When it comes to the breed of small-tailed cold sheep, sheep farmers are basically familiar with it, and its well-known advantages are high reproductive efficiency, fast growth and development, tall physique and strong adaptability. However, despite such an excellent breed, it is impossible to be perfect, especially the purebred small-tailed cold sheep, many old farmers as long as they talk about it, most of them shake their heads, few people recognize.
I remember that in the 1990s, my family introduced 3 purebred small-tailed cold sheep from Shandong to breed ewes, and there were considerable differences between the purebred small-tailed cold sheep breed and the small-tailed cold sheep breed I raise now, whether it was from the appearance of individual size, or from the feeding method, feeding volume, lactation performance and other aspects.
At that time, I had already discovered that purebred small-tailed cold sheep can really "eat", which is what we often say. Not only does it require a lot of roughage to maintain, but also refined feed can not be less. 1 purebred small-tailed cold sheep breeding ewe, in the lactation period need to supplement about 2 kg of refined feed per day to provide enough breast milk for lambs, and I now raise small tail cold sheep, even if it is during the lactation period, only need 1 kg of concentrate for 1 day.
For roughage, purebred small-tailed sheep are also more picky. Coarse crop stalks such as wheat straw and corn straw are used to feed purebred small-tailed sheep directly, and they do not eat them at all. Fortunately, the improved small-tailed cold sheep largely make up for this defect, as long as the rough and hard crop straw is slightly treated, it is "delicious".
Purebred small-tailed cold sheep breeding efficiency is not false, 2 births in 1 year or 3 births in 2 years is normal, 1 fetus can produce 2 to 5 lambs, most of the time 2 to 3. High yield does not mean high survival rate, which is its second defect.
My family used to raise purebred small tail cold sheep, the survival rate of newborn lambs is not even 70%, if the breeding ewe gives birth to 3 lambs, there will always be 1 premature death; if 4 to 5 lambs are born, it is perfect to live 3. Personally, I feel that I am doing my best to raise them, and in the end the profits are still meager, and it is not as good as the young people in the same village to work in the chemical factory to make more money.
Some farmers have reported that purebred small-tailed cold sheep often have the phenomenon of "not recognizing lambs", especially the first-born ewe, which is especially prevalent. In the actual breeding process, I also found this, so it became the third defect of the purebred small-tailed cold sheep.
In general, many varieties of first-born ewes have experienced the phenomenon of poor lactation performance, but after 2 and 3 children, there will be very obvious changes. However, the purebred small-tailed cold sheep breeding ewes is an exception, some sheep mothers still do not like their own sheep babies after giving birth to 3 babies, not only do not give the lamb breast milk to eat, but also hit the lamb with the head.
In order to completely improve the 3 major defects mentioned above by the purebred small-tailed cold sheep, later people came up with many ways,
For example, the use of Dubo sheep breeding rams and purebred small-tailed han sheep breeding ewe hybridization, they gave birth to the "Du Han string", the early growth and development of fast, tolerant to rough feeding, lamb survival rate increased, for the sheep breeders to bring the gospel; for example, the use of German Merino sheep breeding ram as the father, pure breeding small tail cold sheep breeding ewe for the mother for hybrid improvement, they born lamb primary body is large, meat production performance is excellent, fattening effect is obvious, lactation performance has also improved For example, the use of Kazakh sheep breeding rams in Xinjiang region and purebred small-tailed Han sheep breeding ewe hybridization improvement, their offspring fattening effect is good, resistant to rough feeding, high meat yield, suitable for grazing, but also many advantages.