[Jacob-list] Freckles

[Heather Hettick]

I started off with a very freckled ram, a mildly freckled ewe (both
noticeable at first shearing) whose freckles are just starting to bleed into
her wool at age three, a lilac ewe who is just showing freckles on her skin
now at three and a ewe still clear of freckles at three - with no leg spots.
My clear ewe so far has produced only clear offspring with no leg spots
(total of three using two different rams).  Her yearling daughter is still
clear with no leg spots and has twins this year with no leg spots but it's
hard to say whether they will develop freckles later.  My freckled ewe and
the freckled ram produced a daughter that has ticking in her wool noticeable
at the first shearing - her freckling at skin level was apparent at just a
couple weeks of age.

It seems to me there is a lot of variation in freckling and how it shows up
on individual sheep.  My ticked yearling has unfreckled white areas on her
legs, undocked tail and face although the once-white areas on her body look
like a German Shorthaired Pointer after shearing.  An ewe I bought last year
seems to a have a little freckling on the skin on her face giving her a
slightly dirty faced look but not much on her body and none extending to her
fiber.  I have yet to see black fiber coming from white skin though.

I found an interesting site on sheep color genetics from another list I'm
on.  You can change the number at the end for different traits.  The
following site addresses ticking in particular.

http://www.angis.org.au/bin/Databases/BIRX/birx_doc?mis+20

I really enjoy these Jacobs because of the variation not only sheep to
sheep, but sometimes year to year too.  It sometimes seems overwhelming with
so many traits to watch and so much to learn but it is an exciting and
rewarding challenge.


Heather Hettick - Moonstruck Jacob sheep
Creston, Ohio

OSU ATI
Hettick.1 at osu.edu
-----Original Message-----
From: jacob-list-admin at jacobsheep.com
[mailto:jacob-list-admin at jacobsheep.com]On Behalf Of Jacobflock at aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2000 4:25 PM
To: wolfpen at alltel.net; jacob-list at jacobsheep.com
Subject: Re: [Jacob-list] Freckles

Fred Horak here.

Jacob lambs most often appear to be clear spotted at birth until sheared.
At
the time of shearing a number of freckles may appear.  Some freckles appear
as black skin, some freckles seem to be black fiber from white skin.  The
black fiber is eumelanin which is rooted in the melanin dermis.  The ultra
violet rays seem to exite the production of melanin and eumelanin.

As the Jacob ages the number of freckles grows exponentially and may "bleed"
together as an ugly, ill defined spot.  The freckling seems to be
accompanied
by leg markings.  Freckling may well be a dominant trait.

The description of the parents (freckles w/ leg markings front and back) and
the watchful eye of any appearance of freckles on the lamb as it ages is a
worthy endeavor.

There seem to be interesting analogies with Merinos which are supposed to be
white with no black fiber or spots at all.  The signs of a "bad" Merino are
black stripes in the hooves and horns, black pigment in the nose and lips,
black around the eye and eyelash.  If a Merino has a black mark on a hind
leg, there is an extremely high likeihood (90%) that it will develop black
fibers.

The Jacob and Merino are reverse images. The Jacob is a dominant black, the
Merino is a recessive black.

Fred

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