[Jacob-list] (no subject) - white sheep

[Peg Bostwick]

Hi, all.  Every few years, it seems that someone has an all white lamb from
Jacob parents.  Hadn't heard about it being related to general weakness....
that is a new one for me.

 

Very early on - pre JSBA - we had a set of triplets, and two of the three
were all white.   Although the registry hadn't been initiated, both sire and
dam were from breeders who provided pedigrees for several generations - we
didn't think this was a case of crossbreeding.   But, everyone was pretty
sensitive at the time about what was a "real" Jacob, so didn't want to talk
about it much.  We put the two white ewes in with our commercial sheep and
forgot about them mostly, although out of curiosity I did breed one to a
Jacob ram one time and she produced a perfectly spotted lamb - which we
culled to avoid questions.

 

At the time, we were told that it was most likely "one big spot" as has been
mentioned in this list before.  I can understand that, but am still curious
as to whether something else is going on genetically as well, given that
there doesn't seem to be a lot of in-between - like a sheep with just a few
black hairs around the eyes or something.  Ours had blue eyes and NO black
at all.   The physical issues also make me curious, although ours were in
the commercial flock for years and were fine.  They don't fit the albino
pattern (blue eyes) - but something similar maybe?   I know that some all
white animals can have physical issues - something like 15% (may not
remember the number correctly) of all white cats are deaf, for instance.

 

Generally, I guess it is just fair to say that all white sheep aren't
acceptable as registered Jacobs (obviously!) and aren't desirable physically
either it sound like.  We've never had another white one.  If I had them
show up routinely in my flock, I would try to identify the bloodlines
involved and try to get rid of them, but of course that is a personal
choice.

 

That's all I know but if someone figures out more about the genetics
involved, I'd love to hear about it.   J   Peg

 

Peg Bostwick

peg at sweetgrass-jacobs.com

517-626-6981

 

From: jacob-list-bounces at jacobsheep.com
[mailto:jacob-list-bounces at jacobsheep.com] On Behalf Of tim koenig
Sent: Monday, April 29, 2013 4:35 PM
To: Jacob-list at jacobsheep.com
Subject: [Jacob-list] (no subject)

 

I wonder if anyone else out there has had this situation. I talked to Mark
Williams about it, and he hadn't heard of it, so I thought I'd put it out to
the list.

In the past 8 or 9 years, a few of my ewes have produced entirely white
Jacobs lambs. Never more than one in a given year, and, until last year,
most were born dead, or died within a couple days.

Last year, one ewe produce another all white ewe lamb, alive and healthy.
She grew well and was bred last fall, and recently delivered a fine,
healthy, dark ram lamb. Both animals are unusually friendly, actively
seeking contact whenever I'm in sight.

Milky has blue (ish) eyes, not a black hair on her, no black even inside the
mouth. Her parentage traces back, un broken through pure bred, registered
Jacobs. No other sheep have been on the farm since several years before I
started Jacobs.

Does this situation just qualify as one humongous, big white spot...or
what??

Tim Koenig
Applegarth Farm

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.pairlist.net/pipermail/jacob-list/attachments/20130502/356a2617/attachment.htm>