May 3rd 2015, 07:34 AM
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Apr 2009 Vaughn, MT 59487 Cervid: mule deer,whitetail,elk,goats,bighorn & stone sheep & Alaskan dahl sheep |
We got some real nice 75% bighorn lambs this season.* Here are some pictures of them along with the sire I collected from.* Last year was the first year we used all post mortem semen in our LAP AI project on sheep.* We were from 65% to 90% conception on the different groups of sheep we bred.
We make hybrids to improve the immune system of the animals.* Pure bighorns have little or no defense against pneumonia.* We make these crosses in the hopes we will get the better immune system from the domestic sheep.* It seems to be working.* We also wanted to introduce the twinning aspect of domestic sheep as bighorns only have single births.* We have twins in our hybrids so that worked also.
The last thing I wanted to do was get the horn growth of domestic sheep.* This has worked very well.* A two year old pure bighorn might have a half curl but a hybrid the same age will be a 3/4 curl to 7/8 curl.* A three year old hybrid will be full curl but it would take five years for a pure bighorn to get close to a full curl.
This year we hope to LAP AI with Stone sheep semen in our hybrids.* We also might use Desert bighorn semen in some of the hybrids.* A interesting thing has happened this year.* Our domestic sheep are mostly white stock.* First generation stock has been white or tan or tan and white lambs born.* The best color lambs born this year were out of the pure white ewes when LAP AI'd back to pure bighorn.* We also get good bighorn color lambs when we breed 50% stock back to each other.* I assume because the bighorn color is on both sides of the stock*bighorn color*is able to come out in some lambs.* All in all this project has been a great success.* In the past because we no longer have the ability to harvest our stock in Montana I have sold all lambs born.* This year I plan to raise harvest stock for out of State harvest facilities so I will be looking for some buyers from out of State who would want to have something else for their clients.* If interested please contact me. |
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