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Sheep Breeding The Limousine Breed
Appearance: A long head with ears held horizontally and pointing forwards. Mass: Adult ewes: 60-85 kg Adult rams: 75-110 kg Growth rate: Quite slow. The lambs reach about 23 kg when they are 70 days old.The Limousine breed is a sheep which can live in harsh conditions where the food that it grazes is poor in quality. It is usually reared by farmers in mountainous regions. The females (ewes) of the Limousine breed can give birth to their lambs at any time between the months of September and June. The ewes are also very good mothers; they look after their lambs carefully in the difficult mountain climate. The Suffolk Breed
Appearance: A short, black head with long ears which point downwards. Mass: Adult ewes: 65-90
kg Growth rate: Fast growth rate. At 70 days old the lambs can reach nearly 30 kg. The Suffolk breed is easy to recognize with its black head. It is a sheep which needs a rich pasture, so it is normally reared in the lowlands. The lambs grow very quickly but they are not very robust. The ewes give birth mainly in the months of February and March.
To summarize The
Limousine breed grows slowly but it can tolerate poor quality grazing
and a harsh climate. The Suffolk breed needs good quality grazing but its lambs
grow very quickly. What would happen if we breed these two
types of sheep together? The sheep produced in this way are
called Suffolk X Limousine hybrids.
A hybrid is the offspring produced when we breed together two
different breeds of animal or plant You can see from the
picture that the Suffolk Limousine hybrid looks a bit like
both of it, parents. The head is not completely black, like
the Suffolk parent, nor is the head completely white like the
Limousine parent.
What is more important to the farmer is that the Suffolk X Limousine hybrid lambs grow quite quickly even when the grazing is of poor quality. It is often true that hybrids like this one show the best characteristics of both parents. |
© Paul Billiet and Shirley Burchill 2008 |
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