The Good, the Baaad & the Ugly
By Hayley Birch
So you're a sheep. Let's face it, your chances of fame and stardom are slim to start off with. The other farm animals laugh at you - they know you're not the sharpest tools in the barnyard box. The most you could have hoped for was a bit part in the Wallace & Gromit stage play. But just to top it all off, you're pretty darn ugly. What's left for you?
Don't despair, you could be an "Xtreme Sheep". The criteria are straightforward enough - you just have to be ugly. Wrinkly skin, patchy wool, it's all viable. Because the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) has just announced its campaign to find Australia's ugliest merino lambs.
You could help sort out the good wool from the bad, as scientists try to determine what it is about a sheep's genetic makeup that enables it to produce really excellent wool. And that could do wonders for Australia's wool industry, which is worth a whopping 2.8 billion Aussie dollars.
According to Simon Bawden, who leads the project, finding the genes involved in wool formation is easier in sheep with ugly wool, because the mutations make them stand out in the genetic profile.
Previously, less handsome flock members were sent straight to the abattoir, but now shabby sheep all over Oz will be given a new lease of life as farmers are asked to donate their Xtreme Sheep.
To read more about Hayley or to view more of her articles click here
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