[Jacob-list] horny question :o)

[Lemon, Evalyn]

I agree with Linda.  Soundness is very important.  Apart from what we each
want our sheep to look like and what the breed standards suggest, we must
think of the animal.  I don't want huge horns that seep and ooze and cause
the animal and myself constant distress just to get big horns.  And I don't
want to have to hand-deliver lambs, which endangers the lamb and the ewe,
because lambs are being breed for large heads to carry those horns.  Ask any
cattleman who has to pull all his calves every year because he breeds for
huge, heavy calves what his mortality rate is and then also ask him the
lifespan of his cows.  And then learn from what he tells you.
 
Evalyn Lemon
Maggie's Farm

-----Original Message-----
From: Linda [mailto:wolfpen at rabun.net]
Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2001 5:05 AM
To: iseespots1nc at earthlink.net; jacob-list at jacobsheep.com
Subject: Re: [Jacob-list] horny question :o)



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On Wed, 22 Aug 2001 12:00:36 -0400, Mary Hansson wrote:

>
>QUESTION:  Are we breeding progressively smaller-horned and weaker-horned
>rams and ewes when we are eliminating from the gene pool rams with horns so
>large that they touch on 4-6 month old rams?
>
>I know that Edd has talked about wanting a finger of space between horns
>when ram lambs are born, and you basically have to have this sort of space
>for the horns to be separated when the animal is an adult.  That does
>promote the "picture perfect Jacob ram" image.
>
>When 4-horned ram lambs are born with all 4 horns the size that you see on
>2-horned ram lambs.........what does one do?  Breed for bigger heads to
>support these very large and more massive horns so they won't touch?  This
>would most likely lead to birthing difficulties.  Cull for smaller horn
>bases on 4-horned rams?
>



Close set horns are not just a result of big horns.  Horn placement is also
a factor. You can certainly find close set small horns.  There is also a
matter of the horns fitting the head. One ram at three years had massive
horns, still about an inch spacing and a huge head. Another yearling ram has
plenty of spacing, long, but not huge horns and a smaller head.  Both have
sound horns that fit their heads.  I personally would not want to use a ram
lamb that had horns touching at two months.  I've kept a few just to watch
them grow and they invariably had problems.  As the horns grew, the horns
would pull apart, oozing and bleeding from the join.  In one case, at 15
months, the top horn was quite massive while the lateral at the base had
been squeezed to about an inch.  I feel certain that he would have
eventually lost that lateral.  This seems to happen frequently when the
angle of the top and lateral is close to 90 degrees. I would consider the
above example to be a perpendicularly fused horn.  I consider horns like
that to be weak and a soundness, not an aesthetic, issue.  Therefore I tend
to avoid them.  Horns that are parallel fused - as in evenly fused four
horned that appear two horned - seem to be quite strong.  Neal's Onan looks
to me to have a very strong hornset and is more acceptable to me than my ram
lamb I mentioned.  Each lamb's horns will grow differently and each lamb
needs to be evaluated individually.  The surprises are what makes raising
four horned Jacobs so interesting!

Soundness is of primary importance to me.  The issue of birthing difficulty
if we breed for large heads is an interesting one.  We certainly do not want
to sacrifice soundness and hardiness for aesthetics.  I think we can have
both.

 

Linda

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