Sheep & Goat Breeds
Drs. Beth Walker (SMSU), Duane Keisler (MU), Niki Whitley(UMES),
Susan Schoenin (UMEX)
Sheep Breeds – Classification by Wool type
•1. Fine Wools: Merinos, Rambouillet, Debouillet
–Spanish Merino Ancestry
–Produces uniform desirable fleece
–Dam Breeds, longevity, gregarious
–Disadvantages:
•Lambs must go to feedlots for finishing
•Lack adequate muscling
Sheep Breeds – Classification by Wool type
Knowledge in Motion
•Excessive foot growth in soft, moist soils
•Fleece rot & fly strike
•My experience: fine wooled sheep develop more hoof and
fly strike problems than other types
•Why?
Sheep Breeds – Classification by Wool type
•Medium or Crossbred:
–Columbia
–Corridale
–Targhee
–Cheviot
–Montadale
Sheep Breeds – Classification by Wool type
•Medium or Crossbred:
•1. Columbia: Lincoln + Rambouillet
–Developed in US
–Common on Western Ranges
Sheep Breeds – Classification by Wool type
•Medium or Crossbred:
•2. Corridale: Merino X Lincoln (black points)
Sheep Breeds – Classification by Wool type
Montadale
Originated in Missouri
Columbia X Cheviot
Targhee
¾ fine wool x ¼ long wool
Originated in U.S.
Cheviot
Dam Breed known for carcass
Sheep Breeds – Classification by Wool type
•Long Wools
–Very few in the US
–Very adaptable to high rainfall regions
–Large, grow rapidly
Sheep Breeds – Classification by Wool type
–Medium wool - Meat type breed
–British breed X fine wooled
–High carcass merit
–Lambs gain rapidly
–Fleeces may have black fibers
I think they do well in Missouri
Examples
Hampshire:
Meat Breed
Medium wool
Bell shaped ears, black points, wool cap and wool on legs
Terminal system
Rams: 275 pounds or more
Ewes: 200 pounds or more
Suffolk:
Most popular breed in US
Medium Wool
Hair on legs and face
Terminal Cross
Males: 250 to 350 pounds
Ewes: 180 to 250 pounds
Other Breeds and Classification
•Dual Purpose – meat and milk
–Columbia, Dorset, Montadale, many of your medium wools
Polypay:
Four breed composite:
¼ Dorset x ¼ Finn
¼ Rambouillet x ¼ Targhee
Medium wool type
Ewe breed
Originated in US
Other Breeds and Classification
•East Friesian
Milk Breed
Worlds highest producing dairy sheep
500-700 kg/lactation
6-7% fat
Other Breeds and Classification
•Hair Sheep
Dorper – white and Black headed
Originated in South Africa
Indigenous fat tail x Dorset Horn
Heavy muscled hindquarters.
Get fat quick
Most sought after sheepskin in the world.
Katahdin
Originated in Main
Hair x wool
Shed coat seasonally
No shearing required
Parasite resistance
Heat tolerance
Low maintenance
Easy care
Leaner, milder meat
Other Breeds and Classification
• Prolific Breeds
• Finnsheep
• Not as seasonal
Romanov – “Lambs by the litter”
Take a deer and cross it with a pig = Romanov
Booroola Merino
Barbados Blackbelly
Heavy muscled breeds
Callipyge – “beautiful buttocks”
Gene mutation discovered in 1983
Enlargement of muscles in hind legs and loin
Texel
Originated in Netherlands
Known for muscle development and carcass leanness
Why so many breeds?
Between 400 and 800 breeds worldwide
•1. Many different products
•2. Efficiency of each breed varies
•3. Different systems of production
Goat Breeds
Classification
•1. Milk
•2. Fiber
•3. Meat
Goat Breeds - Milk
•Found in all states with CA, TX, & Wisconsin as leaders.
•Mo = 7th
•The American Dairy Goat Association recognizes six
breeds of dairy goats in the United States
•Alpine, American LaMancha, Nubian, Saanan,
Toggenburg, and Oberhasli
Goat Breeds - Milk
Alpine
•No distinct color pattern
–range from pure white through shades of fawn, gray, brown,
black, red, bluff, piebald, or various shadings or combinations of
these colors.
•Generally short haired, but bucks usually have a roach of
long hair along the spine.
Goat Breeds - Milk
La Mancha
–Originated in US
–Hardy
–High butterfat
Goat Breeds - Milk
Nubian
•all-purpose goat, useful for meat, milk and hide production
•high average butter fat content (between four and five percent).
•best suited of the dairy goat breeds to hot conditions
•long, pendulous ears that hang
close to the head.
•Roman nose and is always
short-haired.
Goat Breeds - Milk
Saanan
•Originated in Switzerland
•Prefer cool climates
•Heavy milk producers
–yield 3-4 percent milk fat.
•Weighs approximately 145 lbs
Goat Breeds - Milk
Toggenburg
•Prefer cooler conditions.
•Noted for their excellent udder development and high
milk production
–average fat test of 3.7 percent.
•Oldest known dairy goat breed
Goat Breeds - Milk
•Oberhasli
•Chamois is described as: Bay - ranging from light to a
deep red bay with the later most desirable.
Goat Breeds -Fiber
•Angora
–Mohair Shorn 1/year
–5-8 inch staple
–Very cold/wet sensitive
–Fiber diameter
–Kemp
–Uses
–Cross-breeding
Goat Breeds -Fiber
•Cashmere
–Not a breed, is a type
•fine underdown
•Arc of the Covenant of the old testament was lined and curtained with it
•very fine, crimpy down and the usually longer, outside, coarse, straight guard
hairs
•Afghanistan, Iran, Outer Mongolia, India, and China
•goat carries the gene for down
•microns of the fiber must be under 19
•2.5 pounds of fleece
•Spanish meat goats from Texas and the Southwest provide cashmere breeding
stock
Goat Breeds -Meat
•Boer
•Kiko
•Tennessee Meat Goat
•Spanish
•Pygmy
Goat Breeds -Meat
•Desirable Production Traits
–1. adaptability
–2. reproduction
–3. growth rate
–4. carcass characteristics
Goat Breeds -Meat
Adaptability
–is a lowly heritable trait because natural selection has already
reduced the genetic variability.
–will respond slowly to selection pressure
Goat Breeds -Meat
Reproduction
–Dr. Maurice Shelton (1992) "In animals kept primarily for meat
production, reproductive rate is the single most important factor
contributing to the efficiency of production."
–conception rate
–kidding rate
–ability to breed out of season
–Differences between “lines”
Goat Breeds -Meat
Growth rate
•Two periods:
–1. Growth before weaning or pre-weaning average daily gain
(ADG)
•Reflects the genetic potential of the kid but also the mothering ability of the doe
–2. Growth after weaning or post-weaning average daily gain.
Goat Breeds -Meat
Carcass characteristics
–Dressing percentage
•50%
–lean:fat:bone ratio
•Animal ages = increase the percentage of fat , decrease the percentage of bone while the
percentage of lean stays about the same.
–Muscle.
•Portions of the carcass with the largest muscle mass are the leg and shoulder; however, these
portions tend to decrease, percentage-wise, as the goat grows.
Goat Breeds -Meat