[Jacob-list] old time stock

[SJohn21855 at aol.com]

Seth and all,
 If you are going to change the breed and make it what it wasn't - why 
conserve it? There are plenty of the newer "man made" breeds out there. It is 
human nature to think that we can improve on nature - however in the 
improving we usually find someway to muck it up. Case in point - look at the 
Texas longhorn cattle. The breeders decided to start mixing in heavier blood 
to make them more marketable and they almost made them extinct. There are 
VERY few pure blooded longhorns any more. What a mistake it would have been 
to let them die off. I believe, and I may be wrong, that lilac coloring is a 
natural color - not man made- if I am wrong please forgive me. I am all for 
breeding for correctness, I.E., straight legs, strong bones, nice horn sets - 
however I'm not for changing the breed. The Jacob is beautiful because of 
what it is. If you start changing it to "make it better" it won't be the 
same. Nothing ever is after man starts to "make it better". The gene pool for 
Jacobs is still so small that we can't eliminate animals just because they 
don't have exact horns, or their color is a little off. There are going to be 
changes in the breed, just because of the different circumstances that they 
live in and the gene pool that we have to deal with, however, if we are going 
to preserve the breed let's work to preserve it as close to the way that it 
always has been or let it die a natural death.
 Now I'll get off of my soap box.
God bless you all,
Shelly