Enhancing sheep health and productivity trainings

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Commodities

• Animals: sheep

Practices

• Animal Production: animal protection and health, genetics
• Education and Training: demonstration

This project will consist of five field days across the Northcentral region followed by one-on-one operation visits.  Traditional sheep breeds and management systems have relied solely on phenotypic selection. Recent developments in breeding technology has demonstrated that genetics provide a more accurate way to improve the sustainability of sheep operations and the resources they utilize. The National Sheep Improvement Program (NSIP) provides seedstock breeders the tools and technologies to quantitatively accomplish this goal. Seedstock breeders use NSIP to generate estimated breeding values (EBVs) for a variety of traits, such as growth, litter size, parasite resistance, and carcass merit. This technology has been proven to work in other livestock species across the world. However, the US sheep industry has been slow to adopt this technology. Thus, to increase awareness and adoption, we will host five field days spread across the North Central region at innovative sheep farms to demonstrate how to apply these technologies. After the field days, SDSU extension sheep specialists will visit operations for a personalized experience in determining which data to collect and how to accurately utilize the genetic information returned. Deliverables will also include a sheep genetics handbook and fillable data collection management checklist and calendar. 

This proposal addresses 4 major objectives: 
1. Educate sheep producers on how to capture and utilize emerging genetic technologies to improve animal health and performance for their unique operation. 
2. Educate sheep producers on how to match genetic potential of sheep and sustainable flock management strategies, such as multispecies grazing, targeted nutrition, selective deworming, rotational grazing, and flock performance data management, to optimize the entire farming system.
3. Demonstrate genetic technologies and production practices that have been successfully applied by farmers throughout the North Central region.
4. Increase the level of use by sheep producers of available genetic information for flock improvement.