[Jacob-list] Reply on crossbreeding jacobs

[Grose]

Pam Millar wrote:
"I am actually interested in crossing my Jacob ewes with a larger ram of another breed (not too large as you know these ladies tend to be petite). I sell meat from my farm, and while customers love the meat, they want larger chops and legs. From an economical standpoint, I have been disappointed with the size of the lamb.  Thus, my interest in crossing. Probably blashmemy on this list!!"

I say: Do what works! If you don't have sales for enough purebred rams every year, then consider crossing every other year. I think that we all want our hobby to be self sustaining, and Jacob sheep make excellent moms. We have a group of FinnXLongwools that fit in with the Jacobs rather nicely. The lambs are only slightly larger than the Jacob lambs, have little lambing problems, and grow like crazy. The biggest problem is that the lambs hit puberty at 3 months and will breed anything standing still. We do have a few crosses pop up but eat them all. The Finn/Longwool ram on a Jacob ewe produces lambs with 6 month weight equal to the opposite cross, even though the Jacobs are less than half the size of the Longwools. I think that it must be the Finn in there that does the trick. Something like Tunis may also work well.

Neal Grose
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