Sheep Industry News August 2023

Meet the Research Leaders at NSIP

NSIP TECHNICAL COMMITTEE A s most of you know, the National Sheep Improve ment Program has been the seedstock and commer cial producers' go-to source for estimated breeding values and technical support for more than 35 years. Much like the American sheep industry, NSIP has seen a lot of changes since first debuting under the leadership of Dr. Doyle Wilson and Dr. Dan Morrical in 1987. Back then, breeders would physically mail in data to a team of people at Iowa State University in the form of hand-written records or floppy disks (look it up, Gen Z’ers). Having had the plea sure of transcribing many historical lambing barn notes to a digital format ourselves, we wonder what kind of colorful language to describe a ewe’s lack of maternal ability those NSIP data translators ran across. In those early genetic evaluations, traits were limited to number of lambs born, body weight through yearling age, total weight of lamb weaned and yearling fleece traits. Traits were analyzed independently to derive within-flock Esti mated Breeding Values, meaning breeders couldn’t reliably compare EBVs of animals that performed in different flocks and the genetic relationships between traits weren’t accounted for. Despite these limitations, these EBVs were still the best predictor of genetic merit the American sheep industry had encountered to that point. Later, improvements were made at Virginia Tech under the stewardship of Dr. Dave Notter, including an across-flock analysis that accounted for genetic correlations among traits – beginning in 1994. Additional traits were included in the evaluations, such as number of lambs weaned, fecal egg count as an indicator of gastrointes tinal parasite resistance, and ultrasound body composition, which were further developed into several multiple-trait selection indexes in the years to follow. NSIP evaluations were transitioned to LAMBPLAN in Australia in 2011 and have had continued oversight by the NSIP Technical Committee in collaboration with the Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit in Armidale, Australia. Recent developments include a more streamlined data entry process, more frequent data runs and incorporation of genomic infor mation to improve the accuracy of EBVs – beginning in 2021 for Katahdins. Leadership of the NSIP Technical Commit tee has also changed hands through the years, with its most recent transition in June 2023. Going forward, Tom Murphy will serve as chair while

working closely with co-chairs Luiz Brito and Andrew Hess and other NSIP Technical Committee members. We wanted to use this article to introduce ourselves and reflect upon past successes and future challenges/opportunities of our national genetic evaluation program. Dr. Ron Lewis is a professor in the Animal Science De partment at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His past experiences as a sheep geneticist spanned the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom industries, and he served as chair of the NSIP Technical Committee from 2016 to 2023. During that time, he led efforts to introduce innovations such as genomic technologies to improve the accuracy of EBVs, refine genetic evaluation methods and selection strategies, verify pedigrees and report genetic conditions. He and his team also assessed genetic relationships – con nectedness – among flocks, defining strategies ensuring a robust genetic evaluation. They conducted the Mickel Broth ers’ project, demonstrating the economic value of improv ing weight and muscle traits through NSIP. Ron is retiring in January 2024. During his career, he played major roles in advancing sheep industries and developed teaching tools focused on sheep – i.e., CyberSheep. He’s mentored many students and young professionals along the way and his vast knowledge of animal breeding will be missed. Dr. Lewis will continue to oversee the Sheep GEMS project through its completion. “I enjoyed my time as technical advisor to NSIP. With sup port (funding), I am confident the new NSIP Technical Com mittee has the enthusiasm and wherewithal to ensure NSIP flourishes," Lewis said. Murphy is a research geneticist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture Research Service at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center. During his Ph.D., he conducted the first genetic evaluation of North American dairy sheep. While an assistant professor at Montana State University, he led some of the first studies to evaluate the economic impact of udder health in range sheep. He continues these efforts in Clay Center, Neb., where he oversees USDA genetic reference flocks to more broadly characterize novel traits associated with ewe longevity, lamb feed efficiency and carcass quality. Brito is an associate professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at Purdue University. A native of Brazil, he carried his passion for small ruminants through his gradu ate studies in Canada and New Zealand, where he conducted some of the first genomic studies in dairy goats and com posite sheep breeds. His current research program in West

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