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Dave Thomas' career in the sheep industry has focused on research, University of Wisconsin-Extension and teaching.
Dave Thomas oversees the last sheep-research effort in August 2016 at the UW-Spooner Agricultural Research Station. After 80 years of sheep research all the station’s dairy sheep were sold in October 2016. Four blood samples were collected from each of 400-plus dairy sheep for disease and genetic analyses.
Suffolk sheep are safer as a result of a discovery by Dave Thomas that spider lamb syndrome was the result of a genetic defect due to a single recessive gene. Carriers of severe skeletal deformities in lambs can now be detected with a blood test prior to breeding. With DNA testing it's possible to virtually eliminate the syndrome in colored breeds of sheep such as Suffolks.
Dave Thomas talks about his work in the sheep industry during a recognition banquet for the University of Wisconsin-College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. An animal-science professor emeritus, he earned the college's Distinguished Service Award for his lifetime of work in research, UW-Extension and teaching.
Dave and Lynda Thomas pose for his distinguished-service award from the University of Wisconsin-College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. The couple both served in the Peace Corps and now live in Madison, Wisconsin.
Dave Thomas, right, presents Yves Berger, now-retired shepherd at the University of Wisconsin-Spooner Agricultural Research Station, with the Wisconsin Sheep Breeders Cooperative's Art Pope award. The award was named for the late UW-Madison sheep specialist who Thomas succeeded in the job. Thomas and Berger conducted dairy-sheep research, the only research program of its kind in North America.
Dan Schaefer, left, is awarded in 2015 the Sheep Industry Award by the Wisconsin Sheep Breeders Cooperative. He is joined by Todd Taylor, center, shepherd at the University of Wisconsin-Arlington Agricultural Research Station, and Dave Thomas. Schaefer in 2015 served as chairman of the UW-Animal Sciences Department while Thomas served as UW-Madison professor of sheep management and genetics.
MADISON, Wis. – Dave Thomas is one of the best friends sheep and the people who care about them ever had.
Linda Leake
Dan Schaefer
Lynn Grooms writes about the diversity of agriculture, including the industry’s newest ideas, research and technologies as a staff reporter for Agri-View based in Wisconsin.
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Dave Thomas oversees the last sheep-research effort in August 2016 at the UW-Spooner Agricultural Research Station. After 80 years of sheep research all the station’s dairy sheep were sold in October 2016. Four blood samples were collected from each of 400-plus dairy sheep for disease and genetic analyses.
Suffolk sheep are safer as a result of a discovery by Dave Thomas that spider lamb syndrome was the result of a genetic defect due to a single recessive gene. Carriers of severe skeletal deformities in lambs can now be detected with a blood test prior to breeding. With DNA testing it's possible to virtually eliminate the syndrome in colored breeds of sheep such as Suffolks.
Dave Thomas talks about his work in the sheep industry during a recognition banquet for the University of Wisconsin-College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. An animal-science professor emeritus, he earned the college's Distinguished Service Award for his lifetime of work in research, UW-Extension and teaching.
Dave Thomas, right, presents Yves Berger, now-retired shepherd at the University of Wisconsin-Spooner Agricultural Research Station, with the Wisconsin Sheep Breeders Cooperative's Art Pope award. The award was named for the late UW-Madison sheep specialist who Thomas succeeded in the job. Thomas and Berger conducted dairy-sheep research, the only research program of its kind in North America.
Dan Schaefer, left, is awarded in 2015 the Sheep Industry Award by the Wisconsin Sheep Breeders Cooperative. He is joined by Todd Taylor, center, shepherd at the University of Wisconsin-Arlington Agricultural Research Station, and Dave Thomas. Schaefer in 2015 served as chairman of the UW-Animal Sciences Department while Thomas served as UW-Madison professor of sheep management and genetics.
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