FY 2003 Sheep & Goat Industry Grant Initiative (SGIGI)
Grant Awardees

Title: Sheep Safety & Quality Assurance Program Implementation

Scope:  National Quality Assurance

Objective: Assist in facilitating and reaching the proposed goal of providing training regarding the SSQA program in order for the information to be promptly and accurately presented to producers, distributors, and consumers.

Title: High Country Woolens product development and marketing of wool blankets made from black and blackface wool

Scope: Regional Niche Marketing

Objective: High Country Woolens is a vertically integrated value added project that will take blackface wools, which have traditionally brought a lower price in the traditional wool market, and have them manufactured into specialty blankets. Once the blankets are manufactured the group will work to sell them through marketing outlets that target sportsmen and outdoors enthusiasts. The projects is designed to fill a need in a niche market that will bring producers a higher price for their wool in a new market segment while also educating those that share the outdoors experience with ranchers about the eco-friendly attributes of the American wool and lamb industries.

Title: Elk Creek Cheese Milk Supply Expansion Program

Scope: Regional Marketing

Objective: Elk Creek Cheese was founded in 1999 by a group of Grade A goat dairy farms primarily in Michigan and Ohio. The group has experienced a ready acceptance in the market place and a corresponding increase in demand for their product. The group has recently completed a processing facility and they are in the process of working with additional goat producers to expand their flocks to help meet the growing demand. The program shows promise for expansion of the dairy goat industry in that region and the grant will help facilitate the expansion by freeing capital that has been locked up in the processing facility to help increase other aspects of the expansion.

Title: Nutrient Requirements of Small Ruminants

Scope: National Education

Objective: Reports of the National Research Council’s series on nutrient requirements of domestic animals are used as the standard for livestock feeding throughout the world. The Reports consolidate peer reviewed research about environmental impacts and production efficiencies for the benefits to producers, researchers, educational programs and are also the trusted non-bias source of information for government policy makers and legal decisions. The last editions of the National Research Council’s Nutrient Requirements of Goats and Nutrient Requirements of Sheep were published in 1981 and 1985, respectively. The $50,000 grant from NSIIC will be combined with $200,000 from other sources to complete an updated Nutrient Requirements publication that will include all small ruminants.

Title: Use of Real Time Ultrasounography Technology to Enhance Genetic Selection for Improved Carcass Quality and Cutability in Lambs

Scope: Marketing Research

Objective: As consumers demands continue to shift toward case-ready, ready-to-cook, heat and serve and comfort foods the need for the lamb meat industry to respond through genetics and feeding practices becomes increasingly important. One of the elements missing in the lamb meat industry has been a non-invasive pre-harvest technique for evaluating the use of real time ultrasonograpic technologies to assist with genetic selection, production efficiencies and yield. Ultrasounographic techniques have been effectively utilized by the beef and pork industries, but the technology has only had limited success in lamb meat for a number of reasons. This program will help determine if advances in Ultrasounographic technologies will make it a viable tool in the lamb meat industry.

Title: Goat meat marketing in the retail and food service markets in two southern cities

Scope: Regional Marketing

Objective: The goat meat industry is an emerging sector and in the past the emphasis has been on husbandry and production practices, with lesser emphasis on marketing. While there have been studies conducted on goat meat market identification and consumer acceptance, there is little information on goat meat marketing. Southern States Cooperative Foundation in cooperation with North Carolina and Kentucky producers will develop a blueprint marketing study and test it in Raleigh, NC. The study should be conducted in such a way that it can be duplicated in other locations as the goat market continues to develop and expand.

Title: Effects of diet on growth, endocrine profiles, and carcass composition in meat-type goats raised in Missouri

Scope: Production Research

Objective: As the meat goat industry moves from a specialty niche market toward filling the needs of the growing Hispanic and Islamic markets, the US goat industry is moving from their primary emphasis on mohair and goats as a pasture management tool into a mainstream meat industry. The grant will fund research that will evaluate production efficiency, growth rate, and carcass composition of goats raised in an intensive (feedlot) or non-intensive (grass fed) production system. The program will also evaluate fatty acid profile of the goat meat from the two production systems relative to dietary healthfulness and palatability.

Title: Sire selection criteria and retinal identification for value-based market lambs

Scope: Production Research

Objective: The main objective of the project is to capitalize on production and carcass traits of superior animals in value based marketing. The programs is designed to determine the ability of rams identified as superior in the performance test to transmit their desirable characteristics to their offspring and increase carcass value. the project will also evaluate the efficiency of a retinal imaging device to allow individual lambs to be identified from birth through processing.