. advisory committee, he
has worked toward improving it and
is disappointed with the quality of
service recently.
"The objectives of the Red Meat
Plan won't be met if R.O.P. pro-
blems are not corrected," observed
one sheep producer at the meeting.
With all these considerations in
mind, Preston made a motion
recognizing that the Ontario Sheep
R.O.P. program is "seriously broken
down." The resolution asks directors
of the Ontario Sheep Association to
petition Jack Riddell, Minister of
Agriculture and Food, to provide the
necessary increase in funds, staff,
staff training, computer capacity,
and other technical changes to make
the program an effective tool in flock
improvement and a basic part of the
Red Meat Plan for sheep.
In a majority vote, producers
showed their support of Preston's re-
quest that the Sheep R.O.P. program
be revamped. El