Department of Animal Sciences

Research - Sheep

OSU Sheep Center

OSU Sheep Center

Phone: 541-737-2903

Unit Supervisor: Tom Nichols

Unit Management Team Chair: Jim Thompson

The Sheep Center is located on the Wilson Farm, four miles west of campus on Oak Creek Drive. The sheep barn, constructed in 1991, with facilities for animal handling and lambing, is also available for group feeding trials. The Animal Sciences Department and the Veterinary School use the Sheep Center as a teaching laboratory. Extension faculties from these two programs also collaborate to teach lambing and shepherd's schools at the center.

During lambing the center is a popular field trip destination for school children and community groups. Sheep research activities at the Sheep Center focus primarily on the exploration and utilization of genetic variation to increase the efficiency of commercial lamb production. East Friesian, Dorper and Dorset breeding have recently been introduced into the research flock of predominately Polypay and Suffolk ewes to initiate three such research projects. The Sheep Center's 600 acres of hillside pastures sustain this breeding flock of 475 ewes and provide a field laboratory for integrating a variety of agricultural and natural resource disciplines.

The Sheep Center's Campus Barn provides a secondary teaching and research facility. Researchers from the OSU Veterinary School, Oregon Health Sciences University and the Animal Sciences Department use these facilities. Small group pens and pastures are currently housing sheep for rumen toxicology and reproductive physiology research. Additional animals housed there are utilized for livestock evaluation and judging classes by both Oregon State University and Linn-Benton Community College. The Sheep Center utilizes a manager and student labor.