The Wintermutes
Mon, 21 Jan 2008 11:24:12 -0800
Barb, You stated" My problem is, I am too stubborn to give up the notion that I can adapt my registered flock to meet my expectation (I have a few that never disappoint me). It's getting to be an expensive hobby though. I love the lamb so much, I do not want to risk outcrossing. I have even been thinking about infusing some polled blood into the flock (these would never be registered as AB), to see if I could improve reproductive performance without going outside the blackbelly. Actually my best performing lamb this year is a ram lamb with tiny little horn buds - he's almost smooth headed. Where did that come from in a flock with very good horns!! What's the connection? The ewe, a registered AB, milked like a cow and has a pedigree of horns. My dilemma is now, whether several more years of selection for a higher plane of performance within my AB flock will be repaid in value added to the sale of proven breeding stock, or if I should just stick to meat production. There is little point in continuing to register animals if the goal isn't to improve them. It's a big problem, because I would like to some day make exceptional quality breeding stock available to other producers, but not for $45 a lamb...more like $450 a lamb. If I give up on that, I lose half my interest in my work." Don't feel like you are the only breeder with these questions. One thing I would like to point out is that genetic diversity produces better animals. One thing I do remember from my genetics classes at the university is one amazing statement the professor made. "Without 30 different base lines it is impossible to keep a blood line pure." This is a common theme among geneticists all though the number of base lines vary. Nearly all of the current AB and BB lines are from only 2 different base lines. Without some out-crossing, it is nearly impossible to keep the breed alive. We are using BB and AB together to produce better quality and size. Even within these two lines, there have been out-crossing before we started with them. The influence of previous breeders with Rambouillet and Mouflon is quite prevalent in all the flocks we have visited over the years. The pictures we have of "Caribbean" BB, although similar, have more color variations that what is prevalent here in the United States. Sharon Wintermute _______________________________________________ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info