[Jacob-list] Fw: What is a Jacob? and "the plague of sameness"

[Mark Essen]

Thank you, This is it.  Did we ever figure a year?  I am guessing about 1993-1995, but I could be way off, time seems to fade.  By the way, AMBC referred to at the end of the letter was the American Minor Breeds Conservancy, the predecessor to ALBC (American Livestock Breeds Conservancy).  I had just about forgotten all about that name.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Joseph Laughlin 
  To: jacob-list 
  Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 5:57 PM
  Subject: [Jacob-list] Fw: What is a Jacob? and "the plague of sameness"


  Linda, I saw your request for Anita Evangelista's article on Jacobs from anyone who had it handy. Don't know if this is the right one but I enjoyed it and saved it. Jo Ann
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Linda 
  To: Jacob-list ; jacob-sheep 
  Sent: Friday, June 01, 2007 6:59 PM
  Subject: [Jacob-list] What is a Jacob? and "the plague of sameness"


  The following was written by Anita Evangelista years ago.  I'm not sure of just when, but maybe Mark can furnish that information.  This should be required reading for anyone thinking of conserving the breed------ (the formatting errors are mine)

  When I survey the many different types of Jacobs in other people's
  flocks,
  I am driven to two unmistakeable conclusions: first, that all Jacobs bear certain superficial similarities, such as having horns and spots; and
  second, that all Jacobs don't really look alike.

  This is one of the finer things about the breed - that wherever I go, I
  see
  examples of individual owner's preferences. Here, an owner has
  consciously
  selected for a tall, leggy, lean animal - over here, someone else prefers
  a
  short, stocky, meaty type. One breeder  is particularly concerned with
  having
  a fine, long-staple fleece for spinning, another breeder is
  more interested in
  the positioning and size of the animal's horns.

  Yet, given these differences, I can still see the unmistakeable stamp of
  Jacobness" on these animals - a certain type of head carriage, a loose
  flocking behavior, ease of lambing, a hardy resiliance. Even though these
  traits can also be selected for, or against, most breeders seem to be
  less
  concerned with these qualities.

  It is considerably easier to determine an animal's worth by what is
  immediately visible than by these more elusive qualities. In the
  commercial
  breedshowring, today, sheep are not judged by their mothering abilities,
  their
  capacity for multiple birth, or their toughness - they are judged by a
  fairly arbitrary set of standards that are velieved to indicate the qualities of
  a good meat-producing animal. These qualities consist of traits we seldom
  see in Jacobs - such as a long, straight loin, filled and solid haunches, and a speedy daily weight gain.

  It is fairly common knowledge in the sheep production industry that prize
  winning animals which show these traits don't necessarily make good
  breeding animals. Sterility dogs a number of top show Suffolk lines, for
  instance, a characteristic which makes the animals a production failure.
  In essence, there are "show" lines, and there are "production" lines.
  What
  a shame that the showring does not favor the traits for which the animal
  is
  actually used! What a shame that we sheep producers have let our fanati-
  cal desire for personal acclaim override our animal's basic health and
  our own
  common sense!

  Perhaps it is nothing more or less than human nature which makes the
  showring so important to some people. Our entire Western civilization has
  risen from a concept of "progress", the movement toward an ultimate
  goal - and
  we all seem driven to determine our own goals and then make efforts to
  achieve
  them. It makes no difference if our goals fit in with the requirements of
  simple survival for our livestock - witness the number of breeds ofshow
  and
  commercial sheep which must have a third of their lambs pulled, which
  must
  have excessive grain inputs to merely rear their young, which develop
  foot rot
  and become easily parisitized.

  It is the covert decisions we have made about American livestock produc-
  tion that guide the acceptance of these goals. We want fast-growing,
  meaty animals - so we pour in the grains. We want 120 pound lambs going
  to
  market at 5 months of age. So we attach a little steroid implant
  to each animal's ear. We want a cash return for uniformity of our "crop",
  so we make sure that every animal in our flock is line-bred back to a
  desired "type". These are the traits we Americans secretly admire in our
  sheep.
  Thankfully, Jacobs are not in a position to become 5-month growth
  wonders.
  They can do well enough without grain inputs to be a fine
  strictly-pasture animal. But there is still that great danger, what Carey
  Fowler and Pat Mooney have called "The Plague of Sameness". We
  secretly want all our Jacobs to look alike, completely alike. We
  individually
  carry a mental picture of what an "ideal Jacob" is.

  Whose "ideal Jacob" is the real Jacob sheep? Is an animal with only two
  horns a "real" Jacob? How about one with coarse, kempy wool? What
  about a sheep with heavy quilting in its fleece - even if it has four
  glorious
  horns and well placed 60/40 spotting? Does a "real" Jacob ever produce
  a very dark lamb, or a lamb with "apricot" or "lilac" fleece? Do true
  Jacobs
  have freckles? Will a "real" Jacob ever have white horns?

  How can we decide what constitutes a "real" Jacob? One method is to
  seek out old photographs or drawings of the breed. Unfortunately, even
  a good selection of illustrations will only show the animals individual
  breeders raised - not the whole spectrum of the breed. Mr. Jones' 1850
  type of Jacobs are only Mr. Jones' version of what the sheep should be.
  Is that the type we should use to determine what a "real" Jacob is? If we
  are to rely on old illustrations, we should also medicate and feed our
  animals in the same way they did then - no vaccinations, no atibiotics,
  no
  AI, no grain, little or no housing - otherwise they are not the same as
  the
  old breed, no matter how superficially they appear the same.
  The true old breed of Jacobs was a tough, hardy, resiliant animal. If this
  is
  not the first priority in our day-to-day selection, we have already veered
  off
  from the original type. Mr. Jones undoubtedly knew, as we do today, that it
  only took three generations to fix a particular trait in this sheep, so he
  might have outbred to other breeds of sheep to secure a certain
  characteristic. How do we even know that Mr. Jones old Jacobs are "real"?
  The fact is, all breeds are "manufactured", made by the process of
  selection of specific characteristics from the vast gene pool that is
  "sheep". When that genetic base is limited to certain traits, such as size
  or coloration, other traits are lost. Lost, no set aside, stored, or kept in
  abeyance.
  DNA sequencing can only hold so much genetic "information". If you
  select for growthiness in your lambs, you select away from the ability
  to thrive on scant forage. If you select for size, you lose mothering
  abilities and multiple birth. Therefore, the "real" Jacob sheep must not
  have lost its most important characteristics. It must have intact, the
  highest possible number of elements which define and set apart the
  breed.
  I already know what the "ideal" Jacob is, anyway: the type of sheep that
  constitutes the "real" breed. It is all the sheep in my pasture.
  It is the short, tubby ewe with the loose open fleece. It is the rangy
  jumper
  with the close, coarse wool. It is the ewe that sheds in the spring, and the
  one that grows a tight, closed fleece which is impossible to shear cleanly.
  It is the ewe that produces dark lambs no matter who she is bred to; the
  one that takes an occasional swim in the pond; that one who wants to
  bear her twins, alone, in the woods; the one that likes to eat water plants;
  the one that prefers cedar bark; the one that will tackle any dog in a
  one-on-one fight; the one that climbs fences; the one with blue eyes; the
  one
  with five horns; the polled one born of multiple-horned parents; the
  old one who lost her teeth three years ago and still produces lambs; the
  one with split eyelids; the one with nearly-nonexistent ears; the one with
  freckles; the one without freckles; the one with great, huge spots; the one
  with tiny, circular spots.
  These are all "real" Jacobs, because individually and en masse they
  carry the characteristics of the breed. If I eliminate that freckled ewe
  based on her freckling, I have just lost a piece of true Jacobness - and
  an entire assortment of other traits that sheep carry. Any one of these
  sheep could fit a specific breed standard based on a certain "look" -
  and in three generations I could make all of their descendents fit any
  standard, merely by selecting appropriate rams.
  But these and other traits will utterly cease to exist if they are not
  protected - protected by keeping the individual sheep who bear the
  traits alive. If these sheep are eliminated from our breeding programs
  because of arbitrary selection standards, their unique characteristics
  will be irrevocably and irretrievably lost forever.
  But, I can assure you that there will be no options in this breed, if only
  one specific type is considered "true", if one look is defined as "ideal".
  Will this be the Painter line? The Hescock line? The Laseaux? Or Evan,
  Reynold, or Hardy sheep? Or the Thaxton version of the breed?
  If we truly love the diversity and uniqueness of the Jacob sheep, we must
  be willing to tolerate - no, to encourage - the individual breeder's
   tastes,
  desires and spectrum of types Given a loose breed standard, such as
  the one originally used by the AMBC and the one offered by the Card
  Grading system, we can still retain those traits we most desire in our
  own flocks - yet continue to have access to distinct qualities in other
  owner's flocks.
  We must battle the "plague of sameness" which threatens to swamp
  other breeds. Sameness and uniformity are the characteristics of those
  breeds which have few choices for the future; they are stuck with only
  what they have and are already stressed to the ultimate capacity of
  their adaptability. We must insist that Jacobs remain diverse - if only
  because diversity ensures survival options.
  And keeping the breed alive and thriving is what owning Jacobs is
  all about.
   
  www.patchworkfibers.com
  Registered Jacob Sheep, Angora Rabbits, Handspun Yarn
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