Sheep Industry News August 2023

President’s Notes BRAD BONER ASI PRESIDENT

Advancing the American Flock

I n January of 2020 at the ASI Annual Convention in Scottsdale, Ariz., an impromptu meeting took place to discuss a new direction for genetics in the American Sheep Industry. Bill Schultz, Tom Boyer, Rusty Burgett and Ben Lehfeldt had put to gether an initial concept of forming a genetic clearing house – if you will – with the vision to put into overdrive the genetic advancement of the American flock. Prior to that meeting, genetic research was a hodgepodge of smaller research projects that went in many different directions and seemed to mostly get lost in the shuffle of the day-to-day sheep business. As I’m sure most of you will agree, the American sheep industry has trailed the other proteins in its efforts to genetically improve its animals. Uptake of Estimated Breeding Values and other tools was slow and even non-existent in many areas with only isolated pockets of producers who were willing to embrace new tools that helped improve the efficiency and productivity of their flocks. One such pocket was in Montana, where the Montana Targhee Association had enrolled many of its seedstock flocks in the National Sheep Improvement Program and had been collecting and submitting data for several years. Enough data had been collected to develop EBVs for many of the important economic traits for the Targhee breed. EBVs for number of lambs born, milk weight, post weaning weight, yearling weight, loin eye area, yearling staple length, fiber diameter and fleece weight were being printed in their ram sale catalog and they had developed an index from these EBVs called the Western Range Index. The Montana Ram Sale began to see much higher averages than many of the other ram sales across the country. Sheep pro ducers saw the huge benefit of seedstock that had data to help them identify individuals that would improve their flocks. Most importantly, they were willing to pay more for them versus for animals that just looked pretty on sale day. The reason I men tion the Montana Ram Sale is because I had the opportunity to personally witness what happened there during a 10- to 15-year period. To say the least, I was impressed. Jumping back to the 2020 ASI Convention, out of that meeting a new entity was formed – Sheep Genetics USA. In the last four years, SGUSA has put its grass roots structure in place, secured much needed seed money through the generous support of ASI and the National Sheep Industry Improvement Center and more recently has helped put in place and support several research initiatives. One such project is Dr. Ron Lewis’ GEMS project. Another is a successful grant for Texas AgriLife on a project similar to one being done in Australia called BredWell FedWell. BredWell FedWell is a practical, one-day introductory workshop on how productivity and profitability can be improved through good breeding and feeding during the livestock production cycle, with a specific focus on profit drivers. We hope to mirror this program in other regions across the United States in years to come. A “Young Guns” retreat – sponsored by SGUSA – will take place in Colorado in August to get the upcoming generation an op portunity to bring its ideas to the forefront on how best to improve production efficiencies and profitability through targeted research projects. I would be remiss if I didn’t send out a HUGE THANK YOU to Peter Orwick, Erica Sanko and the ASI Executive Board for being so incredibly supportive of the Sheep Genetics USA effort. ASI was instrumental in SGUSA securing its startup seed money, providing staff to support the development and ongoing work of SGUSA and graciously allowing the annual dedica tion of the August issue of the Sheep Industry News to focus on genetics. Without this critical support, SGUSA would not be in existence today. Until next time, keep it on the sunny side.

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