The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: macgro7 on October 06, 2016, 12:49:22 pm
-
Can someone point me out to some good reading about sheep genetics?
Someone is giving me two pure soay ewes (muflon) and a ramp which is 3/4 soay and 1/4 texel. I.e. he is white. If I cross them will I get just white lambs? As far as I understand white is dominant? What about horns? Will they inherit horns of soay?
If instead I cross them with white ouessant ram will I be less likely to get horned ewes? Would they most likely end up white as well?
-
This document will give you a basic understanding of colours: https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/42839927/colour-inheritance-in-sheep-rare-breeds-survival-trust (https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/42839927/colour-inheritance-in-sheep-rare-breeds-survival-trust)
There are books on sheep genetics too that will give a lot more (heavy) detail.
-
To put it simply - cross your ewes to a hornless pure bred ram and you'll get hornless lambs. Hornless is dominant in this case because the ram does not carry any horned genes.
But if you use your mongrel ram which does carry the horned genes from it's soay breeding, then you could get horned or hornless - it's the luck of the draw.
For a simple understanding of genetics look up Gregor Mendel who worked on peas but explains it in an easily understandable way. Hornless is dominant and horned is recessive. But colour is a lot more complicated, although for a first cross with a pure bred white ram you will most likely get white lambs.
-
Ok Thanks
This ram is already only 1/4 white texel and 3/4 soay. Although visually white (although supposedly most dominant colour) I'm sure he carries other colours found in soay. Not sure if pure texel carry some other colours.
If crossed with pure soay ewes, the next generation lambs would only 7/8 soay and only 1/8 texel.
Only time will tell! But I would love to end up with what would be a white soay ewe lambs ;D
-
You can get white purebred, registered Soay from a few breeders, although more usually they will have some spots and coloured marks. White is a natural colour for Soay but they tend to get picked off by the bonksies on St Kilda. My first spotty white lambs appeared from black ewes bred to a black tup, and each had a black twin.
I think using your white crossbred tup would give you 50:50 white:mouflon lambs - the tup will have recessive mouflon genes hidden by the texel white, so half the lambs would inherit the mouflon gene and half the white, in the first cross.
-
Btw, white is a pattern not a colour (just to confuse things :)).
-
Btw, white is a pattern not a colour (just to confuse things :)).
Oh that's interesting! So pure white sheep is basically a black or moorit or grey sheep with a massive white spot that covers all of its body! :o
-
sometimes......
-
Btw, white is a pattern not a colour (just to confuse things :) ).
Oh that's interesting! So pure white sheep is basically a black or moorit or grey sheep with a massive white spot that covers all of its body! :o
That's so in Jacobs - they are black with white spots, not white with black spots. I don't know about all white ones.
-
except that in jacobs it is dominant black so there "could" be white underneath too.............