[Jacob-list] More than four

[Linda]

That's weird!  You would think that anything genetic would have showed up sometime before this year. 

7 or 8 years ago, not just at my place, there were an unusual number of forward horned lambs born.  Unrelated lambs, 
different farms, different bloodlines.  It was finally decided that the passing of a comet had created an unusually 
strong gravitational pull on the embryonic lambs, causing the horns to be shifted forward.  As good a guess as any, I 
think!

Linda
On Thu, 10 Jun 2004 08:31:30 -0700, Debbie Bennett wrote:
>I'm glad someone asked about horns cause we've observed some problems this
>year. I bought a ram back in '99 that I thought had "6 horn genetics" and have
>used him over the same group of ewes for five years now - putting his female
>offspring to an unrelated ram. The first four years we've had offspring with a
>5th or 6th little spike between the upright and lateral horns - not true
>horns, they have no core and often break off. All of a sudden this year, we
>have definite 6 horn rams, mostly expressed as fully fused upright horns and
>regular lateral horns, some just have HUGE horns, both upright and lateral.
>But, there have been other problems as well. One twin ram lamb died in utero,
>the vet said, about halfway to term, the back of his skull did not close,
>there was extra "skin" flaps overlapping the back of his head that could be
>pulled back to expose the brain. Someone was wondering at what time during
>gestation they "get their spots", this stillborn ram weighed approx. 1 lb and
>had pigmented skin. The ewe was able to carry his twin to term and he appears
>normal and healthy. A twin ram lamb out of another ewe, had a deformed ear,
>looked to be cosmetic only, but I could feel an odd "bone ridge" behind that
>ear.I don't know how/if he has grown up -  he wandered away from his mother,
>got stuck between an open gate and the barn wall, and his mother wouldn't take
>him back, so, I took him to a neighbor that wanted bottle lambs. I have
>several other ram lambs this year that do not appear to have completely normal
>heads, forward tipping horns, head flat looking towards the back, a couple of
>them seem rather dull, as in dumb, one has a slight sway to his walk that
>suggests OCD. We only have three ewe lambs this year, one two horn, seems to
>have normal horn growth,  the other two are four horned and I've noticed their
>horns are coming in slower than normal, one broke an upright yesterday and was
>bleeding, so they are true horns. Its just that at three months old, I should
>be able to see horns for a registration picture, but you can't, the horns are
>only 1/2' to 3/4" long. What I find weird is that this is the first year we've
>experienced any genetic problems using this ram, in the past, we've been very
>pleased with his offspring. I had started to look back at nutrition and
>overall herd health, the truth is, I was running low on grass hay this winter
>and was only able to find alfalfa, so they have been on pasture and hay,
>supplemented with alfalfa for the first time. I would think they would be
>healthier, some of my ewes are fat. Well, there's my observations for now.
>Debbie Bennett Feral Fibre Farm Oakland, Oregon