Nordic short-tailed sheep
The Nordic short-tailed sheep include a whole range of land sheep breeds from Northern Europe . They represent the sheep originally found in the area, but have lost their importance today and have mostly been replaced by modern sheep breeds with greater meat production or finer wool.
features
They are mostly relatively small animals with a light build. Many breeds are horned and have unconscious heads and legs. The most obvious feature are the short, unwolled tails, which distinguishes them from the long-tailed sheep, which are found particularly in Europe and the fat -tailed sheep, which are more widely distributed in Asia. In most breeds, the wool consists of outer hair and undercoat. The long, coarse outer hairs are water-repellent and keep the undercoat dry, which is finer and serves as thermal insulation. In contrast to most commercial breeds, which have the single-colored fleeces desired by the wool industry (white, black, brown), most breeds of Nordic short-tailed sheep have a wide variety of colors and patterns, as well as spotting. The different patterns are called differently depending on the region, often with old Nordic terms (golsótt, katmoget, yuglet ...). In most breeds, the goats are horned, whereas the floodplains of most breeds are hornless, with the exception of z. B. Guteschaf, Heidschnucke and Icelandic sheep. With a few exceptions, short-tailed sheep are mostly regional land races that have rarely been cultivated according to plan. All are well adapted to the climate of their regions of origin, robust and frugal.
Dissemination and use
Sheep of this type can be found from Greenland and Iceland to Great Britain and Scandinavia and the Urals. The southern limit of distribution runs roughly from the English Channel over the Baltic Sea to the Urals, with the exception of the Polish heather sheep (Wrzosówka) and the heather sheep.
Originally it was mostly used for two purposes for wool and meat, but due to its robust nature and frugality, today it is used in landscape maintenance and extensive agriculture. Some breeds, for example the Guteschaf, are also kept for meat consumption; crossbred animals are produced that attain a significantly higher slaughter weight than pure Gutschaf do. Some breeds are also used commercially because of their wool (Finnschaf) or for crossing into other sheep breeds because of their positive birth characteristics (Romanov). In Karelia and Russia, however, they are still kept for self-sufficiency. The commercially most important breeds are heather sheep , Icelanders, Finn sheep and Romanov sheep .
Races
The Northern European short-tailed sheep breeds include in
Germany
Scandinavia
- Greenland sheep
- Icelandic sheep
- Forystufé
- Faroe sheep
- Spaelsau (Spælsau)
- Norwegian Wild Sheep (Villsau)
- Guteschafe (Gutefår)
- Gotland sheep (Gotlandsfår)
- Dalapelz sheep (Dalapälsfår)
- Gestrikefår (Gestrikefår)
- Helsingefår (Helsingefår)
- Klövsjöschafe (Klövsjöfår)
- Roslags sheep (Roslagsfår)
- Svärdsjöschafe (Svärdsjöfår)
- Värmland sheep (Värmlandsfår)
- Åsen sheep (Åsenfår)
- Rya sheep (Ryafår)
- Swedish Forest Sheep (Skogsfår)
- Åland sheep (Alandsfår)
- Finn sheep
- Gray Finn Sheep
Russia
- Romanov sheep ,
- Viena sheep (Russian Viena sheep)
Great Britain
- Boreray sheep
- Castlmilk Moorit
- Hebridian
- Manx Loaghtan
- North Ronaldsay
- Shetland sheep
Poland
- Wrzosówka (Polish heather sheep),
Baltic states
- Estonian rune sheep ,
- Lithuanian coarse wool sheep (one line)
literature
- M. Tapio I. Grigaliunaite, LE Holm, S. Jeppsson, J. Kantanen, I. Miceikiene, I. Olsaker, H. Viinalass and E. Eythorsdottir, 2002. Mitochondrial differentiation in Northern European sheep. Proceedings of the 7th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production. CD-ROM communication n ° 26-38.
- Miika Tapio: Origin and maintenance of genetic diversity in northern european sheep . Faculty of Science, Department of Biology, University of Oulu, 2006, ISBN 951-42-8234-5 , ISSN 0355-3191 (English, abstract , PDF file, 2.9 MB [accessed November 19, 2014] English ; Academic dissertation to be presented, with the assent of the Faculty of Science of the University of Oulu, for public defense in Kuusamonsali (Auditorium YB210), Linnanmaa, on November 10th, 2006, at 12 noon).