Don't worry no one is dying. Terminal in the sheep world is much different than the bad things we think of in the people world. In the general scheme of things there are two types of sheep. Terminal and Maternal. Maternal are the good mothers. The prolific ones that have lots of babies and feed them well. Terminal sires(dads) are the males you usually breed to these maternal dams(moms) to get well-muscled lambs to sell for meat. In the sheep world you need these types of lambs to make your profit, so terminal sires are very important. There are 5 main reasons why you breed with terminal sires. 1 growth rate; you want your lambs to grow to market weight (around 115lbs) fast, in less than 100 days. That's around 1.1lbs a day. 2 Feed efficiency. You want to make sure that whatever food you are putting into your lambs you are getting it out. 3 Muscling; you want well-developed muscle in the leg and loin. If your lamb grows quickly that's great but you want it to be in muscle not fat. Which is also reason 4. Muscle not fat!!! and 5; large mature size; you want the carcass weight to be around 49% of the lambs' weight. You don't want the weight stored in fat cover around the organs. Here in Alberta Lakeland College has been working on a project dealing with the five main terminal sires in Canada. Here is what they found;
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| Suffolk Terminal Sire |
Canadian Arcott; best used to increase growth rate but also exhibit the highest level of fat.
Charollais; Used to increase growth rate and for general improvement of all traits.
Ile de France; Best used to increase muscle and lean meat yield.
Suffolk; increase growth rate, and the lowest level of fat.
Texels; increase muscling and lean meat yield and lower fat levels.
This may mean something to the shepherds out there but for the rest of you just remember that the lean juicy lamb-chop on your plate is all thanks to a great Terminal Sire.
