The Icelandic Canadian - 01.04.2007, Page 17

Vol. 61 #1
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
15
Icelandic Sheep
by Stefania Sveinbjanardottir Dignam
Edited by Gail Halldorson
Icelandic sheep
Let me preface my thoughts with the ques-
tion: Why Icelandic Sheep?
Triple purpose breed: fiber/meat/milk
Soft lustrous dual coated fleece
Mild flavored, lean meat
Farmstead milk and cheese
Luxurious soft pelts
Many colour and pattern combinations
Medium sized, early maturing,
long lived
Excellent mothers and vigorous lambs
Suitable for pasture lambing
Highly prolific, reliable twinners
Thrive on good pasture and hay
Finish on good pasture in
four to five months
High value products for niche market
The Icelandic sheep is one of the
world's oldest and purest breeds of sheep.
Throughout its 1100 years of history, the
Icelandic breed has been truly triple-pur-
pose, treasured for its meat, fiber and milk.
The Icelandic breed is in the North
European short-tailed group of sheep,
which exhibits a fluke-shaped, naturally
short tail. To ensure the continuing purity
of the breed, tail docking an Icelandic will
disqualify it from being registered in
North America. Icelandics are a mid-sized
breed with ewes averaging 130-160
pounds, and rams averaging 180-220
pounds. Conformation is generally short
legged and stocky. The face and legs are
free of wool. The fleece is dual-coated and
comes in white as well as a range of
browns, grays and blacks. There are both
horned and polled strains. Left unshorn
for the winter, the breed is very cold
hardy. Ewes are seasonal breeders, most
coming into heat in late October. They
will continue cycling until spring if not
bred. Rams are sexually active year round,
and the ram lambs can start breeding at 5-
6 months. Lambs mature early and ewe
lambs commonly lamb at 11-12 months of
age. Icelandic ewes are bred as lambs, and
many remain productive until age 10 or
longer. Prolificacy is quite good, on aver-
age 175-220%. Triplets are not uncom-
mon and many Icelandic ewes are very
capable of nursing triplets without assis-
tance. The lambs are small, twins averag-
ing 6-8 pounds and very lively after an
average gestation of 142-144 days, several
days shorter than the species average.
Lambs are vigorous at birth, a trait that
has been shown to carry through in cross-
breeding programs. The first lamb born
will commonly be up and nursing before
the twin arrives. Experienced mothers can
have a lamb nursing even before it has
gotten to its feet. The sheep have evolved
over 1,100 years under difficult farming
conditions in Iceland, with a resultant
sturdy and efficient constitution. A defin-
ing quality of the Icelandic breed is the
ability to survive on pasture and browse.
Historically, Iceland is not a grain pro-