Cooperative Research Centre for Sheep Industry Innovation

Good seasonal conditions in most sheep growing areas and continued strong demand for sheep make it an excellent start to 2012.

Success in a number of research projects during 2011 has set up the Sheep CRC for a strong year in 2012. Particularly exciting is the progress we are making in the area of genetics and genomics. Results from the second Genomics Pilot Project are flowing through to industry and feedback from ram breeders indicates that the broad range of traits and the accuracy of the predicted Research Breeding Values are exceeding expectation. The Pilot Project is still taking entries with around 300 tests still available. Contact Sheep Genetics (Ph: 02 6773 2948) for information about entering rams and submitting samples.

Research on meat eating quality is also making excellent progress . A detailed analysis of consumer assessment of eating quality has identified the key characteristics of meat that determined consumer satisfaction. Many of these characteristics are difficult and expensive to measure and the recent development of genomic technologies, to predict these aspects of eating quality, is therefore very important. Research Breeding Values for meat quality traits and established ASBVs for growth, muscling and fat are available for many increasing numbers of rams involved in the Information Nucleus and the Genomics Pilot Projects.

During 2012 there will be a significant increase in the focus on training and skills development to allow ram buyers to make better informed decisions when selecting rams. The aim is to make the use of ASBV information easy to understand and easy to apply.

Please monitor new information and developments through frequent use of the CRC’s website as this is where we focus much of our attention in communicating with the industry.

Professor James Rowe, CEO