Re: [blackbelly] breed standards

[hlang]

We have had several breeders visiting the Barbados and searching for 
fullblood sheep. It seems either those rancher got lost on the Island and 
did not know where to go, or there are only a very small number of fullblood 
BB sheep.

But those few fullblood sheep they did see are very large and I got that 
confirmed of very knowledge people working in research there.And they are 
tame and easy to work with.

The US or Canadian BB has absolutely nothing to do anymore with the Barbados 
Blackbelly in Barbados.
See one Email I got from a person working for many years with the breed and 
managing the national flock:

I have never seen any animals in the US that looked like these Blackbelly 
sheep.  What I have seen are small and have poor confirmation with horns. 
The true BB sheep looks regal with upright heads, long necks and are easy to 
work with once you get them cornered.

And I agree with that.The polled BB in the US or Canada are animals which 
came out of the mixed horned and polled flocks.

If we like to create a good future for a American BB, first we need to 
select for the healthy and low maintenance sheep.
The Barbados as the St Croix are much less parasite resistant than many wool 
breeds. I manage here in test flocks a few thousand ewes and we have had 
once a 600 Barbados and St Croix, guess what, they all died off in the 
moment when they have had to compete against good wool breed sheep or 
African Tribal Sheep.

For sure , if you take a Ramboulliet or Merino, the BB is much better than 
them.Nobody did put money in that kind of breeds over the last 50 years, 
just show and speculation, nothing more.
France did a great job, invested Millions in the IDF and my Ile de France 
with same feed outproduce the BB three times.
That is lots of meat for little money.By the way, France imported lots of 
different sheep from African and other countries to
create their new meat breeds of sheep.Where the US blocked all imports, kept 
everything out.
France got plane loads of sheep from Cameroun, Martinique and others, BB 
type and they use them in their programs.

If we like to create a breed and keep it up, we need comparison.Competition 
gives live to the BB.
And we need large number of sheep for to select.

I know that the African black and tan, the sheep which has been shipped to 
the Barbdos many years ago,  in the
1930 to German, 1960 to France and  now in Canada is outcompeting the 
Dorper.

We don't use any Dorper rams on our fullblood Dorper ewes, as the Africans 
have more fertility, good flocking, very easy to handle and good gain.No 
dead lambs, what ever is born grows.That 's the big difference.

With best regards Helmut
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2005 10:22 PM
Subject: Re: [blackbelly] breed standards


In a message dated 8/31/05 12:39:22 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

<< << The point of a breed standard is to ensure that animals that bear 
the
name
 exhibit minimum standards.  >>

Thinking about it some more. (sorry, can't sit too long but the pain 
killer
helps)I've been in bed awhile.  I missed the new breed standards of the 
BBSAI.

Along the lines of what Helmut is saying.....his priority is hardiness in 
his
sheep.  He isn't raising trophy-type sheep nor show sheep.
Hardiness->survival of the fittest means a better return in his investment
and time in selling the meat.  Helmut, I still remember the pictures of 
some of
those African sheep you have, especially the ones that look just like the 
BBS.
If, I intended to go big time into sheep-meat production I would most
definately invest in some of your animals.  :-)

As a homesteader type or new agrarian, I want hardy breeder sheep, too.
Polled or unpolled isn't the draw towards the BBS/ABS sheep for us.   I 
will still
call our sheep ABS with mixed genes as far as horns go and sometimes white
spots(on the head) where they shouldn't be.
;-)

Guess that's pretty much the case for lots of folks on this list, we all 
have
our own reasons for raising them.  Mine have turned out to be a rather 
hardy
group with minimal care and that's exactly what I was hoping for.  :-)

Diana




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