Dairy Sheep Symposium - the Department of Animal Sciences ...

COMPARISON OF EAST FRIESIAN AND LACAUNE BREEDING FOR DAIRY SHEEP
PRODUCTION SYSTEMS
RESULTS FROM 1999 - 2001
David L. Thomas 1 , Yves M. Berger 2 , Brett C. McKusick 1 , Randy G. Gottfredson 1 ,
and Rob Zelinsky 1,3
1 Department of Animal Sciences, 2 Spooner Agricultural Research Station, and 3 Arlington
Agricultural Research Station
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Summary
A study was initiated in the autumn of 1998 to compare the East Friesian and Lacaune breeds
for performance in a dairy sheep production system. Matings were designed to produce breed
groups of high percentage East Friesian, high percentage Lacaune, and various East Friesian-
Lacaune crosses. This paper summarizes data collected through the summer of 2001 on sheep of
1/2 or 3/4 East Friesian or Lacaune breeding and a few East Friesian-Lacaune crosses that are of
3/4 or 7/8 dairy breeding. Data collected during the early years of this long-term study suggest
that there are no large differences in performance between sheep of East Friesian and Lacaune
breeding. Some small advantages of one breed over the other that may be appearing are greater
birth and weaning weights for East Friesian, greater postweaning gain for Lacaune, greater ewe
lamb fertility and prolificacy for East Friesian, and greater percentage of milk fat and milk
protein for Lacaune. Breed rank for milk production varies depending upon which group of
crossbreds is evaluated, but there appears to be a slight advantage of the East Friesian breed over
the Lacaune breed for milk production. These results suggest that either breed may be used
successfully. However, a crossbreeding program utilizing the two breeds that takes advantage of
hybrid vigor may result in greater productivity than using just one of the breeds as a purebred or
in a grading-up program.
Background
The raising of sheep for milk is a new enterprise to North American agriculture. Sheep in
North America have been selected for meat and wool production. Therefore, one of the first
major constraints to profitable sheep dairying was the low milk production of domestic breeds.
Rams of East Friesian breeding, a German dairy sheep breed (Alfa-Laval, 1984), were first
imported into the U.S. in 1993 from Hani Gasser in Canada. The East Friesian cross ewes from
these rams produced almost twice as much milk per lactation as domestic breed crosses (Dorsetcrosses)
under experimental conditions at the University of Wisconsin (UW-Madison) (Thomas
et al., 1998, 1999a, 2000). Continued experimentation with East Friesian crosses at UW-Madison
and their performance in commercial dairy flocks in the U.S. and Canada further showed
their superiority for milk production, and most commercial operations moved quickly to crossbred,
high percentage, or purebred East Friesian ewes. The accelerated move to East Friesians in
North America was facilitated by the importation of semen, embryos, and live animals from
Europe and New Zealand starting in 1992 – first to Canada and then to the U.S.