Author: Deb
Date: 03-22-05 12:55
There is an old book that I have called Raising Sheep the Modern Way by Paula Simons.......maybe a lot of you 'old timers' out there have it. Anyway, it ranks all of the major breeds in many different categories (ease of lambing, productivity, weight gain, longevity, etc). I think some of those characteristics are still 'good' today. Ramboulliets are ranked #1 if I remember right.
My family has had a crossbred dorset flock for years and the lambs seem to be born running with the occasional 'dummy' that needs some help getting the hang of nursing. We used a suffolk ram for years and have now switched to a dorset (large framed) and are not having the birthing issues we had with the suffolk crosses on our 'old type' dorset cross ewes. Our customers who come and buy 40-50 lb lambs from the farm do not like the lambs with the black or speckled faces, prefering the white for some unknown reason. The lambs seem more self sufficient as well and we laugh when we see them born and 'sucking the air'. I had a 4-H suffolk flock (registered) as a kid (before the 'tall' animals entered the sheep world) and I dont miss them one bit. They are hard for a woman to manage....I am 5'4" and 120 lbs so your animals need to fit your lifestyle. I think that some of these more popular breeds have been bred more for the show ring than for durability as breeding animals. That's my take on it. I am so disgusted with wool prices now that we are introducing hair sheep into our flock to increase parasite resistance and eliminate the need to shear at some point down the road. We love our hair sheep crosses. They are fantastic ewes with no belly, head or leg wool and shed out nearly 100% in the spring (50% hair cross).
|
|
