Animal and Range Sciences Facilities
Sheep Research and Teaching Unit
Sheep Research and Teaching Unit – Brookings
The Sheep Research and Teaching Unit is composed of approximately 80 acres of grass pasture and hay ground including the building site plus 40 acres of crop land for forage and silage production. The Research and Teaching Center (building) was completed in January 1993. It is of pole frame construction 240 x 72 feet with a clay base floor in the animal areas. Sheep at the unit include:
Sheep (Breed)
No.
Registered Hampshire 75 (Spring
Lambing)
Registered Columbia 75 (15 Fall – 60
Spring Lambing)
Crossbred Finn-Dorset-Targhee 300 (150 Fall – 150 Spring
Lambing)
Students exhibited sheep from the SDSU Sheep Unit at the 2003 National Columbia Show and Sale and received the Champion Fall Columbia ram and ewe awards. Sheep from the sheep unit are also utilized in laboratories for various undergraduate classes as well as for a variety of extracurricular activities including the SDSU Little International, judging contests, and pre-school and elementary school tours.
Five faculty members from Animal Science, Range Science, and Veterinary Science utilize resources from the sheep unit for research projects. Some current research projects include evaluation of percentage Dorper breeding (3/8) in the ewe flock on ewe and lamb performance, evaluation of methods to prevent lung lesions in lambs, evaluation metabolic status during the first 24 hours of life on lamb performance, evaluation of methods of establishing warm season grass in cool season pastures, and tracking immune cell development. In addition, a parallel projects evaluating percentage Dorper ewes and incidence and impact of lung lesions at the Antelope Range Livestock Station, Buffalo, SD. This allows us to evaluate the Dorper breed and incidence and impact of lung lesions under two different management systems (range vs. farm flock). An additional area of study is implementation of successful fall lambing. Since the ewe is a short-day, seasonal breeder, she normally would cycle and breed in the fall rather than lamb in the fall. In an effort to overcome this barrier, several hormonal, light treatments, and selection methods have been investigated. Previous selection at SDSU for fall lambing has resulted in over 80% of exposed ewes lambing in the fall. Exposure of ewe lambs to extended light in the winter to stimulate fall lambing is currently being investigated.
Five to six undergraduate students are employed at the SDSU Sheep Unit to help with management of the sheep as well as conducting the research projects and collection of data.