The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Fieldfare on August 03, 2012, 10:44:05 pm
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Hi all- is it really frowned upon to allow a ram to mate with his daughters? Has anyone allowed this to happen? with negative consequences? Also why is it not a good idea to mate ewe lambs? Has anyone also had any bad experiences of doing this?
Thanks
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It's no more a good idea to mate a ram to his daughters than it is anything else in this world. You will get a much higher chance of genetic deformities and substandard stock that is weak and sickly. Can vouch for this first hand by a series of unfortunate accidents.
You can mate ewe lambs in their first year but they need to be well grown and at least 65% of their adult bodyweight. Most problems occur at lambing time as the nutritional balance for feeding a still growing ewe against a ewe feeding her lamb/lambs can be tricky to get right. If you get them in to fat you can have major lambing problems. They are also more prone to mastitis and can have a delay with their milk coming in, so they do need a little extra TLC. Most sheperds will take twins off the ewe. But, having said that, they make excellet mothers (better than a yearling any day) and from a finiancial point of view you get an extra lamb out of the ewe and she is not running empty that second year eating grass with no profit. I have only lambed like this this year, with no problems and it has not put us off.
HTH
Allison
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I agree that its not ideal and certainly would not be acceptable for producing stock for future breeding.
I have come across breeders however who feel that on a small scale, using a related tup to produce lambs for your freezer is acceptable.
Can you swap your tup with another breeder or borrow one to strengthen the gene pool?
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I'd agree with Buffy - doing it once (one generation) for lambs for meat is probably not going to cause you any problems, but don't then do it again in the next generation and don't keep any inbred progeny for further breeding.
As to tupping ewe lambs, as others have said it's tricky to get the feeding balance right and generally causes problems to let her try to rear twins if she has them.
If you are new to sheep I would say do not tup your ewe lambs; managing lambing hoggs is not something I'd recommend a novice to try.
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Incest is never a good idea , Just visit Mertha Tydfill social services fostering dpt and you will be put off the idea for life. :innocent:
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Inbreeding can be used in special circumstances to fix a trait but should only be undertaken by those with lots of experience and knowledge as disasterous results can happen. However in pedigree rare breeds if you look back into the breeding of some sheep it will become apparent that there are only 2 - 3 bloodlines present in some and its not obvious until you really look in to it as prefixes hide the minutiae! This is why care must be taken when there are limited bloodlines available as serious faults can occur all through the breed and the breed being rare often unsuitable animals are kept to breed from anyway!
So inbreeding is not for the novice!
tupping ewe lambs is another matter as problems can occur either way....hogs can get too fat and not be in good breeding condition and that in itself can cause problems however feeding in lamb hogs can cause problems too, esp if fed too much.....
I would always advise those with little experience of sheep to stick to older experienced ewes!
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You'll get away with doing it once so long as it is parent to offspring but never grand parent to offspring. If you are struggling to find a ram or only have need for one ram then you can get away with it for a season but not two in a row.
Lambing ewe lambs is no problem so long as they are big enough. They really have to be over 45kg at mating and pushing over 55kg at lambing. This is with conventional breeds. some of the smaller minority breeds never reach these weights but if the lamb is a good size for the breed and is being bred to a ram of the same breed then usually there are no worries. Biggest thing about breeding from ewe lambs is making sure they are looked after well enough once the lamb is on the ground. They are then milking for the lamb as well as still trying to grow. Care must be taken to make sure that their growth isn't stunted at this time and that the lamb isn't dragged down due to lack of milk. They usually make really good mums but can be 'flighty' to handle.
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"Line Breeding" is carried out by many pedigree breeders of such breeds as BFL, Suffolks etc. As long as you know what you are doing and your blood lines then you should be okay, however any genetic issues are of course magnified - so a risk that some think worth it. Personally I wouldn't.
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"Line Breeding" is carried out by many pedigree breeders of such breeds as BFL, Suffolks etc. As long as you know what you are doing and your blood lines then you should be okay, however any genetic issues are of course magnified - so a risk that some think worth it. Personally I wouldn't.
That could explain a lot.....