[Jacob-list] food

[Betty Berlenbach]

I also think of jacobs as being different from standardized breeds of sheep: they are “swimmers” not “football player”.  That is, they seem to naturally want to be thin.  Their backbones, like shetlands, are different from standardized breeds. My coopworths and jacobs are together, presumably eat the same things, although the smaller jacobs push the coopworths out of the way very often, so might actually get more grain.  Nevertheless, the coopworths are large, their backbones are much smoother. The jacobs remain thin...It’s kind of like my husband who can eat three helpings of food and stay thin. I sit and smell the food and put on three pounds.  I don’t think THIN is a bad word.  With jacobs and shetlands and other primitive breeds, the instructions in the books about their backbones and what they should feel like, just don’t work. I know one shetland breeder in Vermont, the original shetland importer to the States, who, when she sells sheep, suggests that on the way home, the new breeder take the sheep past the vet, and ask the vet to come out and check the backbone and tell the vet, probably unfamiliar with these type of sheep, that this is what a healthy shetland feels like and looks like. I think jacobs are similar.  Which doesn’t mean they can’t be in poor condition, but I think means that good condition might look different on primitive breeds than on standardized breeds.  I would suggest that if you are not sure, ask an experienced breeder in your vicinity to come over and check them out for you.  

That said, I NEVER feed alfalfa, because I think it’s too rich for jacobs, though I know lots of breeders who successfully do, so I think it’s just my personal quirk. I feed second cut hay. However, I do give bred ewes about l/4 cup of organic whole grains every day after the second month of gestation, and increase it to perhaps a third of a cup during the first month of lactation. After that, I start reducing the amount, and from weaning til breeding, they primarily get grass, though I have been known to give them about a tablespoon each of organic whole grain a day so they know who god is!  (That is, they will follow the bucket!)  During winter months, when grass isn’t growing, I feed second cut hay.  (And that means, mid-October through mid-May, most years!)
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