On 17 April, more than 20 students from Northwest A&F University and Yulin College, organized by the Animal Husbandry Service Center of Jingbian County, Shaanxi Province, came to Wuhe Village, Huanghaojie Town, Jingbian County, to collect samples of the cash, height, and ear tissues of the local core breeders, to do the latest genetic data analysis, and to make scientific plans in advance for the sheep breeders' next sheep "beauty pageant" this year.
Xu Yaohong, who lives in Wuhe Village, Huanghaojie Town, is a white cashmere goat breeder in northern Shaanxi, with more than 20 years of breeding experience, he knows the key role of science and technology in breeding, and he praised the Jingbian County Animal Husbandry Service Center for organizing college students to collect samples from his sheep.
Xu Yaohong, a farmer in Wuhe Village, Huanghaojie Town, Jingbian County, said: "In the past, we selected and bred sheep by observing the quality and yield of it (cashmere) with the naked eye. ”
It is understood that the strain identification of white cashmere goats in northern Shaanxi is to conduct genotypic and phenotypic data analysis on white cashmere goats in northern Shaanxi through genomic selection technology to improve the efficiency of sheep breeding.
Wang Xihong, an associate professor at the College of Animal Science and Technology of Northwest A&F University, said: "After accumulating a certain reference group, we can predict whether it is likely to have fine wool when it grows up and whether it is likely to grow up quickly, so that we can make early, fast and accurate selection of sheep." On the one hand, farmers can save a lot of young ram breeding management costs; on the other hand, early selection is conducive to reducing the waiting time of selection, improving breeding efficiency, speeding up the breeding process, and promoting the rapid and accurate breeding of white cashmere goats in northern Shaanxi. ”
Huanghaojie Town is the core breeding area of white cashmere goat breeding in northern Shaanxi, and the local development of white cashmere goat breeding industry in northern Shaanxi is one of the leading industries.
Qiao Li, mayor of Huanghaojie, said: "Our town takes 'one town and one park', artificial insemination and strain identification as the starting point, based on a sheep industrial park, two core breeding villages, five core breeding farms, and 50 core breeding households as the industrial base, improves the coverage rate of improved varieties, achieves the purpose of improving quality and efficiency, and builds a strong demonstration town for the breeding of white cashmere goats in northern Shaanxi." "
Jingbian County is a large county for animal husbandry and sheep breeding, with 2.045 million sheep raised in the county by the end of 2023. Among them, the number of white cashmere goats in northern Shaanxi is 1.68 million, and the total output value of the sheep industry is 1.48 billion yuan, accounting for 60% of the total output value of animal husbandry, and the income of sheep raising accounts for more than 30% of the per capita income of farmers. The sheep industry has become a characteristic and advantageous industry in our county.
Wang Shengming, director of the Animal Husbandry Service Center of Jingbian County, said: "In recent years, we have focused on cultivating slender cashmere goat strains in northern Shaanxi, and carried out census and identification work every spring, through our determination of the production performance of each sheep to set up core breeding farms and core breeders, and improve the breeding capacity of white cashmere goats in northern Shaanxi. (Contributed by: Huanghaojie Town, Jingbian County)
Editor-in-charge: Yang Yang
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