[Jacob-list] Re:American Jacob, landrace

[Grose]

George,
I inadvertently replied just to you.To recap for others, I think that Belted Galloway, Red Devon, and Scottish Highland [at least in their more primitive forms] are good examples of "landrace" types. They retain the functional traits of the primitive type; but, someone along the way decided that Red Devons should be RED. I am more familiar with Scottish Highlands and here I think the horns are mostly cosmetic, since they and the [polled] Belted Galloways were developed in a similar climate. The key here is that these breeds were developed not evolved. They were subjected to a fair degree of  selection for survivability, but were also selected for uniformity of cosmetic traits. Scottish Highlands were developed for a cold harsh climate with meager feed, but mine do amazing well in our sweltering summers [except that they get too fat in with the Holsteins]. This does not mean that they are no longer a landrace breed, just that they are not from around here. 
What I want to apply to the Jacob sheep is that we cannot allow selection for cosmetic traits to have an adverse impact on functional traits. This is the point at which we would loose "landrace". It would be silly to breed for bad horns. We need to find a workable balance. This is where breed associations can help. No one can do a good job in a vacuum. We have to find a way to have effective continuity of records. Again and again we where of unique populations of animals that are lost because no one knew that the were there. 
                                                                      Neal Grose
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