[Jacob-list] Lamb size

[Neal and Louise Grose]

I think that gestation length is controlled by the genetics of the lamb. I know this is true in cattle. Those born a little early are usually born easily, and those on the late side may have more trouble. The longer they hang on in there, the bigger they become and the more difficulty we should expect. We suspect that years of selection for bigger lambs and cattle at the expense of early vigor ( along with selection for that abomination of the animal world: level rumps ) has had the effect of increasing birthing difficulty. WE DO NOT HAVE TO HAVE BIG BABIES TO HAVE HEALTHY FAST GROWING ANIMALS.

Have to get that off my chest occasionally
Neal Grose
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Hobsickle at aol.com 
  To: jacob-list at jacobsheep.com 
  Sent: Friday, February 23, 2007 12:59 PM
  Subject: [Jacob-list] Lamb size


  To date about 2/3 of my little flock's ewes have lambed.  I use a marking harness to record breeding dates and keep a log of gestation times for my ewes.  This year most (but not all) of my ewes have gone a few days longer than their individual averages and longer than my farm average.  (In fact one beat my longest recorded gestation by 3 days.)  In addition, most (but, again, not all) of the lambs have been larger than I'm used to (as I suppose one might expect with longer womb-time).  I'm sure this could be attributed to any number of factors from diet to weather to pure coincidence, but I was wondering if anyone else was seeing this trend.

  -Dan




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