[Jacob-list] generations...

[Brenda]

Along with the points made by others... when people line breed/ inbreed 
animals to standardize traits (generally aiming for homozygous genes) 
(meaning genes from both parents for a particular trait are the same) you 
tend to lose vigor over the generations. When you outcross to a more 
genetically diverse animal, you increase vigor, but also potentially 
heterozygosity (genes are different) and thus may see more variation in the 
offspring. So an earlier generation might add vigor and stir the genetic pot 
*if* the meaning of that registry is indeed an earlier genetic line. Or it 
might simply be an animal from a flock that wasn't registering sheep. Also, 
I am no genetics expert, but it seems likely many traits are controlled my 
multiple alleles or genes and we really don't have as much power to select 
or control as we think we do. One dog breeder explained a good animal as 
being like a couple good cards in a blackjack hand. You like what you see, 
but what other cards (genes) are in its deck? Some great animals never 
produce an offspring as good as they were, others consistently throw a 
trait. That is where knowing the lines is a real strength. Isn't it great we 
now have the JSBA database we can search! I sure wish we could see pics 
though.

Brenda

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Zach Oaster" <zoaster at gmail.com>
To: <Jacob-list at jacobsheep.com>
Sent: Friday, December 04, 2009 10:29 PM
Subject: [Jacob-list] generations...



> Hello all,

>

> My wife Lindsay and I recently started our flock of jacobs with 3 ewes

> from Gary Anderson. Two of them are E generation, and one is D. Their

> lambs in the spring will all be E (they are being bred right now to a

> D generation ram on-loan from Gary).

>

> Lasell Bartlet and I were chatting about the value of moving the

> generations forward vs. just breeding good sheep. Lasell put it this

> way, "...for some it might certainly be a selling point -- but not

> sure what exactly it proves"... she talked about how she had been

> breeding good sheep for years, and only recently started to register

> some of them. She posed the question, which I will now pass along to

> the experts here in the group, "what might be the value of E (or

> later) generation versus FF generation Jacobs."

>

> The reason the conversation started in the first place was because I

> was hesitant to buy a really nice C generation ram from Lasell because

> it would "set back" the offspring of my ewes (generationally...

> otherwise, the ram is awesome). If my goal is to responsibly breed

> good sheep that are continually bettering the breed, should I concern

> myself with generation?

>

> Thanks in advance for your insight.

>

> PS... Lasell approves of me asking the question with her name

> attached... she was going to ask if I didn't.

> ^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^

> Zach Oaster

> zach at fattoaster.com

> ^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^

> Visit Zach's worship resource and blog site: http://www.fattoaster.com

> Visit Zach & Lindsay's farm blog: http://fattoasterfarm.wordpress.com

> ^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^

> _______________________________________________

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> Jacob-list at jacobsheep.com

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