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Dorset Horn
The Dorset Horn is an endangered British breed of domestic sheep. It is documented from the seventeenth century, and is highly prolific, sometimes producing two lambing seasons per year. Among British sheep, it is the only breed capable of breeding throughout the winter. History The Dorset Horn originated in Dorset in south-west England. Like the extinct Pink-nosed Somerset to which it is related, it probably derived from cross-breeding of Merinos imported from Spain with local tan-faced sheep similar to the modern Portland. Unlike many British lowland breeds, Dorset sheep were not influenced by cross-breeding with the Leicester or Southdown breeds which were much used for this purpose in the latter eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. A breeders' society, the Dorset Horn Sheep Breeders' Association, was set up in 1891 and the first flock book was published in the following year. The Dorset Horn was exported to many countries, among them Australia, South Africa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maryland Sheep And Wool Festival
The Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival is the largest and longest-running showcase of domestic sheep and wool in the United States. The 2010 festival was the 37th consecutive. It is held at the Howard County Fairgrounds in West Friendship, Maryland. History The festival was started in 1973. In 2003 it attracted over 70,000 people. The 2014 festival was the 40th consecutive. It is sponsored by the Maryland Sheep Breeders Association. The festival's purpose is to "educate the public about sheep and wool". It is organized and staffed by volunteers from both the sheep breeding and fiber communities. It is held annually during the first weekend in May at the Howard County Fairgrounds in West Friendship, Maryland. It has vendors of wool yarn, and judging of more than 30 sheep breeds. Vendors of other fiber-producing livestock such as goats, angora rabbits, llamas, and alpaca also attend. The festival includes live music, a parade of breeds, a sheep to shawl contest, and border colli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by area in Oceania and the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, sixth-largest country. Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils. It is a Megadiverse countries, megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with Deserts of Australia, deserts in the centre, tropical Forests of Australia, rainforests in the north-east, and List of mountains in Australia, mountain ranges in the south-east. The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south east Asia approximately Early human migrations#Nearby Oceania, 65,000 years ago, during the Last Glacial Period, last i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rare Breeds Conservation Society Of New Zealand
__NOTOC__ The Rare Breeds Conservation Society of New Zealand (RBCSNZ) was founded in 1988 to conserve, record and promote rare livestock breeds with the aim of maintaining genetic diversity within livestock species. The area of coverage is broad, and includes poultry as well as camelids, cattle, chinchillas, deer, donkeys, goats, horses, pigs, rabbits and sheep. Auckland Islands expeditions Projects carried out by the RBCSNZ have included expeditions to the subantarctic Auckland Islands group to rescue live specimens of the introduced but long-isolated populations of Enderby Island Rabbits, Enderby Island Cattle and Auckland Island PigsRobins, Judith H.; Matisoo-Smith, Elizabeth; & Ross, Howard A. (2003). The origins of the feral pigs on the Auckland Islands. ''Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand'' 33(2): 561-569. for captive breeding in New Zealand before their eradication from the Auckland Islands in the course of conservation management. See also * :Animal bree ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conservation Status
The conservation status of a group of organisms (for instance, a species) indicates whether the group still exists and how likely the group is to become extinct in the near future. Many factors are taken into account when assessing conservation status: not simply the number of individuals remaining, but the overall increase or decrease in the population over time, breeding success rates, and known threats. Various systems of conservation status exist and are in use at international, multi-country, national and local levels as well as for consumer use. International systems IUCN Red List of Threatened Species The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is the best known worldwide conservation status listing and ranking system. Species are classified by the IUCN Red List into nine groups set through criteria such as rate of decline, population size, area of geographic distribution, and degree of population and distribution fragmentation. Also included are species that have gone e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North Carolina State University
North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The university forms one of the corners of the Research Triangle together with Duke University in Durham and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". The North Carolina General Assembly established the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, now NC State, on March 7, 1887, originally as a land-grant college. The college underwent several name changes and officially became North Carolina State University at Raleigh in 1965. However, by longstanding convention, the "at Raleigh" portion is usually omitted. Today, NC State has an enrollment of more than 35,000 students, making it among the largest in the country. NC State has historical streng ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sport (genetics)
In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, mitosis, or meiosis or other types of damage to DNA (such as pyrimidine dimers caused by exposure to ultraviolet radiation), which then may undergo error-prone repair (especially microhomology-mediated end joining), cause an error during other forms of repair, or cause an error during replication ( translesion synthesis). Mutations may also result from insertion or deletion of segments of DNA due to mobile genetic elements. Mutations may or may not produce detectable changes in the observable characteristics (phenotype) of an organism. Mutations play a part in both normal and abnormal biological processes including: evolution, cancer, and the development of the immune system, including junctional diversity. Mutation is the ultimate source of a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ryeland
The Ryeland is one of the oldest English sheep breeds going back seven centuries when the monks of Leominster in Herefordshire bred sheep and grazed them on the rye pastures, giving them their name. It was introduced into Australia in 1919 and are classified as an endangered breed by the Rare Breeds Trust of Australia and also are one of the nine heritage breeds that were the foundation of the sheep and wool industry in Australia. The Ryeland was one of the breeds used to introduce the poll gene (no horns) to the Dorset breed in the development of the Poll Dorset. This breed is raised primarily for meat. Breed characteristics Ryelands are docile with high fertility. Due to their blocky build they are easy on fences compared to many breeds. They are ideal sheep for small properties. Ryelands are also 'good -doers' – William Youatt wrote that Ryelands "endure privation of food better than any other breed" and Sir Joseph Banks wrote "Ryelands deserve a niche in the templ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corriedale
The Corriedale is a New Zealand breed of sheep. It was bred from about 1882 in the South Island by James Little, who cross-bred Merino and Lincoln Longwool sheep. The breed was officially recognised in 1911. It has been exported to Australia and to many countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and North and South America. In 2021 it was reported from twenty-five countries, and the total population was estimated at just over 5 million. History The Corriedale was developed in the latter part of the nineteenth century by cross-breeding Merino and Lincoln Longwool sheep, with the aim of producing sheep with grazing requirements intermediate between the lush lowlands which suited the British breeds and the sparse dry grazing preferred by the Merino. The first to attempt this was James Little, who had come to New Zealand from the United Kingdom in 1863, and had previously tried to cross-breed Merinos with British Romney stock. At the Corriedale estate in North Otago, where he was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Selective Breeding
Selective breeding (also called artificial selection) is the process by which humans use animal breeding and plant breeding to selectively develop particular phenotypic traits (characteristics) by choosing which typically animal or plant males and females will sexually reproduce and have offspring together. Domesticated animals are known as breeds, normally bred by a professional breeder, while domesticated plants are known as varieties, cultigens, cultivars, or breeds. Two purebred animals of different breeds produce a crossbreed, and crossbred plants are called hybrids. Flowers, vegetables and fruit-trees may be bred by amateurs and commercial or non-commercial professionals: major crops are usually the provenance of the professionals. In animal breeding, techniques such as inbreeding, linebreeding, and outcrossing are utilized. In plant breeding, similar methods are used. Charles Darwin discussed how selective breeding had been successful in producing change o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poll Dorset
The Poll Dorset, a short-wool, meat-producing sheep, was developed in Australia between 1937 and 1954 with the aim of breeding a true Dorset type sheep without horns. The poll gene was introduced into Dorset Horn flocks from two other polled breeds and following a strict back-mating programme achieved close to 100% of Dorset Horn blood. Its main distinguishing features are its hornless appearance, long, lean square body set on short legs, pink skin and 'spongy' short-stapled wool. The Poll Dorset produces a fleece of white, dense downs type wool of 30 microns fibre diameter and it has a white wool-free face.Stephens, M (''et al.''), ''Handbook of Australian Livestock'', Australian Meat & Livestock Export Corporation, 2000 (4th ed), The breed was developed at a property called ''Valmore'' in Whitemore, Tasmania, a noted centre for pedigree livestock stud farms. The Poll Dorset resulted from the introduction of Corriedale and Ryeland blood into the Dorset Horn. Poll Dorset rams ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polled Livestock
Polled livestock are livestock without horns in species which are normally horned. The term refers to both breeds and strains that are naturally polled through selective breeding and also to naturally horned animals that have been disbudded. Natural polling occurs in cattle, yaks, water buffalo, and goats, and in these animals it affects both sexes equally; in sheep, by contrast, both sexes may be horned, both polled, or only the females polled. The history of breeding polled livestock starts about 6000 years BC. Terminology The archaic term or is sometimes used to refer to hornless livestock (especially cattle) in folk songs, folk tales, and poetry, and in the name of the polled Irish Moiled cattle breed. "Muley" derives from Irish and Scottish Gaelic ''maol'', and Welsh ''moel''. Genetics In cattle, the polled allele is genetically dominant to that for horns. The polled trait is far more common in beef breeds than in dairy breeds. CRISPR technology is being developed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
