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UW-Madison To End Its Sheep Research Program

UW Was The Only Land-Grant Institution In The US Researching Dairy Sheep

By
Carol Mitchell (CC-BY-NC-ND)

In response to departmental budget cuts, the University of Wisconsin-Madison plans to end its research on dairy sheep — a program it says is unique to Wisconsin, but is no longer affordable.

After the university’s dairy sheep researcher, Dave Thomas, announced plans to retire this year, the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences decided to discontinue the program starting next fall and sell its unique flock of sheep. Associate Dean Dick Straub said the UW is the only land-grant university researching dairy sheep in the country, but because sheep dairy products remain a niche market in Wisconsin, it makes sense for the department to focus its newly limited resources on other areas.

“It really comes down to the point of, to what extent should Wisconsin taxpayers continue to support the work if it’s largely being used out of state and much less here in-state, relative to the dairy sheep industry as a whole?” said Straub.

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Straub said the college received an almost $2.8 million budget cut last year, so it’s had to make some tough decisions on where to cut back spending.

“This is not about the quality of work that Dave Thomas or the flock has supported,” Straub said. “But the fact that there is going to be a retirement here, there is not going to be a replacement for this position, and because of the budget cuts, we had to make the very difficult decision that this was an area we could no longer continue to support.”

Straub said eliminating the dairy sheep program will save the college $150,000 per year.

Dwight Mueller, the school’s director of agricultural research stations, reported that the Spooner Research Station — the facility in northwestern Wisconsin where the flock is located — may also cut more positions after selling the sheep in September.

“We haven’t really refined that or know exactly how that will impact the staffing,” he said. “But there will be consolidation.”

In addition to the sheep research, the Spooner facility also houses the school’s agronomy research projects.