nevillejackson / srs-merino

Investigation of the SRS Merino sheep breed, its genetics and skin and fleece development.

SRS-Merino

This project is about understanding the SRS Merino sheep breed. The SRS Merino is a new strain of Merino sheep developed over the past 20 years using sheep classing methods established by Dr Jim Watts. The SRS Merino is particularly interesting as an object of research because it differs from all other Merino sheep in a number of important characteristics related to wool quality.

Watts documents

The subdirectory watts-papers contains papers envisaged by Dr J.E. Watts docum enting the development and comparative performance of the SRS Merino breed. Dr Watts sadly passed away in January 2019. The documents in this directory are therefore incomplete.

Collagen and wrinkle study

The subdirectory collagen-wrinkle-paper contains a study of the histology of skin wrinkle in Merino sheep and in particular the role of amount and type of collagen in wrinkle formation and in follicle curvature.

Supplementary material

Additional documents containing supporting analyses and reviews of material can be found in the supplementary subdirectory.

What does this project hope to achieve?

An understanding of how the SRS Merino differs from other strains of Merino, and how these differences were achieved in a breeding program.

Reference

A description of the SRS Merino breed can be found at the facebook site https://www.facebook.com/srsmerino.com.au/