picking your breeding stock

What do you want to do?
Do you have a plan at all for breeding sheep together?
How many sheep do you want to keep on your place?
How many do you want to sell in a year?
Count the sheep you have.....do you like them?....did you buy a dud? What are you going to do with it now? Do you breed it to improve it....do you cull it?...do you try to sell it cheap?
I personally think everyone should have a plan for breeding two sheep together....sometimes the plan works...sometimes you don't get the results you wanted.....what to do then?
I seriously doubt that anything is gained...or lost by out-crossing.
I wish our breeders could spend a few years moving their breeding groups around and playing with the results.
Hey...I'm not dumb enough to say something controversial here...I have learned that my blog can be held against me....my next thought is censored.

But, I think much can be gained in sheepy type knowledge by breeding what you already have in different ways to see if you can improve the odds of liking your results.

What do you want to do with sheep?....Are you going to be happy with a dozen fiber sheep, and a few lambs in the spring? Do you have a way to advertise your product...wool or lambs?
Have you tried the local shopper...the electrical monthly....bulletin boards?
If you will be happy with a few....limit your expenses by using free web pages...free fiber board ads....local shops in town to sell spun yarn.

If you have 6 ewes and a ram.....and breed them....the next year you might have 9 ewes and another breeding ram...and maybe two wethers. The following year you have over twenty sheep....now what happens? If you suddenly want to sell some breeding type lambs....you are going to need some planning....Do you know what is selling?.....do you know who is buying it?
The last maybe 5 years spotted sheep have suddenly become popular.....the past two years modified colors have suddenly become popular.....maybe the last 8 years A-I sheep have been popular....I'm guessing here since I don't do that.
What next?....what I hear is RR.....so now you have an advantage.....you know what to breed to sell....better plan than the rest of us have been struggling with.
Yes, I actually did plan to have a lot of sheep...after my first three that is.....once I decided what I wanted to breed for...and why....I thought I would need at least 30 or 40 ewes.....OK...so I am a little over that now...like double....
One of my problems is I think of ewes as people.....I don't like splitting up twin ewes....I like an adult ewe to be able to keep a ewe lamb once in a while....I don't like to cull ewes....I don't like to sell adult ewes to new flocks.....I have a whole bunch of mental blocks to making this stuff a business....these are my babies....I need to take care of them wheather they like it or not.
I did cull maybe 25 rams last year...I even sold some bred ewes....never do that...like Juliann wrote...."how to make sure you have that perfect lamb...sell the ewe bred."
My breeding list is presently over 60...that is impossible.....I don't want to assist 60 ewes, I don't care what the lambs look like!....I don't want 90 lambs.....I have a no-breed list of 20 already.....What I am saying...is don't do what I do....
I do have a plan for breeding...I have five yuglet sokket or yuglet flecket rams......If I just bred them I would already have about 25 ewes bred. However, I also have fiber rams....emsket and katmoget rams....and new little rams to try out...just because they have potential and I can't sell all the good rams in a year. so I try to give them a chance to breed before they have to go on to that rammy place.
So think about it now....what you decide to do will make a difference in your life....look at me...now I live in missouri...because I didn't want to get rid of my sheep.
what do I want to do next?...I'm not sure....know anyone who wants a few dozen sheep?
Yaaahhh...I know....me.