# More info on scurs please.



## kelsey2017 (Feb 14, 2011)

I just finished reading a thread about whether or not to buy a ram with scurs.  One of the ewes I am getting has these, and I assumed that she just had a poor disbudding when she was a lamb.  I do believe they are Shetland, and one of the posts mentioned that Shetlands have an incomplete polling gene (or something to that effect was said). What does that mean for breeding? The ewe that is scurred has one small, about an inch long horn and one small floppy strange shaped horn that is not in danger of growing into her head at all, and her ewe daughter is polled.  If I was to breed her should I use a polled ram to lessen the chance of dealing with problematics in the future? Would it even make any difference? I must admit I have a pretty good grasp of how genetics work, but had never heard of such a thing and know nothing (Yet!) of sheep genes.  I also believe I had heard something to the effect of offspring being sterile when mating two polled animals, although I believe it was cattle. I dunno.


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## pairadice (Feb 14, 2011)

Purebred Shetland rams anways have horns.  Some of the ewes will have horns, some have scurs and some are polled.  If you cross them with a polled breed you may or may not have horns, often the rams will have smaller horns or scurs.  There is no problem breeding two polled sheep.  They will be fertile as the honed sheep.  Hope this helps you out.


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## kelsey2017 (Feb 14, 2011)

Okay cool I did not know that about the rams! I just wondered if the mama could pass this (scurs) on to her offspring sometimes.


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## The Old Ram-Australia (Feb 14, 2011)

G,day Kel,If the two poll thing was true there would be "NO" English Suffolk's,but if you want "no horned sheep " you will have to change your breed..............................T.O.R.


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## kelsey2017 (Feb 15, 2011)

I don't mind horns at all, I just don't really want to breed beasties that have horns that curl into their skulls.  So I wondered if scurred ewe was more likely to have babies like her. What is the effect of the genes, how do the genetics work?  I find it interesting.  Who out there knows which genes are dominant?  I just want to know, ya know?  I will see anyway next spring when they lamb.  I was going to see what rams are available to me to use in the area.  I am not even sure I will use a Shetland, might want something more meaty, although it would just be easier to get a meatier breed to begin with!  These are just our starter sheep and pets for my DdD (DdisabledD).  It is boyfriend who wants to raise sheep for meat.  We are basically learning sheep husbandry slowly before we go into breeding at all.  So thanks for your experiences and knowledge. I pick them up tomorrow!


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## patandchickens (Feb 15, 2011)

Actually Shetland rams are only horned BY STANDARD. Polled and scurred ones certainly exist, and there are some Shetland breeders working towards refining and stabilizing the smooth-polled trait in their rams.

(My scurred wether is from a guy doing this with his shetland flcok.)

Here is the best article I know of regarding their genetics (maybe the o.p. has seen it already http://www.shetlandsheepinfo.com/CONFORMATION/polled.htm

The article suggests that it is a three-allele system with polledness incompletely dominant over the other two alleles (horned-in-males-only, or both-sexes-horned). YOu could work out the possibilities of various matings of your sheep, remembering that you are uncertain whether they are homozygous or heterozygous for the polled allele, and taking into account the hornedness of the breed of ram you put them to. But, basically I think it boils down to "you might get some scurred lambs and some normal-horned lambs" 

Pat


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## kelsey2017 (Feb 15, 2011)

Thank you patandchickens that was just what I was looking for!  I am a amateur genetics nerd in the making.  I have never had livestock to breed before and even though most little boys won't probably reach maturity, I do want to breed with some thought behind it.  Very informative. Bravo!


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## kelsey2017 (Feb 25, 2011)

Okay I got an education all on my own today! I was trimming my ewes hooves and had her on her back, and when I finished and let her up I noticed that her head was bleeding! She had rubbed her little misshapen horn right off, on my leg or the ground. Weird! It didn't bleed as much as I thought a head wound would; thank god.  It was kind of creepy though and I wonder what it will grow back like.


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## pairadice (Feb 25, 2011)

What your ewe had were scurs.   Scurs are not firmly attached to the skull and often break off.  It probably won't grow back at all.  Still treat the wound to prevent infection.


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