[Jacob-list] RE: Link on ALBC's Web Page for Jacob Sheep

[Robert May]

Juliet...

Thank you for your remarks...all very valid points.
We here in the States (on this side of the pond)
routinely have to deal with judges who believe that
"bigger is necessarily better".  Most of the breeders
that I know (who show their Jacobs)continue to do so
to promote the breed, and have resisted the
temptations to "breed up".

I'm content with the fine-boned Jacobs in our flock (a
little over 100)and enjoy the challenge of pairing up
ewes with rams, in an effort to get better quality
fleeces, rather than to increase the "size" of
individuals "members" of our flock.

Regards,
Bob

--- gordon johnston
<gordon at westergladstone.fsnet.co.uk> wrote:

> Hi All
>  That 2 horned ram is quite bull-like isn't he ?  I
> don't think the scrotum
> would pass here either, nor would the colour on the
> legs, which must be
> plain white in Britain.  As for his size, believe
> me, there are even
> chunkier chaps seen at shows, legs well out at the
> corners, like a good
> solid table !  But the desire to make the Jacob a
> commercial sheep is doomed
> to failure because the big producer cannot cope with
> the horns.  Would you
> believe that it has been suggested, by a judge(!),
> that Jacob horns should
> be bred out, to make the breed more acceptable
> commercially !  Next he will
> want us to shorten the neck, make the ears bigger,
> concentrate the colour on
> the face and legs - and hey presto, you've got a
> Suffolk !
> 
> When the question of whether or not Dorset blood was
> introduced into the
> breed at some point in the past is raised, there is
> usually a rapid change
> of subject, but it is generally acknowledged that it
> did take place.  In
> order for the Jacob to still look Jacob-like (ie to
> maintain the phenotype)
> , that introduced blood has had to be well diluted,
> to at least 1/16th or
> 1/32nd, while trying to maintain the desired
> introduced attribute of
> increased size.  One persistant trait from the
> Dorset is the pink nose (
> which is unnacceptable of course).  The addition of
> Dorset blood would seem
> to have happened on a small scale but the pink noses
> do turn up throughout
> the British flock. The increased size has probably
> resulted more from
> selective breeding where bigger is better.  There is
> a small number of
> breeders who do the rounds of all the shows
> (remembering that Britain is
> very small so one person can take their sheep all
> around the country) and
> those same few provide the pool of judges. They all
> think the bigger the
> Jacob the better so they have influenced the size of
> the breed
> disproportionately, over the last 35 years. And they
> seem to be growing
> still.  The Hebridean Sheep Society has taken note
> and larger sheep are
> discouraged, but we note with alarm the growing
> tendency to show Soay sheep
> here, which could so easily start the bigger is
> better trend in that breed
> too.  We do feel that showing is the culprit - yes,
> it provides a showcase
> for the breed, and we all want our breeds to be seen
> and kept by others ,
> but the bigger the sheep, the more of an impression
> it makes on the judge,
> so  everyone buys their breeding stock from the
> winner and the following
> year everyone else brings their biggest sheep to the
> show.......
> Not everyone wants to follow this trend, and there
> is a large number of
> exJSS members over here, like us, who have either
> given up keeping the breed
> because of the direction their development is taking
> them, or who continue
> to keep Jacobs of the old type - their difficulty is
> that they cannot sell
> breeding stock - when the old primitive (and
> scorned) type of Jacob turns up
> at official sales  they are sold off in batches at
> the end of the sale along
> with the crossbreds, and make very poor prices. So
> the pressure to conform
> is a financial one.
> 
> A couple of other points from that link :- para 2)
> 'the fleece is properly
> described as white with black spots'.  Surely that
> should read 'black with
> white spots' ?
> Para 4) origins : the claim is made that the 4 horns
> come from British 4
> horned breeds.  Where is the evidence for that? Was
> there ever any contact
> before the 1870s when Hebrideans went down to the
> English parklands? Surely
> it is more likely that the Jacobs and Navajo Churro
> which both appear to
> have originated in Iberia or Africa, got their 4
> horns from the same source.
> Jacobs and British primitives such as the Hebridean
> are fundamentally
> different in that the sheep which came to Britain
> via the northern route are
> Northern Shorttails, whereas Jacobs , which came via
> the southern route, are
> longtailed.
> Juliet (for Gordon who is sensibly sleeping) in
> Scotland
> 
> 
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