[Jacob-list] vets

[Mary McCracken]

I had a nice older long fleeced brown ram for about three breeding seasons
and was UPSET by the percent of ram lambs I got from him.  I was trying to
get lovely fleeced replacement ewes.  Finally put him down but borrowed an
even older brown ram for this breeding season, again in hopes of getting
some lovely replacement ewes.  I'm curious.

Remember vaguely from Biology class that the male and female sperm have
different qualities in terms of behavior.  One being sprinters and the other
distance runners.  Perhaps the older ram knows to wait until the time is
VERY right...egg closer....It would be a very interesting data group.  I had
three rams of very different ages this breeding season.  So I'm curious to
see what difference there might be.  The pasture was pretty much equivalent.

mary
-----Original Message-----
From: SharHill at aol.com <SharHill at aol.com>
To: Jacob-list at jacobsheep.com <Jacob-list at jacobsheep.com>
Date: Tuesday, January 23, 2001 1:14 PM
Subject: Re: [Jacob-list] vets


>I wonder what the deal is with vets too. There is only one in the area who
>treats large animals, and they no longer makes house calls, except for
>horses.  They don't know a lot about sheep either.  They are very nice
though
>and treat them if I cart them up there, only 10 miles so it is not too bad.
>I know only 3 other people around who have sheep, and mostly we rely on
each
>other for help and advice.  One woman has a lot of experience and is quite
>good.
>
>Also, there is a book called "Managing Your Ewe and Lamb" ( or maybe
"newborn
>lamb) which has a flow chart with the symptoms.  I have a copy, but I
haven't
>had the need to use it yet.  The others around here rely on it alot.
>
>On an interesting note, my husband's father is a rare book dealer.  He gave
>us a copy of a book called "The Shepherd's Manual" written in 1864.  It is
>facinating to see what the attitudes about sheep and methods of caring for
>sheep were over 100 years ago.  The big 3 sheep of the era were Cotswold,
>Leicester and Merino... interesting in that the Cotswold are now rare.  I
was
>wondering if the "Leicester" is the same thing as the "Leicester Longwool",
>which is also rare.  Another tidbit of information is that Long Island and
>Georgia ( of which the greatest proportion of land was uncut or second
growth
>forests) were considered to be prime places for raising sheep.  Also "On
the
>Atlantic seaboard there are millions of acrea of land now useless that
would,
>if cleared and cultivated, make excellent sheep farms...".  Wow how things
>have changed.
>
>Something else that caught my eye, considering that some people on the list
>were calling last year the "year of the ram" is a study they did to test
the
>question of breeding for sex.  One flock of ewes was placed in good pasture
>with young rams (15-18 months old), and another was put in poor pasture
with
>rams over 4 years old.  The flock served by the young rams had 35 ram lambs
>and 76 ewe lambs.  The flock served by the older rams had 55 ram lambs and
31
>ewe lambs, and not one twin birth.   They don't claim that this is
conclusive
>about anything, but interesting and maybe worthy of further study.  I was
>wondering if anyone on the list has noticed if the age of the ram had an
>effect on gender.  I wonder why they didn't put both flocks on the same
>quality of pasture.
>
>Got to go.  Melanie, I hope your ewe pulls through.
>
>Sharon
>
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