The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Remy on May 24, 2016, 11:13:05 am
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I have two rams who are related via their sire but have different mothers (half brothers). They have both sired lovely lambs this year from my ewes - so their lambs share the same grandfather.
Can the rams mate with each others' offspring, who will share the paternal grandsire? I couldn't work out the relationship ::)
They are both very good rams and I can't decide between them which to keep - so it's just as easy to keep them both if the matings won't cause a problem. If I only keep one then eventually he will have to be changed for an unrelated ram.
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Have a read thought this.
http://www.critterhaven.biz/info/articles/1_ram.htm (http://www.critterhaven.biz/info/articles/1_ram.htm)
Seems to make sense to me. Others may disagree...
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Managing Inbreeding article from the NSA: http://www.signetfbc.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/managing_inbreeding.pdf (http://www.signetfbc.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/managing_inbreeding.pdf)
The resulting offspring will have a great-grandfather and grandfather in common. So Ram A will mate with it's half-niece (Ram B's daughter, Ram B being a half brother to Ram A) ... I think? In which case it's 6.25% which is just about acceptable.
Correct me if I'm wrong anyone :) .
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Totally fine for one generation... as in any ewe lambs you keep need to go to a ram that is not related in my opinion. I do these kinds of crosses with all my animals from time to time. Never had a single issue in about 30 years! You only line breed when there is an exceptional characteristic you want to stick... in other words you would not do it with just an average animal. In your case I'd give it a go :)
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If I have a superb ram I would consider mating it to my older ewes which did not share a common tup or ewe in the previous generation, but it would have to bring something exceptional to the party, such as growth rate, good feet or conformation or, referably, all three.
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They have both produced very good lambs, especially the Texel x Suffolk. The other is a Texel x Lleyn and his lambs are pretty good too. Out of the the two the Suffolk x seems to have produced slightly larger and meatier lambs, even from my Gotlands who didn't have any problems lambing and all had twins - so if I had to choose only one to keep it would be him.
Thanks for the links, a bit complicated to get my simple head around but I think I'll be ok for a year or two :thumbsup: