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

[Heather Hettick]

I operate on basically the same principle as Linda with limited flock size
and resources and trying to keep what I consider best by my own standards
and expectations.  One of the things I like about the Jacob sheep besides
its low-maintenance and hardiness is it's enormous variety in looks,
personality, horns and fleece - my personal favorite since I spin.  I also
like the idea that I can pick those individuals that I like best and someone
else might be equally pleased to have the ones I don't prefer for their
other qualities that I don't value as much personally.  I have a limit of 15
animals including my guard llama  because we want to limit hay feeding and
keep the flock fairly efficient and easy to care for on our small farm.
This year I had some beautifully fleeced 4 horned ewe lambs and am actually
keeping all  four of them so I had to part with some of my beloved original
and proven ewes.  The three I chose to find homes for are all exceptionally
good mothers and all but one are very nice examples of the Jacob breed but
just not exactly what I wanted long-term for my small flock for mainly
fleece and some horn reasons, but I will miss my two older ewes' tendencies
to produce good sized and fast growing lambs.  I did choose to keep a couple
heavily freckled girls because I like their thick soft and somewhat
different looking fleeces, their mother is one of the ewes leaving and the
freckled yearling is the only sheep I will have left that is related to my
original ram.  I also have a pair of twins with weaker than I would like and
somewhat forward horns, but I chose to keep them for their nice lilac
fleeces and extraordinary bright blue eyes.  I also have a ewe with fused
horns on one side, but her horns are stronger than a lot of my other ewes.
She is also the most delicate and deer-like in my flock and has a unique
sort of fleece, more soft, and long with more luster than most of my other
girls while still having a nice amount of crimp.  I feel each flock member
has something unique to contribute that makes my flock pretty much what I
want with some future plans and ideas towards "improvements" like reducing
quilting in fleeces or breeding for stronger horns.

I'm using three different rams over my ewes this year and will probably end
up selling some of the ones I decided to keep this year after evaluating
next year's batch.  I find this time of year, matching rams to ewes and
making plans and projections for next year's lambs extremely fun and
exciting.  I also know that I like what I like, but take seriously the
responsibility and challenge of keeping the hardy primitive characteristics
and the wide variety of traits in Jacobs intact while still trying to
encourage genetic diversity as much as possible using limited resources.

The proposed Jacob show coming next year is not far from where I live and I
am tempted to enter a sheep or two to give it a try and have an excuse to
check out others' sheep.  It is scheduled at a busy time of year for my job
and I am working on getting my flock enrolled in the Voluntary Scrapie
Program right now, so I may have to miss it or maybe just go and watch if I
can.  I used to show and breed dogs but gave up both as our dogs ended up
producing some serious health problems, even after careful planning and
research, and dog showing often seems to be political and more related to
how much money you invest in advertising or which professional handler you
can afford to hire.  I'm sure it is probably a different system in sheep,
but I do miss the camaraderie and opportunity to network with and learn from
people of similar interests that showing can provide.

I can't imagine how someone would even go about judging Jacobs and what
could you judge them on as there really isn't a breed standard other than
avoiding cross-bred traits and it seems than most of us really don't want
one.  Since there is no standard, do the judges judge based on meat
qualities like most county fairs or on what they themselves would like in an
"ideal" Jacob?  Would you have classes for 2 and 4 horned separate?  I think
it would be neat to have "parts" classes.  In some  all-basenji puppy
matches I'd participated in they had these little just-for-fun classes for
things like "best yodeler", "best wrinkles", "curliest tail", "cutest trick"
in addition to the more serious breed classes.  In Jacobs you could have
things like "best lilac (or black) fleece", "best set of 4 (or 2) horns",
best face (or body) markings, most unusual (or biggest or widest spread)
horns, best ears, smallest adult ewe (ram), best freckles etc.

Sorry for being so long-winded.  I don't have many people to actually talk
"sheep" to and I think my mind is wondering a bit.

Heather Hettick
Moonstruck Jacob Sheep
Creston, OH
hettick.1 at osu.edu

-