Closed Flock

We closed our flock in 2005. First, let's define “closed” to mean that all our breeding males are now produced from within the flock with no outside rams purchased, borrowed, or used. The female side was closed over three years ago when we enrolled in the Scrapie Program.

The professional word on sire-side closure generally seems to be: 1. Don’t do it. or, 2. Only do it if the flock contains a minimum of 300 - 400 females and you are absolutely certain that they are truly superior in all traits of economic importance.

We do have the required number of females, but they would be regarded as of fairly mediocre quality by many “experts.” Does that mean we were only half qualified for closure?

No, and the reason is that our flock is superior to others in the one economic trait that is most important. That trait is survivability at hot, humid, parasite-infested Boggs Farms where the feed trough is always empty; and injections, inoculations, hormones, and antibiotics are never given.

Over the years our sheep have been slowly developed into a minimal maintenance flock by benign neglect and survival of the fittest. The weak are allowed to die and the strong are expected to fend for themselves. They live and prosper on our farm which is apparently a rare and unique quality as evidenced by the 50% death loss (within six months of arrival) that we've experienced over the years with rams purchased from seed stock producers where the feed trough is always full - and for reasons unknown to us - injections are routinely and regularly given. It’s hard to make “progress” with dead rams.

In February of 2005 we sorted and tagged the 12 best November ‘04 ram lambs and saved them for use with our four surviving rams for breeding starting on June 9, 2005. We will use the old purchased rams for as long as they live, but plan to continue selecting breeding rams from within our own flock.

Another factor which made this flock closing decision easy is that it is a low risk undertaking. Nothing is going to happen to our existing females; and if at some point the offspring from this experiment appear unsatisfactory, they can be sold and the project terminated by the purchase of new outside rams - although they will undoubtedly be sadly unprepared for “real life.”

We'll keep you posted.