Genetics

 

• A Genetic Evaluation Program For Dairy Sheep In Canada ¹ (PDF) by Johanne Cameron, Centre d’expertise en production ovine du Québec, and Larry Schaeffer, University of Guelph – How is it possible to improve the milk production potential for sheep? In the past, the introduction of dairy breeds into the sheep population contributed to an improvement in the average milk production. Now, on many dairy farms, herds are mainly composed of dairy sheep purebred females, hybrids of dairy breeds and/or females with a high percentage of purebred dairy blood…
• Estimating Breeding Values for Sheep: Estimates of Genetic Parameters and Trends in a Crossbred Population of Dairy Sheep ¹ (PDF) by Thomas W. Murphy, Montana State University, and David L. Thomas, University of Wisconsin – The overall goal of most North American dairy sheep producers is to decrease operational costs while increasing enterprise returns, thereby maximizing profitability. From a management standpoint, it may be fairly straightforward to identify areas where you can decrease costs and increase returns…
• Genetic Improvement Program for Dairy Sheep ² (PDF) by Toni Oltenacu, Cornell University – The dairy sheep industry is very developed in Europe, especially in the Mediterranean area where there is a strong tradition for dairy sheep farming. By comparison, the dairy sheep industry in North America is much smaller, and certainly much younger, but it has been growing and there are substantial opportunities for future growth…
• Implementation of Genetic Evaluation ¹ (PDF) by George R. Wiggans, Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding – Selection is a powerful tool for making a flock of dairy sheep more profitable. With each breeding, an opportunity arises to improve milk production, health, and fitness of the next generation. For selection to result in improvement, accurate information is needed to make selection decisions…
• Update on Sheep Genomics and Genetics ¹ (PDF) by Christian Posbergh and Heather J. Huson, Cornell University – In recent years, the majority of genetic and genomic research in livestock has focused on species of larger economic value such as dairy cattle and swine. As genetic and genomic technologies drop in price, more industries, including sheep, are trying to take advantage of these data for use in their breeding systems…
• DNA Markers for Aseasonality and Milk Production In Sheep ² (PDF) by R. G. Mateescu and M.L. Thonney, Cornell University – Knowledge about genetic markers linked to genes affecting quantitative traits can increase the selection response of animal breeding programs, especially for traits that are difficult to improve when using traditional selection…