AHEM. (climbing up on soapbox) When we bought our sheep ,after we moved here, we were told these sheep were Tennassee Mountain Sheep. Of course we had already raised blackbellies before and knew better. Our sheep , some have horns, and some are polled, all are marked the same. BUT, the biggest difference, I believe is; 1. size,and therefore, weight. (at slaughter) Our sheep are small for sheep. Especially compared to the woolies down the road from us, and to the polled sheep of a more pure breed that our friends over in Edmonton have. 2. multiple births. We mostly have single birthings, but good polled ewes bred with good polled rams have twins or triplets, sometimes more. Our friends have more twins than we do. By breeding out of the original stock, mixing in other genes, we will lose the genetic abilities to resist all those parasites,and other varmits and diseases, that we pride our sheep in resisting. One of the reasons that we chose hair sheep was so we wouldn't be so occupied with veterinarian bills and supplies. Lots less care and tending. We don't have to dock our sheep, and docking is very necessary in other breeds, not all, but most of them. Seldom, if ever do we need to give shots, because they just are not as apt to getting the illnesses other sheep get. Yes, the sheep we have, most of us, are, or were bred with moulfon and whatever breed it is that gives us the Hawaiian Black and African and/or other breeds to get a herd started here in the U.S. But we can either try to keep good genes in, (ie;polled BB) or we will lose it all folks. We will just be the folks down the road who raise sheep. Ones that are expensive to raise,(vets, meds,bad hooves,etc.) Then comes the shearing, docking and hoof trimming and all that stuff that we don't have to do now. I have never had to trim a hoof on any of my sheep. They run on hilly rocky ground and that takes care of the hooves.They are not in a locked barn or stable (unless it gets so bad outside weather wise, that they are in danger ) So they never stand in their waste, therefore no hoof disease.(hoof rot, etc.) If you want horns then breed for that, but ,don't breed them as purebred BB's. I beilieve that in order to get the horns and maintain a good standard of sheep we should breed with one breed of sheep, all of us. Such as the Texas Sheep ,who I believe is a mix of BB and Bighorn. One man here calls his texas ram, a Texas Dall. Now, for size of lambs and horns he would be great. But he is not a BB, just as the others are not. Either close up the herd and breed to clean up the gene pool and get a better standard of sheep, or don't call them BB. We are working on getting ours cleaned up and until then we will not try to register them in the BB registry. We do intend to keep a few "horned" in a seperate field away from the others, so we can have the horned to sell to some of the groups around here that, for one reason or another like horns. Well, I'll climb down off my soapbox now. Sorry for the rambling lectur. Just had to get my two cents in.
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