One of the important research resources that the UC Hopland Research & Extension Center provides to UC researchers (and others) is the availability of a uniform sheep flock. Because HREC has maintained a rather "closed-flock" of "Western Whiteface Targhees" over the decades, the individual sheep are quite uniform in size and genetics, with an excellent data set for each individual animal.
Researchers from the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital (VMTH) are currently looking to see what the effects are of dietary zinc supplementation on the lambing rates. Preliminary data, even though we are early into the lambing season, shows what appears to be a significant increase. Final conclusions cannot be made until the research project is completed however.
