[Jacob-list] Killgorlin Hercules for sale; terminal sire

[Jacobflock at aol.com]

Generally speaking, if one wants to move to a meat sheep, retain the Jacob 
quality and produce longer loin, leg, etc., the shepherd might use the Jacob 
in a terminal sire program.  This has been done in England and Europe with 
some success.  Thus, one would keep the Jacob ram and replace the ewes with a 
ewe breed with the desired carcass quantity/quality.  There is more on this 
in "Raising Sheep the Modern Way"; a paper back with some pretty good 
suggestions and guidance for raising sheep.  What you want is maternal 
heterosis ... unless you know you already have significant paternal heterosis 
... 

Another consideration is dystocia.  Using a significantly "muscled" ram or a 
"fat" ram over Jacob ewes may increase ... again may increase ... dystocia.

Blasphemy?  Hey, not everyone is conserving the "breed".  Fred Horak

Fred Horak



Fred Horak