[Jacob-list] ram's horns

[Gooch]

This is precisely what the Dairy AI bull studs do.  When a young bull surpasses his father, the father is culled.  They have quarterly "proofs" to see how the animal performs (progeny test).  A young bull is collected and bred at an early age (15-19m) then they sit and wait for 4 years until the numbers come in.  However, some older sires still stand the test of time and are in demand long after they are dead.

At least sheep gestation is short enough that it should only take 1-2 years to know if the son is better.
 
Shel
~*~*~*~*~*~
~ Goochland Acres ~
 
 
Message: 2
We might want to keep in mind that "in the wild", rams live a short life. In severe climates, wild sheep divide up into breeding groups at the onset of cold weather and the rams that "win" spend all of their time breeding and fighting off rivals... not eating. This results in the death of the breeding ram by mid-winter, but only after leaving a few offspring. The alternative is reproductive death of the losing rams. Most rams best shot at reproductive success comes at a fairly young age. By ten (or even 5), these rams have lost out on the reproductive lottery.

I have often wondered if we wouldn't be better off emulating the wild 
pattern and eating (or hitching them out as nice lawn ornaments) any ram 
over the age of 4. Te only thing that makes a ram "good" is that they 
produce good offspring. If they produce superior sons, why not use the sons 
instead?

Neal

In the overly-rainy-balmy South, where we are still trying to catch up on 
the fall work


 
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