coarse wool sheep with data

[Mac Stewart]

I have been having discussions with the ranch owners over the winter about where our breeding program is headed. One idea is to start our own stud flock enrolled in NSIP to generate rams for our commercial ewe flock. That idea has some appeal for me but in our situation it makes more financial sense to just buy rams from enrolled flocks. Buying rams also reduces the number of management groups and totally emliminates having to do any recording of parentage on any of our sheep, both of those things appeal to me even more. I know of very few enrolled flocks of these breeds in the nation much less in the general area. I am a big proponent of sourcing breeding stock from a similar environment but if the right sheep were available I would consider them from any location. Does anyone have recomendations of performance enrolled flocks of Coopworth, Romney, or Border Leicester. Any performance program will be considered. NSIP, Lambplan, SIL. I did check the NSIP page and they don't list Coops in the breed directory. I am fairly certain that there are NSIP Coops in the US. No? Yes?

Thanks
Mac Stewart

[Judy Lewman]

Hello Mac:

It’s been (and continues to be) a real struggle for those of us with the breeds you mention to generate producer interest in NSIP/LambPlan. If memory serves, there were 3 or 4 Romney flocks and at least one flock of Coops enrolled in NSIP prior to the collaboration with LambPlan. The following would be your best leads for those breeds.

Coopworth: Martha McGrath (WV) http://www.deerrunsheepfarm.com/index.html

Romney: Stephen & Lizbeth Shafer (NY) http://www.americanromney.org/anchoragefarm/

For Border Leicesters, Margo Hanson (MN) http://www.marshcreekcrossing.com is on this forum and has an NSIP flock. But she and I are the only two of our breed enrolled to date, and we do not yet have adequate links for other than within-flock EBVs. We do, however, have 14 years of back data entered into NSIP for Spring Creek.

I recently steered a large producer from northern California to what we hope will turn out to be a good source of adequate numbers of excellent Border Leicester rams in your state. (I’ve not yet seen the flock, nor has the CA producer, but I do know the history; unfortunately, no EBVs.) Feel free to email me if you’d like that contact info.

One caveat for Border Leicesters: If scrapie genotype is important to you, be aware that the best genetics are in New Zealand and the majority of those will be QQ at 171.

And finally, a request: May I have permission to quote from your post in an article I’m writing for our breed association newsletter? It’s been a little more than a year since I made the last pitch for NSIP so time to give it another shot.

Good luck with your search!

Judy

[McMurry]

Hi Mac,
Where exactly are you in W OR?
My mind is on some folks (and their long wool / Coopworth sheep) who I met when I lived briefly in the Willamette Valley. I think some of them demonstrated the success of NZ bloodlines (similar breed types) for that area?
For roughly 100$ / lamb weaned or what amounts to about $3,000 - $5,000 / every two or three years, using LAI on a small group of my top ewes, I have been producing all my own rams with high indexing imported rams that I could have otherwise never afforded. The AI is extra work on those years but this insures I get top notch rams, keep inbreeding to a minimum and greatly simplifies my flock management / and seedstock selection. The added bonus is that by using my proven ewes I am making a less risky move (regarding adaptability of the outside genetics) than if I went to another flock (in another climate?) for live rams that would be unrelated to anything proven in my system. The smaller steps (genetically speaking) in this plan becomes a risk management tool. By having the AI ram lambs reared right in there with the commercial lambs all the way through the production calender (no special care); it is really easy to know for a fact weather or not / how much that AI sire fits my system before he has a chance to influence my next crop of lambs / replacements. From my experience here,once I found the right phenotype for my system, those AI lambs are very easy pick out from the commercial ones at weaning, the only problem I have in this regard is not mistaking them for ewes.
You probably know about these resources but I will pass them on just in case;
http://www.toprams.com/coop.htm
http://www.rissington.com/nz/sheep/highlander
All the best, cheers.