Why Do Farmers Inbreed and Misbreed Sheep?

Are there "breeding practices" made by humans that cause the inbreeding and misbreeding of sheep?
Inbreeding is the mating of genetically related individuals with common ancestors. Inbreeding will decrease the long-term ability of sheep to survive and reproduce.
Misbreeding is the man-made creation of a "genetic bottleneck" through the selection of animals that will emphasize the traits of a single observable trait, at the expense of other recessive or hidden beneficial traits.
By using chemical dewormers, vaccinations and medications, we are misbreeding sheep that Nature would otherwise find unfit to live in the wild.
By creating "chemical dependent sheep" to fill the single role of meat production in an unnatural environment without natural selection, we are misbreeding their resiliency to ever return to a natural environment.
Misbreeding is replacing "Survival of the Fittest" with "Survival of the Fattest" and destroying long term genetic diversity in order to produce an unnatural animal with only a single purpose and ability.
Inbreeding accelerates the errors of Misbreeding and produces "industrialized" sheep dependent on chemicals and human effort to survive, which does three things:
The production of lamb meat that will always have traces of these chemicals, vaccines and medications,

An inability to scale to higher production as flock size will always be tied to the availability of human labor to administer these chemicals,

A flawed genetic code that depends on chemicals to survive and prevents their offspring from ever returning to a natural environment.

The Long Term Consequences of Sheep Inbreeding

When humans allow sheep to inbreed with their close relatives, otherwise recessive or "hidden" genes will become apparent.
The "Spider Lamb Syndrome" is a genetic recessive disorder affecting the bones and cartiledge of sheep.
The name derives from the limbs of the sheep being long, thin and "spider like."
This genetic disorder is associated with the inbreeding of the black face Suffolk and Hampshire breeds.
Many times, a single "superior" ram is chosen to breed all of the ewes in a flock.

Spider Lamb Syndrome Caused by Inbreeding

This breeding arrangement makes every lamb in the flock a "half sibiling" so that if these lambs then breed with each other, the next generation will have a Coeffient of Inbreeding of 12.5%.
Repeatedly breeding the same male to its own offspring raises the Coeffient of Inbreeding to create these genetic diseases.

The Coefficent of Inbreeding and the Practice of "Line Breeding"

The following definition is from Wikipedia:
"The coefficient of inbreeding (COI) is a number measuring how inbred an individual is.
Specifically, it is the probability that two sections of genetic code at any place on the chromosome in an individual are identical by descent from a common ancestor of the two parents.
A higher COI will make the traits of the offspring more predictable, but also increases the risk of health issues.
In dog breeding, it is recommended to keep the COI less than 5%; however, in some breeds this may not be possible without outcrossing."
In my opinion, a Coefficient of Inbreeding higher than 5% is never a good idea, even if some sheep breeders call it "linebreeding."
Inbreeding and "linebreeding" are the same thing, with one slight difference, namely:
When inbreeding produces an improvement to an observable trait it is called "linebreeding", and when inbreeding results in an obvious genetic defect, it is called "inbreeding."
What is not considered by those that inbreed or linebreed is the negative impact on traits that may not be immediately observable, such as instincts and behaviors.

The Coefficient of Inbreeding.

Relationship	Inbreeding Coefficient
Father/daughter, mother/son or brother/sister	25%
Grandfather/grandaughter or grandmother/grandson	12.5%
Half-brother/half-sister	12.5%
Uncle/niece or aunt/nephew	12.5%
Great-grandfather/great-granddaughter or great-grandmother/great-grandson	6.25%
Half-uncle/niece or half-aunt/nephew	6.25%
First cousins	6.25%
First cousins once removed or half-first cousins	3.125%
Second cousins or first cousins twice removed	1.5625%
Second cousins once removed or half-second cousins	0.78125%
Third cousins or second cousins twice removed	0.390625%
Third cousins once removed or half-third cousins	0.195%

Coefficient of Inbreeding Calculator

by Sam Kauffman
NORTH AMERICAN BABYDOLL SOUTHDOWN SHEEP ASSOCIATION & REGISTRY

The Results of Inbreeding in the German Shepherd Breed

In the German Shepherd breed, hip dysplasia is a genetic disorder that causes the femur and pelvis of the hip joint to not match up fittingly. This creates a painful, hobbled walk in a dog that can progressively worsen with time, sometimes coexisting with osteoarthritis.
I have had several German Shepherd dogs that had to be euthanized when they were 8-9 years old because of this genetic disorder.
I understand that there was a popular TV show in the 1950's called "Rin Tin Tin" that made everyone want to have a German Shepherd dog.

German Shepherd with Hip Dysplasia
(A Genetic Disorder)

As a result, puppy mills sprang up all over the USA in the 1950's and the German Shepherd dogs became horribly inbred, which helped to create this condition.
My guess is that each puppy mill produced brother/sister dogs for sale as breeding pairs to each new set of of backyard breeders, who repeated the process to raise the Coefficient of Inbreeding to the breaking point.
To avoid this when raising sheep, we should always buy our rams and ewes from different farms to lower inbreeding and ensure genetic diversity in the flock.

How Inbreeding Affects the General Traits of Humans

The Hapsburg Royal Family

To consolidate their power, the Habsburg Royal family practiced inbreeding, or "consanguineous marriages" between close relatives.
This produced deformities, like the famous "Habsburg Jaw", and destroyed their gene pool. The family was known for mental illness.
The Hapsburgs had health impairments due to inbreeding which included epilepsy, insanity and early death. A study of 3,000 Hapsburg family members over 16 generations by the University of Santiago de Compostela suggests inbreeding may have played a role in their extinction.

Hapsburg King Charles II of Spain, with a deformed jaw caused by inbreeding.

Hapsburg Emperor Leopold I also had a deformed jaw caused by inbreeding.

The British Royal Family

George III was the King of England during the American Revolution, and was a product of inbreeding. He was bi-polar and would talk non-stop until foam came out his mouth. His doctors would treat him using straitjackets and ice baths.
Charles III is the current King of England. He is inbred as his parents (Elizabeth and Philip) share common ancestors. His personal life speaks volumes.

King George III mental instability is linked to inbreeding.

King Charles III is inbred with his parents having common ancestors.

The Rothchild Banking Family

To hold onto their fortune, the members of the Rothchild Banking Family routinely marry their cousins.
Jacob Rothchild justified this by stating that "Love should begin at home."
The Rothchilds are the richest family in the world, yet they have made very few "positive" contributions to the world.

Walter Rothchild riding a turtle.

Jacob Rothchild
"Love Begins At Home."

Countries with the Highest Levels of Inbreeding

This chart from Wikipedia shows the percentage of humans with consanguineous marriages (second-degree cousins or closer) in each country.
In countries with a high level of consanguineous marriages, generations of inbreeding may provide a reason why some of the offspring of these incestous marriages have certain negative instincts, and why these countries are less developed.
In Leviticus 18:6-18, sexual relations between close relations is strictly prohibited, which has influenced most of the Christian world to avoid marriages with their relatives.
These Christian countries with low consanguineous marriages are more developed with a higher standard of living, and it is in these countries is where inbreeding is prohibited that the creative innovation of new technology occurs. I think this is more than coincidence.
While we don't think of sheep as needing high levels of creative intelligence, even a slight amount of inbreeding is likely damaging their instinctive traits, like good mothering instincts, birthing without assistance, flocking instincts, etc.
When sheep are inbred on a "factory farm" with chemicals and require human assistance to survive, the loss of these natural instincts in sheep is unnoticed.
But when inbred sheep that have lost these instincts that are returned to a more natural environment, they die without human assistance. Their genetics have been damaged through inbreeding/misbreeding so that they can never go back to a more natural existence.
And that is where we are now. Most farmers cannot raise sheep without dewormers, yet dewormers were not invented until the 1950's. They have inbred and misbred sheep until they cannot survive without chemicals.

How Inbreeding or "Misbreeding" damages Natural Instincts and Traits of Animals.

When I raised chickens, I noticed that many of the of the Rhode Island Red, Leghorns and other standard breeds would not naturally "brood" by sitting on their own eggs until they hatched. These "industrialized" chicken breeds had lost a trait necessary for survival, and depended on Man to use egg incubators for their reproduction.
I also noticed that the "industrialized" chickens would not lay an egg unless they were fed lots of grain.
I found that I could not raise them as grass fed egg laying chickens, although chickens in medieval times were not fed grain but still produced eggs.

Bresse Chickens from France

The exception was the Bresse chicken breed I got from France. The Bresse chickens were exceptional foragers, they laid eggs without grain, and they could brood their nests and produce their own offspring without human assistance.
This made me realize that the better known chicken breeds in the USA have been industrialized by selecting for one trait (egg laying with grain), while breeds outside the USA were more pristine and still retained their original instincts.

Inbreeding and Misbreeding Industrial Sheep

I believe that "misbreeding" and inbreeding is destroying the survival traits of modern "industrialized" sheep. Here is a list:

Modern Sheep cannot repel parasites without dewormers, yet sheep existed for thousands of years alongside parasites before chemical wormers were invented in the 1950's.
Modern Sheep routinely get hoof rot, and need new types of medications and vaccinations for various diseases to survive. Many have lost their natural defences to disease.

Industrialized sheep are crammed into feed lots ,their natural life denied them, here they await slaughter fed on unnatural feed.

The hooves of Modern Sheep have to be trimmed by man, something that was not done when sheep lived in the wild.

Some Modern Sheep have been bred where they cannot lamb without human assistance, or else the lamb will be caught in the birth canal and both the ewe and lamb will die. So a human has to sit up all night and monitor which of the Modern Sheep ewes need help lambing, and help pull the lambs out.
Modern Sheep now need a lambing pen to "bond" with their lamb, or else the ewes will walk away and forget they ever gave birth and their lamb will die.
Modern Sheep do not lick their lambs enough to keep them warm when they are born in winter, and the lambs end up freezing to death on the ground when born in winter. Modern Sheep require shelter to lamb in winter, which is their natural time to lamb.
Many Modern Sheep have lost their natural flocking instincts and would be killed by predators if not kept in a pen.
Modern Sheep require grain to grow big and fast, even if grass fed lamb tastes better but grows slower.
Man has selectively bred sheep based on how fast they grow and how big they are, and not on how they taste or how healthy they are for human consumption.

The way Modern Sheep are raised is cruel, inhumane, and it produces a sub standard product. But Modern Sheep Farming produces a lot of meat product quickly that "looks good" and makes money, and that is why nearly every farm does it.
And most people in the USA do not like eating lamb because it has a "greasy" taste - part of which is a result of feeding the lamb pellets to grow as fast as possible.
This has to stop. Smaller carcase, grass fed and humanely raised sheep without chemicals are superior in taste and are easier to raise, and create a better product.
And they are just better for us. We have to stop industrializing our sheep.

How to Find the "Least Industrialized" Sheep Breeds

The National Sheep Improvement Program (NSIP) provides software to help sheep farmers improve their flocks through selective breeding.
The NSIP software records the weight of the lambs when they are born and when they are periodically weighed. This helps the farmer to find which lambs grow faster than others.
From this information the software creates an "Estimated Breeding Value" (EBV) so that faster growing lambs with higher EBV's can be bred to other faster growing lambs. The goal is to create a "Super Sheep" that will outperform all others by growing faster, most likely on full grain/pellet diet.

National Sheep Improvement Program

While this is well-meaning and could be beneficial, I believe that the way the NSIP is being used is causing sheep industrialization.
Using the NSIP system will breed measureably larger size commercial animals at the expense of traits that cannot be measured, like the ease of lambing, flocking, mothering instincts, etc.
While you can use the NSIP software to keep records from testing for fecal egg counts as an indication of parasite resistance, this is not the same as the sheep's actual parasite resistance or resilience, as some parasite resistant/resilient sheep will occasionally produce a high fecal egg count but still be healthy.
A better way to "naturally" test for parasite problems is to never chemically deworm your sheep, and let Nature cull the sick ones and their sick genetics out of your flock.

If you look at the NSIP list, you will find that there are very few St. Croix breeders while the Dorper and Katahdin sheep breeds are very, very popular.
The Dorpers and Katahdin breeds are popular "only because they are bigger" which makes them more marketable. Their popularity is not based on how they taste or how efficient they are, or if they are chemical free, it is all based on how they look.
Katahdins have half the parasite resistance of a St. Croix, and you still have to deworm them and periodically test them. Dorpers have almost no parasite resistance and require constant deworming and testing in Tennessee. You can't ramp up production of Katahdin and Dorpers without increasing your labor costs.
For some reason, the effort and the chemicals used in keeping these animals alive, and the taste of the meat they produce has nothing to do with their popularity. They are popular because they are bigger, even if they bring the same price per pound as the St. Croix.
I believe the Dorper and Katahdin Sheep Breeds are being industrialized to produce a larger carcase size and are losing performance in other areas, while the St. Croix breed is still pristine.
I believe in not giving chemicals, vaccinations, or medications to the St. Croix Sheep Breed and letting Nature cull out the inferior animals.

St Croix Ram (120-165 lbs)

Katahdin Ram (145-210 lbs)

Dorper Ram (180-230 lbs)

The only help I think we should give the St. Croix breed is to trim out the "least valuable" sheep from the bottom of the gene pool, while keeping as much of the superior and diverse genetic material as possible.
That the St. Croix are not yet "industrialized for size" is one the reasons why I am raising St. Croix instead of Katahdin, just like I raised Bresse chickens instead of Rhode Island Reds.
And it will take longer to see improvements in the St. Croix by "culling the bottom" of what Nature produces than to "bottleneck the top" with humans selectively breeding "superior" rams.
But it is much easier to cull the obviously inferior sheep at the bottom than to select the "perfect specimen" ram or ewes at the top for breeding.
And "culling the inferior" without "using a single superior" with the sheep living in a natural environment keeps the pressure of Natural Selection intact, so that only those sheep that have all of their instincts and traits (mothering, lambing, parasite resistance, etc.) will survive without human assistance.
So, if you want to find a grass fed sheep breed that is not "industrialized" through selection for how large they grow on grain, then look at the List of Breeders by Sheep Breed on the NSIP and avoid any breed that has become popular.
A good sheep breed does not need a huge carcase through human assistance to be successful.
"Bigger Does Not Always Taste Better."

Why Humans Deliberately Cause Sheep to Inbreed.

Large sheep commerical producers believe that "bigger is better" and try to raise the largest lamb carcase in the shortest period of time. These producers use the largest sheep breeds, give them unlimited feed pellets instead of fresh grass, and provide the sheep with steroid growth hormone drugs with zero day withdrawal before slaughter.
It is impossible for a smaller carcase grass fed "chemical free" lamb to compete in this "industrialized" sheep market, and that is why you don't see pure natural lamb in the grocery store. You have to raise it yourself, or join a cooperative to find it.
And raising these "larger and larger" industrialized sheep is not sustainable. Here is how selecting the largest sheep for breeding is abusing their long term genetics:

Each farm will attempt to produce a "champion" ram that wins awards for being superior in size and shape, but their "champion" sheep is really inferior because it still must require chemicals, vaccinations and medications to live.
The genetic damage results when this "champion" ram is used for Artificial Insemination so that its champion genetics are passed on to sire (and potentially inbreed) as many sheep as possible, without any natural contest. This is the opposite of what Nature intends through natural selection.
Natural Selection would cull the inferior animals and ensure "survival of the fittest" and not "survival of the fattest" according to what looks good on the outside.
For example, does this "champion" ram have a strong sex drive? In Nature, the ram would have to fight for the right to breed, but Man has selected him based on his size, and not his sex drive. His long term genetic potential may actually lower the reproduction of his offspring, unless Man continues to provide Artificial Insemination services.

Grand Champion Ram

Will the ram produce progeny with good flocking instincts? The producers do not care, as it is more important that the industrialized offspring grow faster in a pen eating pellets than trying to live in the open with possible predators.
This ram also carries hidden genetics for any females he may produce. Would this ram produce females with good mothering instincts? Milk producing ability? Will his female offspring bear more than a single lamb per pregnancy, and produce twins and triplets? Will his female offspring require assistance in birthing?
Under Natural Selection, if the answer is "No" to any of these questions, his genetics would be eliminated from the gene pool, and for good reason.
But Man's intervention has eliminated Natural selection and passes on this ram's genetics based his observable traits of size and rate of growth.
And rate of growth has more to do with the selection of sheep to favor those that thrive on eating man-made pellets instead of grass. Yet grass fed lamb tastes much better. Man's selection of breeding stock has little to do with taste and health, which should be the most important goal.

But Misbreeding Gets Even Worse with Inbreeding

A "champion" ram can be registered and produce other registered sheep with a known pedigree, which "should" eliminate inbreeding.
But to improve the odds of producing another "champion", this ram will be inbred to his daughers, grand-daughters, and even inbred several generations in a row to improve the observable trait of a larger carcase size.
This process of breeding sheep with common ancestors is called "line-breeding" if it produces an even better "champion" and only if it exposes genetic flaws it is called "inbreeding." Line-breeding is deliberate in-breeding, but with a better name.

Commercial Sheep Farm

Supposedly, "if you know what you are doing" the experienced farmer that is at best an amateur geneticist will create yet another even larger ram that looks good on the outside, but has accumulated even more genetic flaws.
And these genetic problems from a "Champion Ram" will be passed on to produce sheep on many different farms.
There is nothing wrong with breeding ewes to a good male, it is only when the same male, or inbred/misbred male line is used more often than natural.

Pure Natural Sheep^™

St. Croix Sheep For Sale

No Dewormers, No Vaccinations, No Chemicals

Established 2009

Pure
Natural
Sheep^™

St. Croix Sheep For Sale

No Dewormers, No Vaccinations, No Chemicals

Established 2009

Pure Natural Sheep^™

St. Croix Sheep For Sale

No Dewormers, No Vaccinations, No Chemicals

Established 2009