# Crossing a Hair Ram with A Wool Ewe?



## SweetDreams

Okay- Here is our situation.
DH bought two Suffolk Ewes from a neighbor. He only had them for a little while, but changed his mind about sheep.


Anyways. We are looking to breed them to our Dorper Ram *they all have beautiful black faces.....and he seems "interested"

First off- has anyone on here done such? And if you have...What was the outcome- were they wooly, or hair sheep or both? And, does it even sound like a good idea? I think the lambs would be smaller than the traditional Suffolk, but I am so confused on the possibilities. 


What do you all think???


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## Beekissed

FArmers often use a Dorper ram to "breed the wool off" of woolly breeds.  This takes some generations of breeding though, as it typically does not happen with the first generation.  Some Dorpers are as big as your Suffolks, so you may just come out with some Suffolks that just have spotty shedding of their wool in the spring.  

Either way, I think you will have nice, stocky lambs to sell.


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## aggieterpkatie

It's a very common cross!  Usually it's done with suffolk rams and dorper (or kathahdin) ewes, but I'm sure the reverse would would do just as good.  I've seen quite a few hair/suffolk crosses and they're fast growing solid little lambs!  They've got wool, but you can tell it's not just plain wool.  I say go for it! They'd make great market lambs!


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## goatgirl4008

.I know this is an old topic however we have done this with good success. We have about half katadins and half wooly (suffolk rambouilt montadale dorset) ewes. The ewes are a mixed bag of colors and sizes. I believe I read a post that said katadins were a bit smaller I would like to see some of them. Our ewes weigh 150 and up they might have a touch of st croix but that is it. They have a lot more leg than our couple of dorpers. In fact I'm selling the dorpers cause I like the bigger frame size. But back to the cross hair on wool. I like the wool ewes from a production stand point they milk a lot quick and we had some real nice lambs from the cross. We have a 250 pound dorper st croix cross ram. For us its the added expense of a shearer but a friend does it and we tell him they don't have to be pretty just functional.


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## nissa_loves_cats

I have crossed White Dorpers onto Shetland sheep, and the result is very excellent since Shetland sheep, although renowned for their wool, grow that wool in annual fleeces and have some tendency to shed it naturally. That is why in the Shetland islands it it traditional to 'roo' their sheep--- pulling the wool off by hand instead of using a shears.

With ShetlandxDorper most offspring of the first cross shed very well, depending on how 'sheddy' the Shetland mama is. With other wool breeds it does take longer to get the wool out.


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