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 1st

  • 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