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

[Gary Tomas Fay]

List,

New breeds get created all the time. It is a matter of research, planning, hard
work and a heck of a lot of luck. If I had more land I would consider doing
about the same. Could you imagine a Jacob crossed with a Romanov. That breed has
litters, not lambs. 3-5 is average, 6-8 is not uncommon, I think the record ever
was 14. They are sexually mature at 3 months and can have 2 litters a year. How
is that for return on investment!

Of course, with 14 lambs you would be grafting like crazy!

G

Jacobflock at aol.com wrote:

> 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
>
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