[Jacob-list] ShetlandXJacob

[gordon johnston]

Hello Elaina
Last year, because of the unmentionable F&M here in Britain we could not buy
in a Jacob tup (ram), so we put 5 of our Jacobs to the white Shetland tup.
We had done this with one Jacob the previous year, as she was the old
Jacob's daughter.
LAMBING - wonderfully problem free (not usually the case with our oversized
British Jacobs !!!)
COLOUR - varies, some were all black at birth, some mainly black with a few
white bits, some black with white socks, tail and face stripes, some
dark-Jacob-like. As they grew, some faded to a dark brown with paler
weathered tips, while others stayed fairly black.
FLEECE - The white Shetland tup has very crimpy and fine wool, and the lambs
wool seemed to reflect the dam more. The best cross was with two jacobs with
very fine, lustrous wool - the lambs have lovely soft, crimpy, fine fleeces
and those we shall keep. Dams with coarser fleece tended to produce lambs
with poorer spinners fleece, but good for tanned skins. All the fleeces are
bulkier than the Shetland, but less kempy than the worst of the Jacobs.
SIZE - All ours turned out amazingly big, about Jacob sized. Many are going
for the freezer and will provide some hefty joints. However, I was at a sale
today where there were ShetXJacob lambs which were Shetland size. So there's
no guarantee.
HORNS - the dams were 3x4horned and 2x2horned. Some of the tup lambs have 2
horns, one is polled, most of the ewe lambs are polled, 2 have 2 horns. None
has 4 horns.
OVERALL - Our ewes here are about 60-70kgs, well fed and milky, which may
affect the outcome of this kind of cross. We also have crossed Gotland with
our Shetland tup - the lambs are huge, as big as the dam. One daughter of
this cross we put back to the Shetland - her lambs are definitely
non-identical : one is like her mum, big with ringlets, the other is almost
indistinguishable from the Shetland sire, small with lovely crimpy, lustrous
fleece.  As mentioned, our Shetland tup has very crimpy fleece (the
White-South-Mainland type) - if yours is a coloured or Foula-type tup, then
the cross might not produce such strong lambs.  Hybrid vigour plays its part
too though.   We're sharpening the carving knife now..... Have a go, that's
the only way to find out !!
Juliet, in Scotland