Sheep and Goat Education

Sheep and goat education

Sheep and goat production make up a significant portion of Idaho's agriculture. University of Idaho Extension strives to provide the most recent, research-based information to sheep and goat producers to maximize production and sustainability in their operations.

Research is conducted at the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station near Dubois and at the Nancy M. Cummings Research, Extension and Education Center near Salmon. Educational programs for adults and youth provide information about sheep and goat production and are offered statewide.

Research

Aversion to phenylthiocarbamide in mature Targhee and Rambouillet rams

This research project identified rams as having variable responses to a bitter-tasting compound, which suggests that sheep have similar differences in taste-preferences to those we see in humans. The next steps are to determine if there is a genetic component to that, which we think there is. This could translate into selection for sheep that will eat different types of plants more readily.

Aversion to phenylthiocarbamide in mature Targhee and Rambouillet rams. Translational Animal Science, pages 1749 1753, https://doi.org/10.1093/tas/txz080. Dillan Henslee, Joel Yelich, J Bret Taylor, Melinda Ellison (December 2019).

Overgrowth of sagebrush in the western United States can lead to a reduction in plant diversity, carrying capacity and wildlife abundance (Launchbaugh, 2003). Suppression of sagebrush with grazing sheep may be a sustainable method of control. The dietary preference for sagebrush in sheep has a calculated heritability of 0.28 (Snowder et al., 2001), suggesting that breeding selection for low-palatable compounds in sheep may be achievable. Ferreira et al. (2013) identified a set of novel genes for bitter taste receptors in sheep, suggesting that sheep may be genetically predisposed to select or avoid plants with bitter or noxious tastes. Read entire research paper.

News and events

UI Extension offers the Sheep and Goat Webinar Series on the second Wednesday of each month, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. PT/12 p.m.-2 p.m. MT. Register today via Zoom: https://uidaho.zoom.us/j/685028298.

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