[Jacob-list] The Shepherd articles.

[dave & katrina]

Recently, I have been reading over a stack of old The Shepherd magazines and finding some really good articles.   In the Oct '89 issue, I was surprised to find Dr. Lincicome's article called "Why two registries for Jacob sheep in the United States?".  (An interesting article for a fence sitter like myself, but not to worry, I won't bring up such a touchy topic on the list. *smile*  Maybe someone could write an up-to-date article called "why five registries...." I did hear that number recently...am I overlooking a few?)
Another article I thought would be might be more interesting to the list is one called "Fussy Feeding Habits in Sheep" by Mariene Fritz, April '89.  She talks about the 'observed tendency' in sheep to set their food preferences in the first few months of life and how this might interfere with adapting to new grazing environments.  She says (based on research out of Utah State Univ) lambs copy their mothers eating habits and thus learn which plants to eat and which are poisonous.  Some research suggests that an early introduction of 'novel foods' may even change the animal's digestive systems to allow them to make better use of a wider variety of plant materials.  Livestock are "neophobic" that is, they sample new foods cautiously, then gradually eat more if they don't get sick.  According to that research, a 4-8 wk old lamb will eat 4 times as much of a new food it first eats with its mother than a food it eats alone.
This might answer some of my Timothy hay questions! *grin*  Don't know if this was new to you all, but I enjoyed it.
Katrina Lefever
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