[Jacob-list] improved/primitive

[linda]

We all select in our flocks - we just can't help it.  The selection criteria may vary and we 
may select for the lamb that looks different from our other sheep in an attempt to keep our 
flock diverse.  But it is still selection.  Our flocks cannot help but show our preferences 
unless we turn a bunch out and forget about them for 20 years. 
If someone wants to select for larger sheep in order to take advantage of the meat aspect of 
their sheep, while still retaining Jacob stock, why not?  I was told by an experienced breeder 
whose opinion I highly regard (and herself a breeder of the Fieldwood line at that time) that 
the Fieldwood line tends to be larger and stockier.  She recommended a Fieldwood ewe to me as 
a means of getting a little more size in my flock.  I did purchase the ewe, but the delivery 
fell through that year.  I was able to get a ewe last fall with Fieldwood lines and she is a 
bigger ewe.  Susanna Davy was able to establish this flock and Janine and Diane were able to 
continue the flock without anyone saying they shouldn't be continuing with the Fieldwood 
"style."  If a breeder prefers to focus on size, color, fleece, whatever and can do so WITHIN 
THE BREED (and that's the kicker), then the the breed is being protected.
A wise long time Jacob breeder said to me when I wondered aloud if the the focus on 
handspinning fleece would hurt the breed that --- anything that convinces people to raise 
Jacob Sheep can only help the breed. 

Linda


On Fri, 8 Dec 2000 08:59:46 -0500, Betty Berlenbach wrote:
>Wait a minute here folks!  There's a theological thing going on here which needs
>clarification:  humankind isn't so horribly depraved and horribly stupid and horribly self-
>serving that everything it touches turns to useless stuff.  I think we need a little balance
>here.  There is room in the world for improved Jacobs, which are chosen and selected for
>meat.  There is room in the world for JacobAmerican (or whatever you want to call it) and it
>ought to be preserved--not as the be all and end all, but as one among many.  Humankind has
>done a lot of good things in the world--to wit, we are sitting at computers, which nature
>didn't make.  (Actually nature did make; humankind is part of nature!)  When humankind uses
>it's god-given (nature-given, whatever) intellect and reason to produce improvements, that is
>being who they are, and not to be poo-pooed!  It is when humankind becomes so totally single-
>minded that we don't allow for ANYTHING to exist without our input and domination, and we
>squander and destroy other forms of creation that we mess up.  BALANCE!  WIthout our brains
>and creativity, there would be no penicillin (or at least not the use of it to cure
>infections), no central heating, no surgery, no chemo, no lots of things.  There is nothing
>inherently WRONG with an improved jacob, so long as we preserve the primitive Jacob as well,
>or don't intentionally destroy any species.  Our lives are improved by diversity, and the
>more diversity we destroy, the worse off the world, far as I can see.  It is wonderful to see
>these JacobAmericans with their ability to reason and defend themselves and mother far beyond
>the improved ones.  And it is wonderful to feed starving people, which takes better use of
>thrifty, meat producing animals... or grain, etc. There ought to be a balance between
>conserving the old and creating the new.  Both have value.  Both have beauty.  Both/and is a
>much more fruitful philosophy of life than either/or.  Comments?
>
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