[Jacob-list] generations...

[Betty Berlenbach]

One of the good things about having all those records is you know the 
history.  On the other hand, the more times PEOPLE have chosen for some 
traits and against others, you are trusting the PEOPLE, for that is how most 
standardized breeds came into being, and most of them are fairly dumb, 
fairly docile, many have problems with foot rot, have trouble counting 
(reject second twins, need help with lambing, etc.  If you know that the 
people making the choices are making choices FOR the traits you want in your 
animals, then having many generations' worth of breeding selection is a good 
thing. But if they are making the choices on the basis of their wants and 
not the needs of the breed, then it could be detrimental to have so many 
deliberate choices against what might happen if the sheep ran in flocks and 
did their own thing.  Or not, depending on what happened when the sheep ran 
wild.  Some of the nicest sheep I've seen have been the Huntsberger sheep, 
who basically ran wild on an island off the coast of Maine for years and 
years.  The ones who were not disease resistant, who had trouble lambing, 
who couldn't survive on seaweed and pine branches and scrub grass, didn't 
survive at all.  There was some real natural selection going on there. 
Jamie did add occasional rams, but as he couldn't always catch the old ones 
or all the lambs, since there was only a very primitive corral, one never 
knew just what ram won the game and bred the ewes, or if many bred them. 
One of the reasons (I think) jacobs are what they are is that for many 
generations they were park sheep, running as wild as deer on great estates, 
doing their own thing.  They DIDN'T become like many standardized breeds. 
In my flock, I prefer adding the occasional FF if it is a sheep whose 
characteristics fit the breed standard and if I like the look of the flock 
it came from...

Both sides of the discussion have their merits...You just need to decide 
what works best for you, and for the breed, in general, and go for it.

I've seen Lasell's sheep, and in fact, bought two, before she was 
registering...I like what I've seen at her place.  I like her fleeces (I've 
helped her skirt them for a couple of years, and have sold many for her at 
shows.)  I like the fact that most of those years, she had only Lasseau ewes 
and added a ram here and there, and that her flock basically runs wild on 
their property.  She has recently added a really good ram, who was mine 
before she was Megan Watrous', and came from Royal Unzicker, whose eye for 
good stock is pretty incredible.  The Captain has added really great fleece 
to otherwise very good fleece, and the evidence of improvement is 
remarkable.  Were it me, I'd snap up that lamb of Lasell's before someone 
else does, adding some great old genetics, some good history, and some 
diversity to your flock.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Zach Oaster" <zoaster at gmail.com>
To: <Jacob-list at jacobsheep.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 05, 2009 1:29 AM
Subject: [Jacob-list] generations...



> Hello all,

>

> My wife Lindsay and I recently started our flock of jacobs with 3 ewes

> from Gary Anderson. Two of them are E generation, and one is D. Their

> lambs in the spring will all be E (they are being bred right now to a

> D generation ram on-loan from Gary).

>

> Lasell Bartlet and I were chatting about the value of moving the

> generations forward vs. just breeding good sheep. Lasell put it this

> way, "...for some it might certainly be a selling point -- but not

> sure what exactly it proves"... she talked about how she had been

> breeding good sheep for years, and only recently started to register

> some of them. She posed the question, which I will now pass along to

> the experts here in the group, "what might be the value of E (or

> later) generation versus FF generation Jacobs."

>

> The reason the conversation started in the first place was because I

> was hesitant to buy a really nice C generation ram from Lasell because

> it would "set back" the offspring of my ewes (generationally...

> otherwise, the ram is awesome). If my goal is to responsibly breed

> good sheep that are continually bettering the breed, should I concern

> myself with generation?

>

> Thanks in advance for your insight.

>

> PS... Lasell approves of me asking the question with her name

> attached... she was going to ask if I didn't.

> ^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^

> Zach Oaster

> zach at fattoaster.com

> ^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^

> Visit Zach's worship resource and blog site: http://www.fattoaster.com

> Visit Zach & Lindsay's farm blog: http://fattoasterfarm.wordpress.com

> ^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^

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