GRASS Merinos give genetic gain to wheat-sheep zone flocks

摘要

In a bid to produce four-legged profit-making machines, the GRASS Merinos group in north-west NSW has refined an Olympic-style breeding program that has driven genetic change in economically important traits at a rate of more than one per cent a yearover the past 35 years. GRASS Merinos is a group breeding scheme that began as a way for 11 Gulargambone commercial woolgrowers to survive and become more profitable during a time when sheep were called 'ground lice' and many farmers were switching to cattle and cropping.