Barb Lee
Thu, 17 Jan 2008 10:17:42 -0800
Cecil and Becky, I know I get off on "wierd" tangents sometimes, but it's like Carol said...it helps to know where you've been in order to know where you're going. When I set out on this journey five years ago, I had a lot of big ideas and I thought I could be tough enough to demand a certain level of "performance" from the sheep, which I felt was very modest at the time. My big ideas tanked pretty quick. And I ended up putting a number of ewe lambs into the breeding flock that required assistance at birth. As I gain a broader perspective and more experience, I am heading back to some of my original goals, because I think I've been hanging on to some animals that really are not going to grow up "breeding fit." I can also finally rule out environmental influences (i.e. shepherd error in feeding). They may be gorgeous, balanced creatures in terms of physical appearance, but now that I have a decent number of animals to work with, it's time to try to make them earn their keep. I won't keep or register any more ewes that cannot twin - and the twins stand and nurse unassisted - on their second breeding. BTW, about white, if I am not mistaken, it is not uncommon for the native sheep to have a white foot, etc.??? If we get white from Mouflon, it would not be much different than getting horns from Mouflon...it's just that a lengthy history of registration is sort of a paper trail of historical breeding for certain attributes. So I'm not placing a large emphasis on registry, other than being a way to trace back to where we've been, so we can the road ahead. Best regards, Barb Lee _______________________________________________ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info