The Role Of Finnsheep in a Commercial Operation

Gene Schreifer, Dodgeville, WI

A little background: I expect we'll lamb around 330 commercial white faced ewes this coming spring, with a goal of 400+ by 1999. Every ewe has at least some Finn breeding, including some high percentage Texel ewes we had purchased. It's mostly shed lambing, starting around March 10 for 16 days, then starting up again around April 1, followed by ewe lambs beginning around April 15. We try to maximize our use of pasture/forage to produce lamb as economically as possible.

Our original ewes were straight bred Finn/Rambouillet from a flock that had been closed for 15 years and selected EXCLUSIVELY for numbers of lambs. While they certainly produced lambs, around 270%, they were somewhat higher labor ewes at lambing — the effect of which was setting a limit on the number of ewes we could run. The growth potential and final market size was not ideal for the Midwest, even with black faced sires.

Also wool quality had been totally ignored. We took our top 30% of this flock based upon numbers of lambs, and bred them back to a Rambouillet. These F1 daughters have averaged just over 200% weaned. However, what really impressed us was the mothering ability, reduction in labor, size, and growth potential of these lambs.

Our next step has been to breed these Rambouillet F1 daughters back to a purebred Finn ram. However, it's only the top 50% of the Rambouillet daughters that are selected for breeding for future replacement ewes. I've culled any Rambouillet not weaning 200%, (there haven't been many).

So for replacement consideration, ewes must

first be weaning in excess of 2 lambs,
have bred as yearlings,
have lambed unassisted,
as 2 year olds wean in excess of 110 lb.s of lamb in 60 days, and
be pushing 145+ lb.s live weight.

So far I've been satisfied with the Finn daughters from this second cross, but I think it could be better. Let me explain. We are averaging 250% weaned with these Finn girls, but it's been a struggle to maintain ewe size with the Finn Sheep. While they've been certainly less labor intensive (lambing unassisted, good mothering instinct) than our original purchased ewes, the growth of the lambs, as far as pounds weaned, has not been quite as impressive. Some individuals in the ewe flock that are in the 250-300% range have been weaning around 150 lbs/ewe/year. That's what my current target is, and that's basically off grass. Triplet ewes are supplemented with 1.5 lb.s concentrate for 45 days, there is no creep feed. It isn't enough that triplet lambs just survive on mom, they need to thrive.

Here's a priority list of things I want in our ewes:

numbers of lambs, minimum of twins but no/few quads
unassisted lambing - no breeches and tangled lambs
lamb vigor and mothering ability
mature size
rate of gain
wool

The good news is and continues to be labor. We've so far managed to avoid quints and sextuplets, which we had/have with some regularity with our original cross. I think when Finns came to North America, pushing the number of lambs issue was a bit oversold. While numbers of lambs is the single largest impact on profit, it is not the ONLY impact on profit. We still need to consider rate of gain, product acceptance, AND labor. There is absolutely no place in our operation for more than quads and I even question value of the quad. Splitting the cost of ewe in ½ by having twins certainly makes good "CENTS" (recognizing that there are somewhat high expenses with more lambs/ewe). Adding a 3rd lamb splits that cost three ways, so that each lamb has to pay for 33% of the ewe cost. Going from 50% of the ewe cost with twins to 33% of the ewe cost with trips is still a good jump. Going to quads however we are splitting the cost to 25% so now we're talking about going from 33 to 25%, not much of an improvement and the costs in terms of feed and potentially labor are increasing. To me, a ewe that has trips each year for a 300% weaned is more valuable than the ewe having quads one year and twins the next, so from my vantage point, Finn breeders need to be looking for more consistency in numbers of lambs.

As far as market acceptance, certainly some ethnic and holiday markets on the coasts like/will take the smaller Finn Sheep. Here we need to target 125+ lb. lamb. Some buyers in SD will not even take more than 25% Finn breeding. One issue is size and muscling, for grade and yield. The second is internal kidney and pelvic fat. The second issue may not be that important, potential newer grading standards will probably reduce this.

The size/muscling of the sheep must be improved upon, certainly using terminal meat sires can overcome a portion of this issue, but not entirely.

Case in point: several years ago I artificially inseminated a couple of our best ewes to a Canadian Finn ram. As I recall from my conversation with the owner, he was the result of consortium of Canadian Finn breeders that had been selecting on gain, (he was produced from something around 300% stock), but his rates of gain were around 1.25 lb.s. His offspring and grand offspring still exhibit better than our flock average for growth, and frame size but muscling is still a little light. So, it seems that with selection, Finn Sheep CAN be bred to have more market acceptance, at least from a frame size standpoint.

I'm shooting from the hip here, but for our situation I think about a 50% Finn ewe is ideal. I'm also evaluating the role of East Friesian and Texel (possibly Charollais) as the other components on the ewe side to achieve better size, growth, milk and muscling. The East Friesian seems to supply the frame, growth and milk that that the Finns lack. However I'm not certain yet how much we might be losing in numbers of lambs.

We'll see.

The advantages I see to the Finn is first - numbers of lambs, and second - - longer breeding season, (I guess year round with a STAR system is longer!) So it begs the question "under what circumstances are the Finn Sheep more appropriate?" First, IMO, one needs to have better than average management skills. Keeping ewes in condition, weaning multiples, and getting the ewes re-bred takes a keen eye. Second, it also means you need a supply of quality feed in forage and grain.

I do not see the Finn Sheep fitting into an extensively managed western range operations, in most cases, forage is tight and the ewe just raising a single lamb is about all she can manage. Range operators also produce a fairly decent fine wool, which breeding to Finn would reduce the value of the wool clip. Unfortunately, the west is where most of the commercial operators are located.

Here in the Midwest we have abundant quality forage and cheap grain (at least for now), but there still is an absence of commercial farm flock producers (200-500 head). Those that are here are moving more from intensive shed lambing to an extensive system of pasture lambing in mid spring. This is to avoid the capitalization costs of building larger lambing facilities, which the price of lamb cannot justify at this time. The down side of the later spring lambing is the ewe is moving beyond her natural most fertile time, so numbers of lambs born can suffer. While the weather in mid-spring is more conducive to pasture lambs it is not without some adverse conditions, so the need for attentive ewes and vigorous lambs still exist. I honestly believe there can/should be a viable role for Finn genetics under these circumstances: first to maintain a higher level of prolificacy later into the breeding season and second for the lamb vigor. What percentage of Finn breeding is needed to accomplish this, I'm not sure.

The third area where Finn breeding seems more relevant would be in very intensive situations where one has an accelerated lambing program to more fully utilized high capital costs (i.e. Barns), spread out labor requirements, and short growing seasons with higher levels of concentrate feeding. What I often see is a high labor systems, without high number of lambs, but it is based upon a number of ewes for a 1-2 person operation, (husband/wife). So family supplies all the labor and over time they simply burn out on lambing. My best guess is that these producers need to think bigger in terms of more ewes and hiring in the additional help needed to manage the larger flock, and focus on flock and labor management rather than the day to day operation. With 1-2 employees there is the opportunity for some occasional breaks and vacations, time away is important to recharge ones enthusiasm.

I haven't really touched much on the wool aspect and, unless we start talking about really fine wooled breeds, it is, and will continue to be, a minor aspect of lamb production. While Finn wool is noted for its luster, I wouldn't put a great deal of selection pressure for it, from an improvement standpoint. However, I would want to insure that the fleece lacks any hair or britchy, kempy fibers, which are an incredible pain to shear, felt somewhat easily, and are worth even less when sold.

So, what about the future of Finn sheep? I would suggest if the Finn Breeders do not have one to think about a mission statement for your breed and association, or if you have one, at least revisit it. This is a goal or vision for what you believe Finn Sheep are and/or should be.

Do you foresee a goal of more purebred Finn operations? Or utilizing Finn genetics in a breeding/crossbreeding program? Are you satisfied with an ethnic freezer lamb market, or can you improve the product to appeal to a wider consumer base? Can you highlight examples of Finn breeding in larger commercial pasture lambing situations? Is the ideal ram full or ½ blood, or can you supply percentage females/males? For breeders, what is the cost/value of belonging to your association? Do Finn breeders feel it's of benefit to them?

Ten plus years ago I was at a national 4-H conference in Hershey, PA. At one of the program booths was a sheep person from Penn State. We got to talking, which led to a discussion on Finn Sheep which they were involved with. They were going to provide me with information on Finn Sheep and Finn breeders that I could contact. Never received a thing. I've called the breed association, requesting a list of breeders and never heard back from them. I think it's imperative that as individuals and as an association there is follow through in these situations.

Fortunately, for Finn Sheep, I'm persistent. I do not attend the Wisconsin Sheep Industry Conference (largest in the country) every year due to our lambing season, but I've yet to see an informational booth on Finn Sheep. Romanov's? You bet! Texel, Suffolk, OSSRA — all are represented. The marketing of Finn Sheep seems somewhat absent. I can no longer find any Finn Sheep semen in my AI catalog. If I want access to more Finn Sheep via AI I fear I'll need to look to Canada, or go through the time and expense of possibly importing semen from Scandinavia.

Finally, I think about the progress being made in the UK and elsewhere in the world where groups of producers have joined together utilizing BLUP techniques to develop/improve the characteristics of their breed, namely meat/carcass traits. Could the same thing be done with Finn Sheep? If not, perhaps there is more happening with Finn breeders/breeding north of the border, that progressive US Finn breeders could cooperate with.

I'm sure some FBA members will be upset with me, but no breed is without something that could be improved upon, depending upon your point of view. I do plan on continuing to utilize Finn Sheep genetics, and plan to do a trial with 100 ewes or so to see how they might perform in an accelerated program.