Livestock

Sheep Program

Genetic improvement of sheep: To develop and provide critical genetic information that wool sheep breeders required (e.g. degree of inheritance of sheep traits, relationships between the traits) to optimise the rate of genetic improvement in their flocks and the wool industry as a whole.
Transgenics: To improve wool value by gene manipulation and gene insertion into Merino breeding stock.
Reproductive efficiency: To improve reproductive efficiency of flocks within the wool industry and to improve the reproductive efficiency of techniques used in support of gene transfer technology.
Wool quality: To develop and provide critical information on how to manipulate raw wool quality characteristics (which affect the processing performance) to wool industry participants to maximise the value of the wool industry.
Better nutrition and husbandry of sheep: To define, develop and provide improved nutrition and management systems and techniques to allow woolgrowers to increase their competitiveness, via increasing wool and sheep meat returns and reducing costs.
Operational: To provide facilities and support for research and development programs based at Turretfield Research Centre. These include livestock, pasture, sustainable resource and cropping research and development programs.

Livestock Systems, together with private veterinarians, have identified several South Australian farms where the brown stomach worm of sheep is resistant to the most modern chemical remedies. This represents a serious threat to the sheep meat and wool industries. A program to identify the extent of the problem, contain it and evaluate sustainable worm management practices with reduced reliance on chemicals is being urgently developed through collaborative field and laboratory research supported by industry.
The first cloned sheep in Australia, Matilda, was born. Matilda was produced using somatic cell nuclear transfer and represents a significant milestone in the development of this technology. The ongoing research aims to develop the technology for use not only within the livestock industries but also to facilitate research into improving wool fibre production by genetic engineering.
Significant advances in juvenile in vitro embryo transfer (JIVET) technology were achieved. This technology provides a means whereby oocytes can be harvested from young animals and used to produce offspring through IV maturation and fertilisation.
Results from the Selection Demonstration Flocks (SDF) selected ewes showed greasy and clean fleece weight were greater for the SDF than for the control, but the SDF did not differ from each other. The SDF ranked better for wool and body characteristics, with small or no differences between them.