Only his best Finn ewes are bred to Finn rams. His commercial buyers in the East and Minnesota prefer a medium sized crossbred ewe or ram. They discriminate against the smaller sized ewe because she doesn't have the body size to eat enough to support heavy production. The medium size ewes and rams are preferred to the larger framed ones (200lb rams vs. 300lb rams) because they don't require as much grain. Medium sized rams can maintain body condition on pasture during breeding season where larger ones would need grain — inconvenient in large commercial operation. Medium sized crossbred Finn ewes on good pasture don't need flushing with grain either. Flushing with grain is awkward at best in large operations and can be problematic as some dominant ewes get so much grain they get sick and, due to the extremely close contact, spreading disease is a possibility as well.
In the March 1985 issue of Short Tales, in the Chief Herdsman's Message, Brian commented on Finns in commercial situations,
"If Finnsheep are to be used for crossing then they should be selected to best complement the other breed (one being selected for fertility, early maturity, etc., the other for growth rate, muscling, etc.). This means the best Finnsheep for one production system may be radically different from one selected for another production system. Lack of flexibility in breed standards is a major problem for many other breeds of sheep and is particularly evident in the strict show ring standards for type, size conformation and condition. Where would the dairy industry be if AI sires had been selected on dairy type show ring standards instead of production records, or if the seed corn industry had to market their seed corn on the basis of their inbred line placings at county fairs? In market lamb classes, does the first place lamb come from a farm that produces the highest number of pounds of choice lamb per ewe or at the highest feed efficiency?
"The success and acceptance of our breed is one of the best examples of how a breed of sheep selected for production, not show ring standards, can best meet the needs of the commercial sheep industry.
"We have to assume that many of the physical characteristics of the Finnsheep have a function. To set standards other than the basic standards for correct type that Jack Bonham developed for the Finnsheep Association would be dangerous considering our current ignorance of form and function. Dr. Hulet, the initiator of the Polypay sheep, recently advised his flock (followers) to subscribe to the idea of 'selecting for the production we want and letting the Polypay sheep tell us what they will look like.'…
"Production traits which are difficult to measure in a Finnsheep directly (particularly female traits in a sire) can be evaluated by progeny testing and best in crossbred progeny. Pedigree information should play a major role in determining which sire is tested.. By progeny testing with crossbreeding one determines how prepotent or homozygous a Finnsheep is for traits important to the commercial sheep industry for crossbreeding. An individual production record only represents the phenotype which is compromised greatly by sex, environment and the interaction or masking effect of one trait with another. Dave Thomas at the Iowa Sheep Symposium 1984 reported results of progeny testing by crossbreeding of high and low performing rams from a ram test station. He found that the best rams on the progeny test correlated very poorly with the ram's ranking for individual production record while at the ram test station.
"As our Finnsheep become increasingly adapted to specific production purposes, they will become more diverse. Finnsheep breeders wanting to change the conformation of their sheep are free to pursue that goal. I am sure one conformation is best for one purpose and others for other purposes, but minor conformation differences in Finnsheep which are evaluated at shows make very little difference in the value of a ¼ Finn market lamb. It is much more important that the ¼ Finn market lamb has many siblings that were raised by the ewe at the desired lambing time and lambing interval.…
"The reproductive success of the prolific Finnsheep is undoubtedly one of nature's display of inbreeding success in building complexes of coadapted genes. Crudely broken down, the first genes in the cycle promote the conception of a large litter. Subsequently, other genes affecting uterine capacity allow a large litter to be carried to term. Still other genes promote survival at birth. The mortality in quadruplet and quintuplet Finnsheep is 25% (Goot 1979). In contrast, larger Scottish Half-breds and smaller Welsh Speckleface ewes, with litters of 4 and 5, were found to have a mortality of 44% and 77%, respectively (Boaz and Tempost, 1975). In addition, Finn ewes are extremely resistant to pregnancy toxemia and low birth weight. Finn lambs have a high growth rate potential and many other genetic traits that enhance the successful life cycle of a prolific sheep. A depression in only one of these traits due to mutation or slight out breeding would greatly diminish the success of such a prolific sheep."