[Jacob-list] What is this sheep, anyway?

Tue Sep 19 14:37:24 EDT 2000

1408 hrs/Tuesday 19 September 2000

Your thoughtful letter has resonated with me, for I too have wrestled
philosophically about the purposes and objectives of our commitment to
Jacob Sheep.  I am disturbed by the expressions of so many Jacob owners
about selection for this or that characteristic, about expressions of
preferences, about discarding specimens not having pleasing set of horns,
about color ratios too this or too that, etc.  Why do they disturb me?
Because these are not what we should be concerned about.  We should first
and foremost be concerned about preservation of what we have, and
conservation of that we have preserved.  The JSC recognized some of this
philosophical thought when it expunged personal preferences from its breed
standard.

The variability of genomic expression in the Jacob is what we should
accept.  Diversity is insurance that we will succeed in our efforts of
preservation.  Today there is adoo about showing Jacobs, and more recently
to organize a national show.  I can not think of any factor more
destructive to the preservation of this remarkable primitive species than
to subject it to the whims of judges in the show ring.  My 30 years of
experience as a Judge tells me a good way to destroy the diversity of the
genome is to submit to the preferences of judges.  We must not let that
happen to the Jacob.  Who of any Judge is authoritative enough to make
judgments of what is blue ribbon material in a Jacob?  I certainly would
not be willing to make such judgments in the show ring.  Showing in my
estimation is a sure path to genomic destruction.

It is good to have this off my chest!!

David Richard Lincicome, Ph.D.,PAS, DACAP
Frogmoor Farm since the late 1960's with Nubian and Pygmy goats, Jacob
Sheep, Tunis Sheep and Soft Coated Wheaten Terriers
Guest Scientist, U. S. Department of Agriculture

"Susan L. Nielsen" wrote:

> Hi, List --
>
> Posing a philosophical question here. Forgive me if this has
> been done to death -- I see from the archives that such things
> have come up now and then, but I'm thinking we can't have too
> much philosophy on the farm and trying to run a farm these days
> is at least 50% a philosophical exercise anyway. Maybe it's the
> autumn season that makes me ponder and ruminate... ;-)
>
> ... or maybe it's that I'm fairly new to this conservancy of
> breeds practice. I look out my windows and see this half-dozen
> odd little animals wandering around with their mythical horns
> and their goat-like bodies, and we are having such earnest
> conversations over breakfast and between chores about what they
> might produce in breeding, and whether they are Good Examples
> of what they should be. And I have answered so many questions in
> the last weeks from people who are everything from amused to
> puzzled to delighted to know what they are ("What kind of goats
> are those?" "Is that some little kind of antelope out there?"
> "How did you get those extra horns?" "Can you eat it?").
>
> And although I answer the questions with enthusiasm and with the
> benefit of all the book learnin' I've brought home this summer,
> it occurs to me to wonder what, exactly, they _are_ about?
>
> It's easy to say they are a rare breed and that they are, from
> the evidence, pretty ancient. But after all, they are not little
> antiques running around the breeding paddock. Watch them come up
> to you for treats and look you in the eye with an unsheep-like
> gaze and they seem very much like real animals, not relics.
>
> "So, what is this sheep worth," they ask?
>
> I can think of 3 kinds of answers to that. The first is, "Oh,
> around $200, that one there." The second is, "Well, you can sell
> the fleece, you can sell the meat, you can sell the horns..."
>
> And the third is the one that I'm fussing with this week: it's
> value is in the diversity of the stock we keep. It's value is in
> its heritage. It's value is in the fact that if we lose it, we
> can never get back the unique bundle of characteristics that make
> up a Jacob sheep.
>
> But then, as I read through the discussions of improved and unimproved
> stock, primitive, deerlike, standardized, landrace, selected... stock,
> I ask myself, how do we know that what we look at as desirable in
> this sheep is anything like what we want to think is an "original"
> Jacob. And how can it be possible not to select for traits that
> please us when we pair them? Is it not the case that our expressed
> bias for "unimproved" Jacobs is as directional as a meat grower's
> bias toward long loins and big individuals? Unless we were to turn
> them all loose in the hills and let them have their way for a few
> or a lot of generations, how would be know what they are?
>
> What are we breeding for? I mean, what traits are we breeding for?
> Are we looking to recreate a fossil sheep? Are we seeing how far
> we can select, from among Jacob parents, a sheep with traits we
> desire, such as fine fleece or good chops (apologies to jazz
> musicians! ;-) )? Are we trying to see how nice a head of horns
> we can get? Or is it enough to observe that horns vary, and that
> sometimes you get bad eye notches, and that these sheep come in
> all degrees of spotting and freckling, and that they are usually
> rather small but sometimes they can be bigger, and that variation
> that does not reduce vigor is probably good?
>
> In fact, if preserved diversity is part of our goal, is it appropriate
> to select rigorously for traits?
>
> But then, what kind of husband of a breed would do otherwise than to
> look after its best progress through the generations? What is the
> diversity worth if we can't draw on it?
>
> Well, anyway, this is all pretty long, and it can keep a person up
> all night counting sheep to think about it too much.
>
> But maybe someone out there would like to toss in some thoughts
> on it?
>
> Susan
> --
> Susan Nielsen, Shambles Workshops      |"...Gently down the
> Beavercreek, OR, USA                   |stream..."
> snielsen at orednet.org                   |           -- Anon.
>
>
>
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