Barbara, Your understanding is correct. Crossing things into a breed will give unpredictable results for many generations. We started our milk sheep herd long ago with a black one that had about 25% Karakul in her to give quick and dirty black. None of her lambs ever had a pure black fleece - always marred by spots somewhere. The only bright spot was her first daughter - double recessive white, as it turned out, who bore 14 female lambe in 8 seasons - all white, with no colored descendents over a 10 year period. By using pure milk sheep rams of good breeding, we were able to remove the Karakul influence in 2 or 3 seasons - but going the other way with more crossing, would have resulted in rather mixed results as to fleece type. Another thing to consider, is herd size. Many consider a small flock ideal for "handspinners". Actually, the gene pool in a herd of 10 ewes or less is sufficiently small to be a hindrance in breeding for fleece quality. The selection is simply not large enough. To get "peas in a pod" consistency in a herd, you simply need a large number of animals to facilitate good culling.
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