If a large percentage of your flock is related to your ram, you might be at the point where you are worried about inbreeding and looking to buy a new ram. Perhaps you’re looking to buy in some new ewes to enlarge your flock. Or maybe you just feel like your sheep aren’t performing as well as you would like and you want to improve performance. Whatever the reason might be, it is a good idea to carefully consider what various sources of breeding stock might add to or subtract from your current flock. Today we are going to take a look at some of the things we want to consider when adding new sheep to our flock.
Before we get started, though cheap is appealing, it rarely pays.
We’d like to note that a crap shoot ram off of Craigslist is unlikely to be your best option. We see a lot of people who figure they’ll buy a cheap ram, every year breed him and then eat him, repeat.
If you’re keeping ewe lambs, this is not in your best interest. That your ram is 50% or more of the genetics in your flock. If you choose a crappy ram, he’s going to drag your flock down quickly. The majority of rams belong in the freezer not breeding your flock. If the seller can’t provide any good reasons why said ram is a good candidate as a flock sire, he probably belongs in the freezer.
Now we understand not everyone is made of money. So, if you are in a budget crunch buying sheep, you are far better off to buy mediocre ewes and an excellent ram. If you breed average ewes to an excellent ram, in a few generations you will have made great improvements. If you breed excellent ewes to a poor ram, you will go backwards very quickly.
What’s the first step to selecting new breeding stock?
The first thing you need to do is identify what your flock of sheep is (or isn’t) good at. Really sit down and think. Make a list of performance traits that your flock excels at and a list of traits that could use improvement. For this article we are using an example where the flock has a 300% lambing rate, produces tons of milk, and performs well on a forage only diet. However, they are also crappy mothers resulting in high lamb mortality and the need to bottle feed a lot of lambs. Constant and repeated deworming is necessary to keep them alive.
Now using this hypothetical list of flock traits we have to select what is most important to us. What do we want to improve the most? Also are we willing to sacrifice part of any of the positives for improvement on the negatives?
It is important to be very selective when choosing traits to improve.
You need to select 1 or 2, and no more than 3 to try to improve at a time. If you are trying to improve 10 things at the same time you aren’t likely to make much progress. So the fastest way to make improvements is to select a couple. Work on improving them until your satisfied with flock performance, then select something else to work on.
So in our hypothetical flock laid out above, we have decided to focus on better mothering and parasite resistance. We are ok with lowering our lambing rate to get better mothers with better parasite resistance. After all, fewer dead lambs, less deworming, and limited bottle feeding should increase our profit despite a lower lambing rate.
Now that we have identified what we want to improve, what’s next?
Next, we need to go find ourselves a ram that excels at those traits.
But, as you do so, you need to take into consideration how other flocks are managed. Is the flock you are considering a ram from being kept similarly to how you wish to manage your animals? This is important. Why? Because all these performance traits are relative. Something like 80% of the variation in performance is environmental and only 20% is genetic.
Take parasite resistance for example. ‘Resistant’ is widely variable based on environment. The California desert, a midwest feed lot and a Florida pasture DO NOT have the same parasite challenge. That ‘parasite resistant’ California sheep might very well drop dead from parasites after a few weeks on a Florida pasture.
The same goes for management styles. An animal that performs well in a mostly grain fed situation rarely fares well in pasture-based systems. Thus, to avoid disappointment, it is important to make sure that the flock you are purchasing replacement stock from has values that align with yours. If you do not, you are likely to be disappointed by the performance of the new animals you purchased.
When buying livestock, there is definitely something to be said for ‘buying local’.
Sheep from local flocks are already selected to be adapted to the general conditions your flock is being raised in. Somebody else already went through the expense and time of culling non-adapted animals and selecting for good performance. Take advantage of that if at all possible.
Once you have found some potential breeders you’re interested in buying from, talk to them. See what they have that might fit what you’re looking for.
Now, if you have a breed of sheep that participates in the National Sheep Improvement Program, NSIP, this is the best way to select a ram.
Sheep enrolled in this program have estimated breeding values (EBV’s) that are calculated for various performance traits to help you select a ram with the traits you desire. EBV’s are a wonderful tool we will discuss more in a future article, and you should absolutely take advantage of the program if you can. Unfortunately, it’s not always an option. Not all breeds participate, and sometimes you just cannot afford to spend that kind of money on a ram.
In that case select the best ram that you can afford. Do your best to work with a breeder to select a ram that is most likely to do what you’re looking for. Many breeders with small flocks might not participate in the NSIP program, but they do have the advantage of knowing their sheep as individuals. They are likely able to tell you what each of their ewes excels at. A lot of times they also know how the offspring of a particular cross has performed previously. They may also track some of the EBV type data on their farm for their own records. This information can help guide an educated guess on performance.
If they don’t know what their animals excel at, or they make claims but have no data to back up that claim, move on.
A lot of people make claims that their sheep excel at the traits a breed is supposed to be good at, but it’s not always true. If they don’t keep data, and aren’t selecting for those traits, how do they know what their animals are good at? This goes for both registered and unregistered stock. That piece of paper means nothing. There are some very crappy registered animals out there. Conversely, there are some phenomenally bred commercial (unregistered) flocks. Don’t get sucked into the trap of thinking just because something is papered its superior.
Lastly when you are considering purchasing replacement stock from someone, you should consider the health of their flock. You don’t want to be inadvertently buying in a nightmare like foot rot or OPP. Ask lots of questions. Consider disease testing, and do things like checking FAMACHA scores. Take time to observe the flock. Look at their teeth for over/underbite, look for other gross confirmation flaws. Watch their flock for lameness, pneumonia, etc. If they aren’t willing to answer questions, their animals appear to be in questionable health, or they are seemingly trying to hide something, consider moving on.
In the coming weeks we are going to discuss related topics like quarantining your new breeding stock, more about NSIP, selecting and using a terminal sire, and choosing a Katahdin for milking. So if you’re interested in learning more, please sign up for our newsletter so you don’t miss any of these articles.
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