[Jacob-list] More than four

[Debbie Bennett]

I'm glad someone asked about horns cause we've observed some problems 
this year. I bought a ram back in '99 that I thought had "6 horn 
genetics" and have used him over the same group of ewes for five years 
now - putting his female offspring to an unrelated ram. The first four 
years we've had offspring with a 5th or 6th little spike between the 
upright and lateral horns - not true horns, they have no core and often 
break off. All of a sudden this year, we have definite 6 horn rams, 
mostly expressed as fully fused upright horns and regular lateral 
horns, some just have HUGE horns, both upright and lateral.
  But, there have been other problems as well. One twin ram lamb died in 
utero, the vet said, about halfway to term, the back of his skull did 
not close, there was extra "skin" flaps overlapping the back of his 
head that could be pulled back to expose the brain. Someone was 
wondering at what time during gestation they "get their spots", this 
stillborn ram weighed approx. 1 lb and had pigmented skin. The ewe was 
able to carry his twin to term and he appears normal and healthy. A 
twin ram lamb out of another ewe, had a deformed ear, looked to be 
cosmetic only, but I could feel an odd "bone ridge" behind that ear.I 
don't know how/if he has grown up -  he wandered away from his mother, 
got stuck between an open gate and the barn wall, and his mother 
wouldn't take him back, so, I took him to a neighbor that wanted bottle 
lambs. I have several other ram lambs this year that do not appear to 
have completely normal heads, forward tipping horns, head flat looking 
towards the back, a couple of them seem rather dull, as in dumb, one 
has a slight sway to his walk that suggests OCD.
We only have three ewe lambs this year, one two horn, seems to have 
normal horn growth,  the other two are four horned and I've noticed 
their horns are coming in slower than normal, one broke an upright 
yesterday and was bleeding, so they are true horns. Its just that at 
three months old, I should be able to see horns for a registration 
picture, but you can't, the horns are only 1/2' to 3/4" long.
What I find weird is that this is the first year we've experienced any 
genetic problems using this ram, in the past, we've been very pleased 
with his offspring. I had started to look back at nutrition and overall 
herd health, the truth is, I was running low on grass hay this winter 
and was only able to find alfalfa, so they have been on pasture and 
hay, supplemented with alfalfa for the first time. I would think they 
would be healthier, some of my ewes are fat.
Well, there's my observations for now.
Debbie Bennett
Feral Fibre Farm
Oakland, Oregon

On Jun 8, 2004, at 7:35 AM, Neal and Louise Grose wrote:

> The email gnomes seem to have been having fun of late.
>
> We THINK that the polycerate gene is a single gene that commands 
> "split",
> and does not necessarily say how many. My guess is that other genes
> determine things like left/right symmetry. My old genetics instructor 
> saw
> pictures of four and six horned Jacobs at the AGM several years ago, 
> and
> said that there almost had to be a modifier gene for polycerate.
>
> Always glad to confuse things more.
>
> Neal
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Linda" <patchworkfibers at alltel.net>
> To: "jacoblist" <jacob-list at jacobsheep.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, June 08, 2004 7:18 AM
> Subject: [Jacob-list] More than four
>
>
> I didn't see this come through on the list, my apologies if everyone 
> saw it
> already.
>
>> Is there a difference, genetically, between a four horned sheep and a 
>> six
>> horned sheep?  or is the number past two
>> merely the result of random splitting? Is the propensity for more 
>> than four
>> horns heritable?
>>
>> Linda
>
>
>
>
>
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