American Sheep Magazine March 2026

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MOVING FORWARD WITH GENETICS

BY: ANDREW WEAVER, EXTENSION SPECIALIST, NC STATE UNIVERSITY

On Thursday morning of ASI Convention, pro ducers and researchers from across the country met to discuss current and future opportunities in U.S. sheep genetics as part of the ASI Genetic Stakeholders Com mittee meeting. The program began with a joint session co-hosted with the ASI Animal Health Committee on the role ge netics has and will continue to play in the eradication of scrapie. Five years since the last positive case, only two years remain until the U.S. may be declared scrapie free. The use of genetics, specifically selection for AA (codon 136) and RR (codon 171) genotypes allows us to produce sheep resistant to developing this devastating disease. Todd Taylor, Shepherd at the University of Wis consin-Madison, continued the program discussing opportunities for reproductive technologies to improve genetic progress. He highlighted his experiences with laparoscopic artificial insemination, conventional em bryo transfer (ET), and in-vitro fertilization. Reproduc tive technologies have been widely adopted in the show lamb industry; yet their use in production-oriented sheep has been limited. While expensive, the potential to produce multiple replacement ewes and stud rams from a single female in a single year offers genetic bene fit. As an example, one ewe involved in the ET program at UW-Madison now has 31 offspring, 780 grand off spring, and 713 great-grand offspring. This was followed by a panel discussion on cross breeding led by Dr. Chad Page, Sheep and Goat Spe

cialist at Utah State University. Panelists included Dr. Camren Maierle (OH), Alex Moser (IA), and Jake Ben son (UT). Maierle is a solar grazier managing a com mercial flock in the Southeast U.S. He uses terminal sires noting a $30/cwt improvement in non-traditional market prices of these crosses. Moser oversees an accel erated lambing operation. His family has strategically inserted South African Meat Merino (SAMM) genetics to improve maternal vigor and health in his Polypay ewe base without sacrificing wool quality. He also uses a Texel-Suffolk terminal composite to improve market lamb performance. Benson runs a traditional range op eration yet has strategically used Polypay rams to im prove the lambing percentage of his Rambouillet ewes. Seeing little value for wool relative to lamb, the more lambs weaned, the more revenue produced. All panelists emphasized the importance of selecting elite purebreds to make great crossbreds and the need to use tools like estimated breeding values provided by NSIP to make ram purchasing decisions. The morning session concluded with research up dates from Drs. Tom Murphy and Carrie Wilson with USDA-ARS. They highlighted demographics of the USDA research flocks noting relocation of the Boon eville, AR Katahdin flock to other ARS locations. There is exciting work underway as the GEMS project con cludes and selection tools are developed for maternal productivity in range environments.

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