[Jacob-list] need advice on breeding groups

[Carl Fosbrink]

Horns are very important to me! They are one of the things that set the Jacob apart from other breeds. A ram may pass inspection at six months of age, but his horns can change a lot until he is two years old. If his horns have to be trimmed to keep them out of his face or they are no longer symmetrical he should not be used for breeding because he would not pass inspection then and you don't want to pass on those bad horn genes. Using a young ram whose horns have not finished growing is not a good idea either because you don't know what his horns will look like when his horns are more mature. Horns do most of their growing until two years of age. After that they grow very slowly. They probably do 80% of their growing until two years old and you can tell how they are going to be by then. 


From: Linda 
Sent: Saturday, November 03, 2012 5:02 PM
To: Neal Grose 
Cc: jacob-list at jacobsheep.com ; Kimberly Sutton 
Subject: Re: [Jacob-list] need advice on breeding groups


And horns. Don't forget horns.

Linda

On 11/3/2012 2:03 PM, Neal Grose wrote:

  Fleece character tends to be the average of the parents (given enough matings). Perhaps a better way of managing breeding would be to select for the type of ram you want with some consistancy. With Jacobs, it's never a bad idea to shoot for the middle.

  I second Carl's comments on paying attention to confirmation and body type. Fleece in Jacob's Sheep is supposed to be rather variable.

  Neal Grose

  From: Kimberly Sutton 
  Sent: Friday, November 02, 2012 8:31 PM
  To: jacob-list at jacobsheep.com 
  Subject: [Jacob-list] need advice on breeding groups

  This will be our first year of breeding our sheep and we had a question about fleeces.  We have heard that the easiest thing to improve is fleece.  So does that mean that you could (or should) put a ram with a dense coarser fleece with ewe with really nice fine fleece and get a nicer fleece in the lambs?  Does the fleece always improve or does it go backwards sometimes?  


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