[Jacob-list] Re: Out of season/weather

[Linda]

As hot as I always think it is here in Rabun County, Georgia, the weather stats say we didn't hit 90 at all  last  
year.  But, it sure hits 100 in south Georgia alot, well through August.  There are quite a number of club lamb farms 
down that way and they breed for January lambs and get them.  I have heard that a long period of temps above 90 will 
cause temporary sterility in rams.  If that's true, then they may have some method of keeping the rams cool prior to 
breeding.  Or it may not be true.

I would not immediately suspect a Jacob born in late summer or early fall, but would be interested in more background 
on the individuals and would want to know if any other suspicious traits were apparent either in the lamb or his/her 
background.  There are a number of "warning flags" that would make me want to research further to see if other flags 
show up.  The fact that a lamb was born in late summer would not eliminate that lamb if I was thinking of 
buying/keeping him/her or his/her mother.  It would make me do abit more research - which most of us normally do 
anyway.  Ewes that consistently produced and raised two lamb crops a year are another story.

Mary Ellen's comment on the scarcity of lambs born after June in the AMBC books is interesting and fits my idea of when 
a Jacob is born.  I do wonder, though, if anyone has done a test and not put the ewes in with the rams until summer?  
If you are putting all the ewes in with the rams in late summer and fall, they all have a chance to breed at the normal 
time.  What happens if you wait and put the ewes in the ram in March or April? 


Linda

On Tue, 20 Apr 2004 13:56:14 -0400, Neal and Louise Grose wrote:
>Seasonal breeders breed according to change in day length, not warm or cold
>weather. We have 90+ degree days periodically from April through October.
>Breeding starts in August, when no one in their right mind is in heat.
>
>Neal Grose