|
Back to Science HOEMPAGE
SAC awarded £1.4 million grant to improve
confirmation of Scottish Blackies and other hill lambs
Comment on SAC press release
Filed 27 Oct 03
www.land-care.org.uk
DEFRA have awarded Scottish Agricultural College's
"sustainable livestock research group" the sum of £1.4
million over 4 years to try to improve carcass quality in hill lambs
- such as the Scottish Blackface - using whole-body CT-scanning.
Such research is long overdue as CT whole-body
scanning is the most accurate and reliable way of measuring confirmation
in sheep.
It will be interesting to see if selecting genotypes
for scrapie resistance is going to clash with genes for good confirmation,
or indeed for milk production in the ewes
It could well end-up with breeding tups to be
good producers of meaty lambs, and breeding quite different tups
that are good producers of ewes with strong maternal traits - just
as we do with pedigree cattle.
But why has it taken so long to get this important
research going? The technology has been there for many years.
Further Reading
Irvine, James (2003). Kelso ram sales: what to buy?
See Farm HOMEPAGE, filed 19 Oct 03, www.land-care.org.uk, Click
Here to View
|
