By Dori Modney

New money for Genetic Services System to improve productivity in sheep and goats

Jan 7, 2022 | 3:09 PM

LETHBRIDGE, Alta. — A $495,000 investment from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada for the Canadian Centre for Swine Improvement (CCSI) should enable stakeholders to work together to increase innovation in Canada’s sheep and goat industries.

The investment will assist CCSI to collaborate with partners in developing an integrated Canada-wide genetic services system to help sheep and goat farmers with productivity while increasing supply.

The new service system will give farmers access to new developments and industry information on livestock genomics, which can improve breeding, as it sustains supply of high quality products within the sheep and goat value chains. The Canadian sheep and goat industries offer growth opportunities across many agricultural sectors, including meat, dairy and fibre.

Enhanced collaboration in the area of genetic services will improve breeding stock, as well as creating a more adaptable and competitive industry. The integrated system will include services such as phenotype measurements on traits such as growth rate and milk yield, training for farmers to adopt new technologies, genetic evaluation, and research and development.

Brian Sullivan, chief executive officer for the Canadian Centre for Swine Improvement, sees the integration as a win-win for all sectors.

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“Better integration of services will enhance these organizations’ abilities to deliver on their respective breed improvement mandates, while the breeders and commercial producers will benefit from improved genetics. This will also lead to a more sustainable supply of high quality inputs for other stakeholders in the sheep and goat product value chains.”

CCSI is working with a number of partners to integrate genetic services, including the Canadian Sheep Breeders Association, Ontario Sheep Farmers, the Canadian Goat Society, Canadian Livestock Records Corporation, Centre for Genetic Improvement of Livestock, Centre d’expertise en production ovine du Québec, AgSights, and the Canadian Meat Goat Association.

According to the 2016 Agriculture Census, there are more than 1.2 million head of sheep and goats in Canada on approximately 15,000 farms, with over $250 million of farm cash receipts, which in 2020 had a combined annual revenue of more than $263 million. Potential for growth is large and illustrated by the fact that the number of goats has more than doubled in the last 30 years.

More information can be found at the Canadian Centre for Swine Improvement