In China's sheep industry, the small-tailed cold sheep has always been regarded as a "national treasure" level. Because of its fast growth and development, strong reproductive ability, tall physique, good meat production performance and other advantages, it has won the love of the majority of farmers and herdsmen friends, providing a convenient way for farmers and herdsmen to get rich.
The small-tailed Han sheep that Guo Guo now breeds are no longer purebred small-tailed Han sheep, but breeds that have been cross-bred and improved many times, and they are called "two turns" in the local dialect of our Great Northwest Hexi Corridor.
Like this kind of "two-turn" small-tailed cold sheep that I breed myself, it not only makes up for most of the shortcomings of purebred small-tailed cold sheep, but also significantly improves the breeding efficiency of farmers and herdsmen, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone and killing two birds with one stone.
My family bought 3 purebred small-tailed cold sheep breeding ewes from Shandong in the 90s, those 3 purebred small-tailed cold sheep and the hybrid small-tailed cold sheep I am breeding now have a big difference, large physique, beautiful appearance, fluffy hair, eating refined feed is not ambiguous, 1 purebred adult small-tailed cold sheep breeding ewes, at least 2 kilograms of refined feed per day to maintain, and the hybrid small-tailed cold sheep I am breeding now, 1 breeding ewe 1 day about 1 kilogram of refined feed is enough.
Small-tailed cold sheep produce more lambs is not false, most of the ewes 2 years 3 births, a small number of ewes can do 1 year 2 births, in addition to the first fetal ewe lambing rate is slightly worse (generally in 1 to 2), the lambing rate of the next few litters can basically reach 2 to 3, of course, the case of lambing 4 to 5, I have seen the number of lambs of the small tail cold sheep at most is 6, the lambs are artificially fed, all survive (of course, this is just a case). Although the reproductive ability of purebred small-tailed cold sheep is strong, but in general, the survival rate of lambs is very general, and the survival rate of 100% is obviously impossible, under careful breeding, if the survival rate of lambs can reach more than 80%, it has been "burned high incense".
Purebred small-tailed cold sheep are very "picky eaters", poor quality grass and rough crop straw they basically do not eat, unless hungry and anxious to eat a few bites, perennial to eat this grass, the appetite will be worse and worse, the physique is also seriously affected, and even sick. Take my previous beach sheep and purebred small tail cold sheep to compare, beach sheep can eat a variety of weeds in the wild, and the requirements for refined feed are not high, pure breed small tail cold sheep is selective feeding, its tolerance to rough feeding performance is much lower than that of beach sheep.
Purebred small-tailed sheep can also be stocked (preferably in captivity and half-free), but they are not suitable for herding in the depths of the mountains deep in the ravines. Practice has proved that the climbing ability of purebred small-tailed cold sheep is not as good as that of beach sheep, Mongolian sheep, Tibetan sheep, Gansu alpine fine wool sheep and other breeds, and it is even more incomparable with goats who are good at climbing. In addition, due to the strong reproductive ability and large number of lambs produced by the small-tailed cold sheep, grazing will encounter too many bad weather and unexpected factors, which will directly or indirectly lead to a low survival rate of newborn lambs.
In order to correct these shortcomings, farmers racked their brains to come up with a variety of methods, the most reliable and effective measure is to use foreign excellent breeding rams as the father, farmers raise purebred small tail cold sheep as the mother, cross-improved, and then cultivated into a new breed. For example, the hybridization of Dubo sheep and small-tailed han sheep, Suffolk sheep and small-tailed han sheep hybrid improvement, they breed offspring that take into account the advantages of father and mother, but also bring more income to farmers and herdsmen.