Question

How does cross breeding occur in sheep?

Answer 1

Crossbreeding occurs when two distinctly different breeds of animals are mated to each other. Crossbreeding is an effective tool, which can be used to:
1. Make big changes in the performance of the flock, or
2. Create huge management problems. It can particularly become a problem when you are trying to increase the size of your flock significantly.

Crossbreeding can be used effectively to do the following things:
1. Improve the performance of the whole production system by crossing complementary breeds.
2. To produce animals of intermediate performance from extreme parent breeds.
3. To upgrade to a different pure breed.
4. To introduce a desired gene into an existing breed.
5. As a step in creating a new synthetic or composite breed.