Breed crosses used in the development of Targhee sheep.

T HE development of the Targhee breed of sheep began in i9=6 when the Bureau of Animal Industry at the U. S. Sheep Experiment Station, Dubois, Idaho mated select Rambouillet rams with select ewes of Corriedale XLincoln-Rambouillet and Lincoln XRambouillet combinations. Descendants of these crosses have been interbred and carefully selected to produce Targhee sheep. Spencer and Stoehr (x94L) have described the characteristics of Targhees and the reasons for their development. Much of the western range is adapted to the use of range ewes of fine wool foundation but carrying some long wool breeding. These ewes are larger than fine wool ewes and are generally considered more profitable where range conditions are suitable. The Targhee was developed to stabilize this type in a breed approximately one-fourth long wool breeding and three-fourths fine wool breeding. This type is generally recognized as the "comeback" in the West, a name which signifies coming back to the Rambouillet from the first coarse and fine wool cross. The Targhee is a polled white-faced sheep of intermediate size. The ideal Targhee has a more desirable mutton conformation than five-wool sheep, is free from skin folds, and has an open face. Targhees shear heavy fleeces of long staple wool which generally grade 89 Blood and which are moderately light in shrink. Representative yearling ewes are shown in figures i and ~. After about 3 generations of Targhee breeding (in about 1938) it had be. come apparent that a very desirable range breed had been developed. It was then thought desirable to increase numbers and broaden the base of the breed so that an adequate breeding program could be conducted. In the fall of I938 Rambouillet rams were mated to unregistered Corriedale ewes (which had resulted from several generations of crossing Corriedale rams on Lincoln-Rambouillet ewes) and this cross was repeated for several years. Some registered Corriedale ewes were included. In the following years other crosses were made involving Columbia rams XRambouillet ewes (K XR), Targhee rams XRambouillet ewes (T XR), Targhee rams X Corriedale ewes (T X A), Targhee rams X Lincoln-Rambouillet ewes (T X LR) and a Tasmanian Merino-Rambouillet ram XLincoln Rambouillet and Columbia ewes (TM-R XLR & K). The object of this study is to summarize the weanling and yearling rec-