Inbreeding
Inbreeding is a system of breeding in which closely related animals are mated. This includes sire to daughter, son to dam, and brother to sister. Technically, inbreeding is defined as the mating of animals more closely related than the average relationship within the breed or population concerned. The primary genetic consequence of inbreeding is to increase the frequency of pairing of similar genes. Inbreeding is essential to the development of prepotent animals — animals that uniformly "stamp" their characteristics on their progeny. Inbreeding may also be used to uncover genes that produce abnormalities or death — genes that, in outbred herds, are generally present in low frequencies. Inbreeding is suggested for only highly qualified operators who are making an effort to stabilize important traits in a given set of animals. In general, inbreeding results in an overall lowering in performance: disease resistance, reproductive efficiency, and also increases the frequency of abnormalities.
Linebreeding
Linebreeding is a system of breeding in which the degree of relationship is less intense than in inbreeding and is usually directed towards keeping the offspring related to some highly prized ancestor. The degree of relationship is not closer than half-brother half-sister matings or cousin matings, etc. Line breeding is a mild form of inbreeding.
Crossbreeding
Crossbreeding is the mating of rams and ewes of different breed compositions or types. However, it does not denote indiscriminate mixing of breeds, but rather is a systematic utilization of different breed resources to produce crossbred progeny of a specific type. Crossbreeding is used extensively in the commercial sheep industry and the majority of slaughter lambs are crossbred. Crossbreeding offers two distinct advantages: 1) heterosis; and 2) breed complementarity. Heterosis is the superiority of the crossbred offspring. Mathematically, heterosis is the difference in performance between the crossbred and the average performance of its purebred parents. There are effects of heterosis in the crossbred offspring, crossbred dam, and crossbred ram. In general, crossbred individuals tend to be more vigorous, more fertile and grow faster than purebreds.
Breeding systems
Animal breeding is a branch of animal science that addresses the evaluation of the genetic value of domestic livestock. A breed is a group of domestic animals with a homogeneous appearance, behavior, and other characteristics that distinguish it from other animals.
Pure-breeding
Pure-breeding is the mating of rams and ewes of the same breed or type. A purebred flock can be managed as a single flock because all ewes and rams are of the same breed. The goal of purebred sheep production is to provide superior genetics ( or seedstock) to the sheep industry. Seedstock are marketed as rams and replacement ewes to other seedstock producers or to commercial sheep operations.
Out-breeding
Within pure-breeding, there are several types of mating systems. Out-breeding is the mating of animals of the same breed but which have no closer relationship than at least 4 to 6 generations. Outbreeding is the recommended breeding practice for most purebred sheep breeders.
Sheep Breeding