From December 16 to 18, 2023, the midterm meeting to speed up the project titled “Innovation in High-Quality Germplasm Resources of Mutton Sheep and Construction of Breeding System of Fine Breeds”—a key demonstration project of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region for technological innovation in seed industry and an openly competing project supported by the government, took place in Hohhot City. The meeting was hosted by IMU. Present at the meeting were 23 experts from Inner Mongolia Academy of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Sciences, Institute of Animal Sciences of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Inner Mongolia Sino Sheep Technology Co; Ltd., Inner Mongolia Fuchuan Breeding Technology Co; Ltd., Inner Mongolia Ruimeng Animal Husbandry Co; Ltd., Inner Mongolia Aoqun Animal Husbandry Technology Co; Ltd., Inner Mongolia Zhongqing Agricultural Development Co; Ltd. and Inner Mongolia Zhongtian Technology Co; Ltd..

At the meeting, Research Fellow Liu Yongbin, chief scientist with the project and vice president of IMU, first briefly introduced the developments of the project. He stressed that to realize the technological independence in mutton sheep breed industry and accelerate the research, Inner Mongolia Innovation Consortium for Mutton Sheep Breeding Industry had been organized to strengthen the dominant role of the consortium, intensify the development of breeding system for fine-breed mutton sheep and revitalize the mutton sheep breeding industry. Then, the member institutions and companies of the consortium successively gave their reports on the developments of the work they had undertaken since the launch of the project, effect of their work and key parts in their ensuing work. Centering around the overall goal of the project, the experts present at the meeting delivered reports and had discussions in such aspects as effective breeding of mutton sheep and research and development of key reproduction technologies for mutton sheep, adaptability improvement of Hu sheep and Small-Tailed Han sheep and selection of breeds, indigenized breeding of mutton sheep and cultivation of new breeds, cultivation of new breeds of high-quality mutton sheep in pastoral areas and agro-pastoral interlocked areas, breeding of new breeds of mutton sheep in pastoral areas and research and development of key technologies, breeding of new breeds of Dormon sheep and development of its reproduction system, breeding of new breeds of Huameng sheep and development of its reproduction system and breeding of new breeds of Hu sheep and development of its reproduction system.

During the meeting, Chen Dayong, general manager of Inner Mongolia Sino Sheep Technology Co; Ltd., which mainly supports the project, addressed the meeting. He said that as the leading supporter of the project his company was sure to support the experts and the research teams of the project, provide sheep farm for experiment, sheep for experiment, experiment data and allocate fund in time as is agreed in the contract.

At last, Research Fellow Liu Yongbin gave his concluding address for the meeting. He said that it was timely and necessary to hold the midterm speed-up meeting and the tasks of the project were carried out as planned and the project went smoothly as a whole. He also made arrangements for the subsequent tasks. First, the breeding system for the core breeding community of Dormon sheep will continue to be developed. Second, the breeding and reproduction systems of such new breeds as Hu sheep and imported sheep will continue to be carried out. Third, the combination of molecular breeding and reproduction technologies, the cooperation of experts and companies and integration of technologies and production, will be strengthened. Fourth, the testing system, breeding system, tracking system, evaluation system and reproduction system, have to be applied in the production. Liu also pointed out that with the independence and controllability of provenance of mutton sheep as the goal of the project and through the smooth advancement of the project the technological system of united breeding for high-quality mutton sheep would be established to focus on the core problems that restrain the development of breeding industry of mutton sheep and carry out united research.