How Do Your Animals Compare, Page 4

A world-class deep chest. (Ewe from Hestur Experimental Station.)

An unacceptably shallow chest

A chest of acceptable depth

An overall excellent ram in Iceland of semen-station quality, however, the back (loin eye muscle shape) would score about a 3.  He has a very good neck, broad well-rounded shoulders, good chest, and an overall well-balanced conformation.

Above is our semen-station quality Mjaldursson compared to one of the top three rams I saw in Iceland.  (At right.)  The Hestur ram  seems to have a  better neck and shoulders, while our ram, a grandson of Thettir-has better legs, which the Thettir line is famous for.

One of the three best rams I was priviledged to see in Iceland.  This hefty guy from Hestur Experimental Station in Borgarnes has superb rump & leg muscling, a broad well-muscled back with great eye muscle shape, excellent shoulders and massive neck.

A Flotti son (left) on a farm in Iceland... massive neck, decent shoulders. Better than average back muscle shape (score of 4), but there's room for improvement. Good rump muscling,  but could be even better.  An average unimproved ram (right), with normal neck, narrow & high shoulders. Back & rump is average for an unimproved ram.

Mjaldursson

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In the picture on the right above,"Mjaldursson" is compared to another Hestur ram that would improve most any flock.  Both have well muscled, full shoulders. Here also our ram has a better rump and deeper, thicker leg muscling.  Both have straight backs with great loin (eye) muscling.   I hope you see here that with careful breeding choices (though difficult,) it is possible to achieve high quality. Sometimes it even happens by accident.  Certainly you can stack the deck in your favor by going to Reinbeck this October 2005 to attend the Vaginal AI Seminar,  and recieve training in Iceland's method of evaluation, so you can knowledgeably pick the best genetics, and do AI YOURSELF!