[Jacob-list] New Booklet "Guide to Selection of Jacob Breeding Stock"

[Heather Hettick]

Neal,

The piebald seems pretty recessive to me and it seems to work a lot like the
Icelandic spotting.  My first Icelandic ram carried spots and got out and
bred 7 Jacob ewes accidently - both my rams at the time were door breakers
and they worked together.  Almost half of his crosses were spotted and
mostly Jacob-like in patterns - with great horn sets too, but they had short
tails and different wool so you couldn't mistake them for a pure Jacob.
Since then, I haven't had any spotted Icelandic/Jacob crosses, just the
black with maybe a little white at the poll.

My Tunis/Jacob ewe has never produced obvious spotting before though.  Her
yearling daughter has a blaze, a half white tail and some white feet, but
this year's wether lamb really has an interesting spot pattern, very Jacob
like but a bit unique too.  His body spots marble together a bit and his
legs and head are much lighter.  His 2011 sister is typical black with poll
spots and 4 horns.  

Heather Hettick

-----Original Message-----
From: Neal Grose [mailto:nlgrose at yadtel.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2011 5:59 PM
To: Heather Hettick; jacob-list at jacobsheep.com
Subject: Re: [Jacob-list] New Booklet "Guide to Selection of Jacob
BreedingStock"




"My son will be showing a 75% Jacob (25% Tunis) in a 4H  market lamb class 
in
September - if he makes weight of 90# - he was 68# at last check.  If not,
he really looks like a solid, but short little market lamb, except for the
spots.  He is actually polled, which helps, but some people still mistook
him for a goat at lamb tagging and since he got shorn, he looks like a
little Holstein calf."


I recently saw a small flock of Katadins that included 3 piebald ewes. The 
man did said they were in the flock when he purchased them, and that they 
raised off the best lambs of the bunch. Having seen the same characteristics

in 1/2 Corriedale/ 1/2 Jacob ewes, I wonder exactly how recessive the 
piebald gene is.

Neal Grose