- 6 - Mr. Barnes had extensive experience in breeding several breeds of purebred sheep, including Hampshires, Rambouillets, and Suffolks. However, by the 1980's, he concentrated on Rambouillets and Suffolks. Rambouillets have white faces and feet and cream colored bodies and are a breed noted for producing good-quality wool. Suffolks, on the other hand, have black faces and legs and cream colored bodies and are a breed noted for producing good-quality meat. By the late 1980's, Mr. Barnes and Randy had acquired very good reputations in purebred sheep breeding circles and were generally considered to be among the country's top breeders of Rambouillets and Suffolks. During the 1980's, they typically would enter annually between 20 to 25 of some of their best yearling sheep in various national purebred sheep shows around the country, and their sheep often won awards at these shows. Substantially all of the Barnes Ranches' breeding flock consisted of ewes, since a number of ewes would often be bred with and serviced by one ram. Typically, its breeding flock ewes produced a single crop of lambs each year. However, in some instances certain ewes might give birth to twins, and on relatively infrequent occasions a particular ewe might even produce triplets. Over the years, of the total number of lambs produced annually, about half were females. Only a relatively small percentage of the lambs born, perhaps no more than 10 to 15Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011