Selecting your Project

Where to get your project animal?

• Home Raised

  • May be cheaper than purchasing your project

  • Must have good ewe base and nutrition to produce fast growing lambs/goats

  • Need to have good management

  • Ewes need to be bred to lamb after January 1^st

• Purchase from a producer

  • Make sure you can trust the producer

  • Good producers will help you throughout the year with your project if you have questions of if issues arise.

  • Prices can vary from $100-$2,000+

  • There are many producers locally and statewide

• Purchase from an auction

  • Know what you want to spend before you get there

What breed should I get?

• Purebred Sheep

  • Dorset, Columbia, Rambouillet, Suffolk, Hampshire, Southdown, & others

• Commercial

  • Crossbred or non registered purebred

What to look for when selecting a project animal

• Remember that you want to produce an animal with a high quality, lean, muscular carcass that it within your budget.

• Market lambs

  • A market lamb should be slaughtered between 110-140 lbs.

  • Appropriate size at fair is between 115-135 lbs

  • Final weight varies depending on breed, frame size, and nutrition.

  • Lamb should weigh between 40-70 lbs at the spring weigh in

  • Must be born January 1 or later

  • Can be a wether (castrated male) or ewe (female)

• Selecting a Breeding Ewe

  • Appropriate size at fair 120-160 lbs (ewe lamb)

  • Ewe lamb born after January 1

  • Yearling ewe born after January 1 the year before

Adequate muscle

• Firm, hard, muscle tone in leg, loin, top

• Large outside leg muscle

• Must be proportionate

  • Should walk and stand wide

• Muscle on the inside of the leg

• Wide muscular top

• Large rib cage=lots of capacity

• Length

  • Hind saddle (from the last rib back) should be equal to or longer than the front portion of the back

  • Too long of lamb will have a weak top and may break behind the shoulder and/or hip/loin junction

• Shoulder/shank

  • Smooth shape muscle

Structural Correctness

• Correct skeletal or bone structure

• Neck should be erect & extend out of the top of the shoulder

• Top line should be long, level and straight

• Legs should have a large bone

• Strong pasterns to support the body

• Stand with feet and legs wide apart

• Long, smooth steps, with a wide track while walking

  • Animals should not limp

• Good mouth-bottom teeth should line up with the upper dental pad

  • No overbite (parrot mouth) or underbite

Style and Balance

• Clean fronted

• Blend together

  • Don’t want a huge front end with a tiny hind leg

• Overall smooth outline (level top and square rump)

  • Don’t want a weak top or steep rump

• Want a well rounded complete project (don’t pick based on one particular trait).

Potential

• Lamb/goat that has growth potential

• Frame size

  • Very large or very small framed animals will finish are weights that are less than ideal

• Long body

• Thick loin