Re: [Blackbelly] The Beet Pulp Experiment

[Barb Lee]

Sharon,

If my current thinking continues to reel out on this same track, I 
visualize either going to a breed where the groundwork is already done 
(what's the fun in that), or hm..what other word is there...hybridizing?

My greatest disappointment at this point is that I feel I am talking to 
a mud fence.  There is neither reinforcement, nor opposition.  I've put 
my neck on the proverbial chopping block with all this stuff I'm talking 
about.  I've handed a lot of people the axe.  Why isn't anybody at least 
taking a swing? What's the point if nobody is willing to contribute? 
For all my talk, I know full well that without the genetic input from 
other well founded breeding programs, my own feeble attempt at breed 
improvement is doomed.

Barb

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "The Wintermutes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <blackbelly@lists.blackbellysheep.info>
Sent: Monday, January 21, 2008 11:17 AM
Subject: Re: [Blackbelly] The Beet Pulp Experiment


> 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
>
>
>
>
>
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>
> 


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