It is all about the interactions
Sheep GEMS News Brief 2 – May 2024 As a reminder, GEMS stands for Genetics, Environment, Management and Society. In Sheep GEMS we are interested in the interactions among these elements of a production system. As our starting point, we focused on the first three bits, namely Genetics, Environment and Management. An initial study with Katahdin sheep shows how these elements work together. We based genetics on body weights, fecal egg counts, and FAMACHA scores recorded at around 90 days of age in over 3,500 Katahdin lambs from 17 flocks participating in the National Sheep Improvement Program (NSIP). FAMACHA scores…