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On November 11, 2016 a meeting of the expert committee on testing and protection of achievements in sheep and goat breeding was held in the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation. In particular, the application to the admission of a new sheep breed “Russian Meat Merino” was examined there. The breed is supposed to be used on the territory of Russia. The work on the breed began in 2004 with the delivery of three stud rams (Australian Meat Merino) from "Roseville Park" (Australia) to the stud farm "Manych". Three years later, forty-nine meat merinos were imported from “Roseville Park” and “Uardry” in Stavropol. In the first stage, diverse selection of highly productive rams of meat and wool productivity was applied. In the subsequent, the animals of the desired type were selected in a separate herd, which used a uniform fixative selection of rams of the same origin and productivity. To adjust individual characteristics of the obtained animals and to receive rams for own use, artificial insemination with frozen sperm of purebred meat merinos from Australia was used. Animals that met the requirements for productivity were left for breeding by methods of inbreeding selection. As a result, in 2014-2015, six inbreeding lines were approved on the farms which differ in energy growth, live weight, wool clip, yield of wool, and also in fineness and length. As noted, these sheep are characterized by strong constitution, reduced wrinkling, polledness, thick and thin wool from 17 to 22 microns and high energy growth. Reviews on the new and promising breed were obtained from Graham Coddington, owner of "Coddington Uardry" from Australia, as well as from a group of scientists: A. Y. Kulikova, Chief research officer of the North-Caucasus SCRI of Cattle Breeding, Doctor of Agricultural Sciences; T. V. Murzina, Dean of Post-Graduate Education, Professor of Transbaikalian Agrarian Institute; A. I. Afanasyeva, Dean of the Biotechnology department of the Altai State Agricultural University, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor. A report about a new breed was made by one of its authors, Doctor of Agricultural Sciences A. I. Surov. The authors of the new selection achievement are 22 specialists of National Association of sheep breeders, scientists, managers and specialists of stud farms of Stavropol Krai: “Vtoraya Pyatiletka”, “Manych”, “Rodina”, “Russia”, “Lenin” of Arzgirsky district, “Put’ Lenina” of Apanasenkovsky district. Thus, Russia has its own domestic meat merino, which is already interesting for such regions as Dagestan and Kalmykia, Rostov, Samara, Astrakhan Volgograd and Zabaykalsky Krai. In the spring of 2017 the farms-originators of Russian Meat Merino will offer young stock of the new breed for sale.
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