At an American Polypay Sheep Association Annual Membership meeting someone mentioned the National Sheep Improvement Program (NSIP) and an opportunity to enroll our flock, which seemed like the next step to tracking our production and in 1992 we enrolled in NSIP. We discovered that NSIP really validated our farm records and pretty much told us what we knew. However, the advantage of NSIP data over barn records is the large database that tracks not only the dam and sire but also includes all the performance information from any and all sheep linked to them by blood. We make decisions based on NSIP along with barn data that point out ewes that will breed in the first heat, carry condition and lamb out of season.

A producer who is a member of NSIP receives reports on the genetic values for every animal in a flock, based on the performances of those animals and all the animals that are genetically related to them, over many years and management systems. The Expected Progeny Differences (EPD) for an animal estimates how well its offspring (progeny) compare to the breed average. EPDs allow a breeder to rank all the animals by genetic value, identify high-producing replacements, and cull poor-producing animals.