Mystang's Homesteading Circus

[mystang89]

I'll have to wait till later to make that decision. We're still pretty raw from the recent events so some time should be good for the family.

Speaking of passing on genes, even without this happening I was still planning on buying some more sheep. I heard the reason the ram was more expensive than the ewe was because the genes were passed on from him. Is this true? I always thought it was 50/50 coming from both dam and ram. How does that work?

 

[Baymule]

Not so much the majority of the genes, but your ram is half your herd. ALL the lambs will be his. A ewe will have one or two lambs. The ram will be everyone's Baby Daddy.

 

[Mike CHS]

The good producers that we know personally send the majority of their ram lambs to market and only keep those that show super promise. That's the way it is around us which changes the supply/demand. We started with some decent sheep but wanted to cut several years off of improving our stock to fit the goals we have. We networked till we found a farm that had the genetics that we wanted to wind up with and bought several from them. They had a dozen years getting their line to where it is now and at 68 years old I didn't want to spend a dozen years getting there.

 

[mystang89]

Not so much the majority of the genes, but your ram is half your herd. ALL the lambs will be his. A ewe will have one or two lambs. The ram will be everyone's Baby Daddy.

Ok, so if I understand it correctly, the ram costs more because his dna will be in the entire herd; whereas the ewe's dna will only be in a few of them. This is overall. Individually the ewe and ram dna will be 50/50ish right?

So when buying a ram I need to make sure that he comes from a dam AND ram with the traits I want, not just the ram?

 

[Baymule]

A dam that consistently produces twins, is very milky, a GOOD mother, ease of birth and whatever else you want. I think you're on to something! What good would be a good looking ram that was a single, bottle raised because his mom rejected him, she had mastitis, and she prolapsed.

 

[farmerjan]

Ok, so if I understand it correctly, the ram costs more because his dna will be in the entire herd; whereas the ewe's dna will only be in a few of them. This is overall. Individually the ewe and ram dna will be 50/50ish right?

So when buying a ram I need to make sure that he comes from a dam AND ram with the traits I want, not just the ram?

Yes, you have it right. The ram's influence will be in the whole flock. And the ewe will only affect the lambs she directly has.
In cattle we say that the bull is half your herd. Not meaning numbers, but meaning genetic influence. The calves ( or lambs of kids or piglets) get half their genes from each parent. But the fastest way to make progress is to get the very best male you can afford.
The female will influence some things more than the male, simply because they are with the baby all the time. In other words, attitude and friendliness will be more influenced by the female due to the baby following the mother. If the ewe, or cow, is standoffish, or unfriendly, or hard to catch and get in, or even nutty.... the baby will follow the "simon says" "do as I do", more often than not. If the baby is bottle raised, then it will be more apt to be friendly and somewhat calm to be around. That's not 100 % guaranteed, but is the most likely scenario. If the mother is not a good mother, as this ewe, there is a possibility that the lamb will would grow up to not be very attentive. But, if you do breed her again, when she lambs, and doesn't take care of it RIGHT OFF THE BAT, licking, cleaning it and mothering it, then you take it away and raise it with no further contact with her. It has a 50/50 chance of being a better mother.
First time females sometimes get confused and don't fully get it, but they often just need to be penned with their baby. Once a baby gets on the teat, and sucks, the ewe will often then realize that this is what this strange little creature is for. Our first calf heifers mostly do very good with their first calf, but every now and then will have one that will keep trying to lick it, and not let it get back to the udder. They will back up or keep turning around. So if we can just get the calf to suck, then they seem to get it.
The ewe will be half of the traits, so things like bad legs, bad confirmation, udder problems , and such will come from the dam as well as the sire. But since this is a fairly rare breed, you are going to have to take what you can get, and try to breed up from there. Maybe crossing like you suggested will be the answer. Then going back with a purebred male on the females from the cross.

 

[greybeard]

Yep, A herdsire=1/2 the whole herd's genetics, while each of the dams= only 1/2 their individual offspring's genetics.

 

[mystang89]

Was woken up this morning by a "plop, plop, plop" sound. Turned on my phone light, thankfully, and followed the sounds. Turns out there is water coming out of my ceiling fan.... Onto my bed covers.

Placed a bucket under it and went upstairs to pin point where the leak is coming from. Our house is a balloon framed house and I think the leak is coming from where the "new" addition which the residence before us put in. I tried looking behind the walls where I could but the children are still asleep so anymore investigation will have to wait till they get up.

Load of tar sounds like it's going to be needed. Oh well, like the ol' saying goes, "When it rains, it pours."

 

[Baymule]

That sucks. I hate leaks. Our old house had the plumbing in the ceiling. A pipe burst and flooded the house, we replumbed the whole house. Bad experience. Hope you find it and get it fixed quickly.

 

[mystang89]

In our other house our updates tub leaked into the basement. Lovely time that was.

I'd rather deal with leaks than electrical to be honest.... Unless the leak is coming out of something electrical. In it old house we had a leak come in from where the ground meets the basement. Came in right where the breaker box was. Water was just pouring out of it in the middle of the night. What fun times that was. Had to call the electrical company and have them turn the power off from the outside then get someone in to find and fix the leak.

This time, I "think" the leak might be coming in through a window above our room. It seems like it may have rained so hard that the water came in through the screen part of the window then down the sides? I climbed into the balooned out party of the house and didn't see any water or wet parts. Still need to check the roof.