Copyright, 2007
You saw her before. Remember? She's a Gotland/Icelandic cross.
Basic Color - brown or black?
Pattern - white, badgerface, mouflon, English blue, grey, solid?
Spotting - spots, no spots
Extension - dominant, not dominant
Answer:
Basic color: BLACK (BB/B?)
Pattern: BADGERFACE AND GREY(Agg/Ab)
Spotting: SPOTTED (Ss/Ss)
Extension: NOT DOMINANT (E+/E+)
All but one are identified on this ewe. BB from Dad, and I don't remember Mom's color, so this gene is unknown. Agg/Ab should be rote by now, Agg from Dad and Ab is visible and from Mom. Notice the tan, phaeomelanin, on face and legs. She's spotted, so that's easy: Ss/Ss, and since her pattern is "turned on", she's E+/E+.
How do we use this information? Once we start breeding domestic to domestic, odd colors are going to start showing up. Through genetics, these can be explained, avoided, bred away from and/or concentrated. Here's to homozygous Grey Gotlands!