[Jacob-list] freckles?

[WenlochFrm at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/10/00 5:33:53 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
wolfpen at alltel.net writes:

> 
>  There is certainly alot of information out there about freckles.  I'd heard
>  rumors as to the correlation between leg markings and freckles during
>  earlier discussions.  I do have one ewe (she's 5 years old now) with black
>  feet, hock and knee patches and no freckles.  Until this year, when she was
>  bred to a ram from a heavily freckled line, she has never had a freckled
>  lamb. This year she had twins, one with no leg markings and no freckles and
>  one with all the extras plus freckles.

Hock and knee patches is not what I consider a lot of leg coloring. I have 
several Jacobs with the usual hock/knee patches that have no freckling. I 
have twins this year with a whole series of dime-size spots running up and 
down the backs of all four legs. When they're both moving away from me in the 
pasture, it's a real psychedelic experience.

Two years ago I used a ram with next to no freckling and all white legs over 
freckled ewes. He sired a number of ewes with the all white legs and, so far, 
no freckling. Some of them, in turn, were bred to freckled rams. I'm waiting 
to see if the lambs will develop the freckling. I, also, have had twins, one 
with leg spotting/freckles and one without, when only one parent was 
freckled. For me, half the fun of having Jacobs is experimenting and seeing 
what I get. Someday, when we have all the answers, maybe it won't be as much 
fun as it is now.  

>  Also - does the black spotting on the skin always lead to black fiber?  I
>  have one with black skin spots, but it hasn't shown up in the fiber yet.
>  He's two.

I recall Janine Fenton saying that  freckling may, or may not, show up in the 
fiber. 

>  When people say that freckles show up in the first shearing - does that 
mean
>  they actually manifest themselves around that time or is this the first 
that
>  they are noticed?  I'm just wondering if I grab this boy at 6 months and do
>  a complete "freckle search" and don't find any, and he doesn't show the
>  darkening face or legs, is there a good chance that he will not be 
freckled,
>  even though his parents are? 

It's there before shearing. Some people probably don't notice it, or it is 
skin pigment only and not noticeable until the wool comes off.

 Of course by then his horns will probably be
>  on backwards or something.
>  

There is always something, isn't there, to keep us from breeding that perfect 
Jacob.

Joan Franklin