# Breeding Sheep



## mystang89 (Oct 30, 2016)

I was looking into buying some sheep.  I looked at the Assaf and they are expensive.  Since the Assaf are a mix between the East Friesians and Awassi, I was wondering about breeding the Assaf to the East Friesians.  If I buy 1 ram, 1 Ewe Assaf and then 1 ram and 1 Ewe East Friesians, how would I go about correctly mating them so I wasn't inbreeding them but was still getting the best genetic combinations from them.


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## Bossroo (Oct 30, 2016)

mystang89 said:


> I was looking into buying some sheep.  I looked at the Assaf and they are expensive.  Since the Assaf are a mix between the East Friesians and Awassi, I was wondering about breeding the Assaf to the East Friesians.  If I buy 1 ram, 1 Ewe Assaf and then 1 ram and 1 Ewe East Friesians, how would I go about correctly mating them so I wasn't inbreeding them but was still getting the best genetic combinations from them.



Well, with your human brood and your possible breeding plan, your brood would be well on their way out of the coop. You see, statistically HALF of the lambs will be males and end up on the table. The other half will be ewe lambs and it takes several weeks for your 2 ewes to get pregnant during the breeding season, 5 months gestation, and up to a year for the ewe lambs to be mature enough to breed.  etc. for the following generations. So ?


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## mystang89 (Oct 30, 2016)

I plan on raising sheep for a long time so once those lamb ewes are old enough to mate what would be the correct order ? For that matter , what is the correct order for the ewes and rams I'll be buying ?


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## Baymule (Oct 30, 2016)

I would say to start with a few East Friesian ewes and an Assaf ram. Get some lambs on the ground and take it from there.


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## Roving Jacobs (Oct 30, 2016)

For your first sheep I would suggest buying the nicest ram you can afford and then several ewes that might not be quite as high quality. You can then either replace the ram regularly or if you want to keep a closed flock there are a number of ways you can maintain genetic diversity within small populations. There's no way to predict which ones to breed to which sire without evaluating the individual ewes, their strengths and weaknesses, and what rams you have bring to the table. Just being one breed or another doesn't necessarily mean they are all going to have the same qualities.


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## mystang89 (Oct 30, 2016)

Roving Jacobs said:


> For your first sheep I would suggest buying the nicest ram you can afford and then several ewes that might not be quite as high quality. You can then either replace the ram regularly or if you want to keep a closed flock there are a number of ways you can maintain genetic diversity within small populations. There's no way to predict which ones to breed to which sire without evaluating the individual ewes, their strengths and weaknesses, and what rams you have bring to the table. Just being one breed or another doesn't necessarily mean they are all going to have the same qualities.


That is a good point.  I've breed rabbits together and should have thought about that.  

So unlike rabbits however, I do not want to mix Father and daughter or inbreed right?  I know that it doesn't really matter when dealing with rabbits if you cull aggressively but that probably works because the rabbits growth is so rapid.


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## Bossroo (Oct 30, 2016)

mystang89 said:


> That is a good point.  I've breed rabbits together and should have thought about that.
> 
> So unlike rabbits however, I do not want to mix Father and daughter or inbreed right?  I know that it doesn't really matter when dealing with rabbits if you cull aggressively but that probably works because the rabbits growth is so rapid.


How do you think that purebred animals come to be as a breed ?   Take the Morgan horse as an example.  EVERY horse in that breed descends from one stallion - -  Justin Morgan.  Every TB horse was bred from 3 Arabian stallions.  If you find a cross that works great for your breeding program, the quickest way to set the desired genes for that line is to breed back to the desired ancester with that strong characteristic.


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## Latestarter (Oct 31, 2016)

From what I understand breeding mother/son or father/daughter is OK and quite common. Referred to as line breeding. But you want to be careful not to do it to many downstream times. Less common and not normally recommended is breeding siblings. but I guess even that is done and the offspring very closely evaluated as to whether they'll be bred or eaten...


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## mystang89 (Oct 31, 2016)

Thanks everyone ! So it kind of is the same then . Breed them,  watch them , take what is good and breed  it again.  Don't breed to far in, open you line occasionally to get new genetics in. Screen those genes befotr bringing in.


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## Baymule (Oct 31, 2016)

You got it.


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## Latestarter (Oct 31, 2016)

perfect!


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