Sheep Industry News August 2023

TOM BOYER SHEEP GENETICS USA

Moving Forward in the American Sheep Industry

S heep Genetics USA is thriving and moving forward with a number of creative and innovative projects. In January, the group welcomed Karissa Isaacs to the board of directors as Bill Shultz retired. Welcome Karissa, your talents, energy and enthusiasm will be invaluable as the organization moves forward. We honor and recognize the profound impact that Bill has had on the American sheep industry, including his contributions to the seedstock sector and genetics projects including the creation of Sheep Genetics USA. Thanks Bill. We have several new projects moving forward including a Well Fed/Well Bred Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education grant that was submitted by Reid Redden, which will be imple mented in the coming months. The execution of this grant will include field days on producer operations that will focus on the combination of parasite control, as well as genetic and nutrition strategies to maximize production and profits. A wise man once indicated we need to lengthen our stride, reach a little higher and move a little faster. Such a goal is not as easily accomplished by us grey hairs as it once was, thus we rely on those of the younger generation to push the industry forward. The great news is we are blessed with a tremendous group of young folks in a variety of sectors including producers, extension, research, teaching and sheep specialists. Grand things are about to happen given the expertise, energy and talent in this group. Based on this group, we have created a Young Guns sympo sium which will occur later this year. This grand event will bring together young folks from various sectors to establish what they see as needed priorities to advance the industry. No grogs or grey hairs will be permitted to attend. We are also planning a number of webinars that will occur on a regular basis that will bring vari ous aspects of the genetics world directly to you from industry leading presenters. They will be geared for all producers at an over the corral fence level that will be both easy to understand and yet filled with exciting new genetic advances. The groundbreaking GEMS project continues to move forward under the direction of Dr. Ron Lewis. This grand project has the potential to make a paradigm shift in the way we view and incor porate genetics into routine management. Like the entire field of genetics, sheep genetics is changing with increasing speed as new technology increases and associated costs continue to decrease. Gene editing can assist in the creation of disease resistance, the development of climate related traits, parasite related issues, the elimination of long tails and scur

horns, antimicrobial resistance, well, the list is long of economi cally important traits. Expected Progeny Differences or Estimated Breeding Values are a widely utilized tool in making genetic deci sions centered around breeding objectives. With the progression of DNA technology, the industry is now starting to incorporate genomics based on EBV data. Prior to inclusion of genomic information, we relied on pedigree-based relationships that operate on averages. The lack ing component of historical genetic assumptions is accuracy. As a ram sires more offspring and those records are reported, the EBVs change to reflect offspring performance and accuracy in creased. By including genomic information in EBV calculations, the performance accuracy of younger sires is increased. For EBVs with large amounts of records, genomics can be the equivalent of already having a significant number of records submitted on that sire prior to the first breeding. Data, data, data – it’s all about data. Speaking of data, a recent article indicated data is the new oil, everyone needs a data strategy, and all of us should be collecting performance data. But really in one sense, there is no such thing as data, and it’s not worth anything, in fact it’s not oil, it’s really more like sand. Technology is full of buzz words, but one of the loudest is data. In fact, data alone isn’t worth anything as the value is in the flow of activity around it and the software used to transform it into a management system. We need to take a new look at the existing genetic data man agement systems, and ways we can create more value through new and improved software systems. In other words, more data means more software. We recognize and are seeking ways to create software that is user friendly, effective in transforming data numbers into usable systems and accomplishes this rather formidable task in an economically feasible way. How many lamb crops will you produce in your lifetime – 40 or maybe 50? Each one of those has or will have an impact on your future – some good and some bad, hopefully none that are devastating. As demonstrated in crops, genetics can create a paradigm shift in productivity and now we are seeing the begin nings of a similar shift in the sheep industry. The genetic make-up of your flock will have a direct impact on your profitability. Log onto SheepGeneticsUSA.org and join one of our teams today. Together we will find creative solutions, innovative strategies and create an exciting new future.

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