[Jacob-list] Breeding Questions

[Neal and Louise Grose]

November might be exceptionally LATE lambing. Seasonal breeders breed when the hours of daylight start to shorten, July at the earliest. with a 5 month gestation, that puts them lambing in December at the earliest. Most Jacob's Sheep will lamb February through May. Lambing can be modified by several factors, such as temperature and nutrition. Ewes do not generally conceive while in negative energy balance, which is almost always the case in our climate (North Carolina) in June and July. Fall growth of high energy cool season grasses will have a natural flushing effect.  

Aseasonal breeders such as Dorsett and Finn do not respond as much to day length, but November lambing is the least frequent in these as well. This makes it hard to figure out why a Jacob type sheep would lamb in November, even if cross-breeding were involved. In my experience, ewes that abort late in season or that lose a lamb early in season can come back into heat and conceive even if they are technically "out of season". I have had several cases like this that lambed in July and even August. 

Another factor is that ewe lambs often do not conform to what is normal. I prefer to put rams in the last weekend in October and take them out before Christmas. This puts 90% of the lambs born during two weeks in April on pasture with no barns. The ewe lambs that are in good growth and weight will lamb, but about half do not. However, nature wants things to reproduce. In rare cases, a cold snap in June and high nutrition might be enough to kick ewes that did not reproduce in the previous season into gear.

Neal Grose
North Carolina

 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Gotothewhip at aol.com 
  To: jacob-list at jacobsheep.com 
  Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2007 11:08 PM
  Subject: [Jacob-list] Breeding Questions


  I'm confused.. As I Thought Jacobs were out of season breeders.. and I have 2 November 2006 lambs in my new flock..... Are these just exceptionally early lambs?





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