[Jacob-list] Selective breeding

[Susan Nielsen]

On Sun, 10 Jul 2005 RnS1260 at aol.com wrote:

> It has made me question my selective breeding patterns. I think,I have even
> fallen into the cookie cutter mold that we have created in our breed standard.
> Not to say that it is all bad, but it has given me a different perspective.

This is such a hard matter to manage. Of course, we all want lovely animals.
And we want animals that please our eye. It's difficult to look at a sheep
that meets the criteria of the breed but is somehow unesthetic, and want
to have it. And want to breed it. I think it's fair to say that practically
every breeder chooses, and introduces bias into, her flock. You choose
a ram because he looks good to you. You cull on the basis of "faults" you
can see in the offspring. Every flock is the product of someone's choices
as to appearance and worth.

Fortunately, we still have sufficient variability in the puddle to
produce the unaccountable lamb with a longer tail, the one with a bull's-
eye eye patch, the one with freckles, the one with coarse fleece and the
one with weird horns. These are the babies that keep the flocks alive.

I guess what we have to decide is how many strikes are tolerable in our
own flocks: 3 strikes, you're out? Obviously, no one wants to raise
butt-ugly sheep. But we do need to keep some average ones around, too,
I think.

Susan
--
Susan Layne Nielsen, Shambles Workshops      	|"...Gently down the
Beavercreek, OR, USA -- snielsen at orednet.org  	|stream..." -- Anon.
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