# Ile de France/ Dorset cross ewes whats a good Ram to breed them with?



## EmToAb48 (Jun 5, 2013)

What a good Ram breed to breed with Ile de France/Dorset Ewes?


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## purplequeenvt (Jun 5, 2013)

Depends on what your goal is. My guess is you are breeding for dairy sheep. In that case, an East Friesian or similar dairy breed.


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## EmToAb48 (Jun 5, 2013)

Looking for a meat/ wool purpose. The person I got them says they do good at market.


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## purplequeenvt (Jun 5, 2013)

In that case, a Dorset ram would be good or maybe a Romney or something similar. It's really up to you and what you are looking for in your sheep. I'd stay away from hair sheep and the big meat breeds like Suffolks and Hampshires. Look for a "dual purpose" breed such as a Border Leicester, Romney, Coopworth,Cotswold, Lincoln, etc....


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## BrownSheep (Jun 5, 2013)

.... And I was going to say go with a Suffolk. For market lambs I really like my Dorset Suffolk cross.


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## SheepGirl (Jun 6, 2013)

What kind of wool are you looking to produce? Your current ewes probably produce low quality medium wool so you would have to breed them to a really good finewool ram every cross to improve the fleece on the lambs. But doing that decreases carcass quality. If you don't care about wool, then I say breed them to a blackface ram or a Texel or a Southdown for market lambs. Even a Dorset ram would be okay.


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## BrownSheep (Jun 6, 2013)

Forgot to add Ramboulliets have a faily large frame, although not heavily muscled, and fine wool quality.


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## EmToAb48 (Jun 7, 2013)

SheepGirl said:
			
		

> What kind of wool are you looking to produce? Your current ewes probably produce low quality medium wool so you would have to breed them to a really good finewool ram every cross to improve the fleece on the lambs. But doing that decreases carcass quality. If you don't care about wool, then I say breed them to a blackface ram or a Texel or a Southdown for market lambs. Even a Dorset ram would be okay.


Thanks! I guess my production will be more for meat then wool the wool would be a bonus. I  would like to keep the white face going so I think a southdown would be best and you mean the new modern ones right? not the "babydolls"?


What kind of wool would I get out of that mix? If covered could you bag and sell that at all or is it not really worth all that effort?


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## SheepGirl (Jun 8, 2013)

EmToAb48 said:
			
		

> SheepGirl said:
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The new "modern" Southdowns are show type sheep--more frame and less meat. I've never been a fan of show sheep as production sheep. The Babydolls, even though they are primarily being bred for pets and not production, have less frame and more meat. I have Babydoll crosses and they are thick and meaty. I have a 75% babydoll ewe that weaned a 49.8 lb single ewe lamb at 60 days old. And I have a 50% babydoll ewe that gave birth to triplets and weaned two at 34 lbs (ewe) and 41.4 lbs (ram) at 60 days (the third lamb froze in the snow shortly after birth). I have another 75% babydoll yearling ewe who gave birth to a lamb 10 days before her first birthday and so far has an ADG of 0.56 lb/day. He's about 3 wks old now. You can look on my web site for more pics of my sheep and how thick and meaty they are. Just make sure you're looking at the ones without Texel in them 

For example, the two lambs in the front are twin sisters out of a twin sibling breeding--they are 3/4 Babydoll and 1/4 Montadale






And this is their sire/uncle--he's also 3/4 Babydoll x 1/4 Montadale. See how thick and deep his legs are? That's an indication of his muscling. 





And right now you have Ile de France in your ewes, and as far as I know, they have really poor quality wool. So while the Southdown-sired lambs will have improved fleeces compared to their dams, it still won't bring more than $1/lb at a wool pool. I would only jacket sheep if they had fine or long wool. I wouldn't waste my time with medium wool. Especially since it's really not good for much other than felting and stuffing stuff with.


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