[Jacob-list] Re.Lilac Question

[Grose]

I don't know if this will create more questions than it answers or not, but here goes. Take notes, this gets complicated. We usually separate the Jacobs from the Cotswold/Finns and put the rams in during the first week of Nov. ALL ewes are bred by Dec. 1. Ewes are combined by Christmas and Finn rams are left with ewes to catch out of season breeders [never Jacobs]. All mature Cots/Finn rams are sold off during the summer with culls. OOPS. Several years ago, bad work schedule, Rushed season, oddly cool spot in August led to the white Cots/Finn ram started breeding early. I finally got rid of him and figured that the Finns bred early, not the Jacobs, and threw the Lilac Jacob ram in on schedule in November with all the ewes. The result was almost 20 lambs that were from one white Cots parent and one lilac Jacob. ALL lambs were born black with white markings. They had to inherit a dominant black Jacob allele. "Lilac" is a masking gene/s that has to have 2 in order to fully cover the dominant black. This may explain the lilac around the eyes. [I want to know more about pheo and eu, where can I find it?] I think that it is interesting, also, that in this group of lambs that the markings were so strong, I have previously seen references to the spotting gene/s as recessive.

I did notice that this year it was fairly difficult to tell the lilacs from the blacks at birth.
                                          Neal Grose
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