German white-headed meat sheep
The German white-headed meat sheep is a medium to large-framed, broad, deep and well-muscled, uniformly white meat sheep with a free face. The forehead wears a woolly head. Wool trimmings reaching down to the pastern joint and the ankle. The wool has a fineness of 36 - 40 µm .
Performance characteristics
It is very adaptable to different climates and soil conditions, it is equally well suited for herd and paddock keeping . The German white-headed meat sheep has a high resistance to diseases and is generally considered to be very fertile. It is precocious and can be bucked for the first time at seven to eight months. The heat season is long. The lambs have the best carcasses.
Performance test
- 350 to 400 g daily gain
- 30 to 35 MJ / kg gain
- approx. 48% slaughter yield
Weight
| Body weight (kg) | Fleece weight (kg) | Leaning result (%) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Old rams | 125-150 | 6.0-8.0 | - |
| Yearling bucks | 105-115 | 6.0-8.0 | - |
| Rams | 60-70 | - | - |
| Ewes | 75-90 | 5.0-6.0 | 170-210 |
| lambs | 50-60 | - | - |
history
The basis for the white-headed meat sheep was formed by the local marsh sheep of the North Sea coast, which were differentiated into local beats, but were probably very similar. Until the 1920s, the Wilstermarschaf was able to maintain itself as an independent breed north of Hamburg . The great similarity to the East Frisian milk sheep , as well as the fact that the sheep were milked after the lambs were weaned, allows the conclusion that the sheep populations of the North Sea coast were closely related, especially since they, like the East Frisians , were described as precocious and fertile .
Due to the immense meat demand of the still expanding world power Great Britain , suitable slaughter sheep for export were sought from the middle of the 19th century. Since the English had high demands on the animals for slaughter, the domestic sheep breeds had to be improved beforehand. From 1850 onwards, sheep and above all breeding rams of the “Leicester Longwool” breed began to be imported. The Leicester breed was developed by the founder of "modern" animal breeding Robert Bakewell and is the longest breeding breed of sheep in the world. The Leicester was extremely successful, it flowed into numerous new European breeds and was exported a lot to the British colonies, especially to Australia and New Zealand, but was also very popular in the USA and Canada. Nevertheless, it could not prevail on the dykes of the Wesermarsch because it was too demanding and sensitive.
From 1860 onwards, mainly Cotswold sheep from England came to the Wesermarsch. These sheep, which are native to the "Cotswolds", a range of hills in the west of England from Bristol to the northeast, go back to an ancient breed that was domesticated in Roman times and was first mentioned in 1437 under the name of Cotswold. This was heavily crossed with Leicester between 1780 and 1825, but was then bred back to the original, larger-framed type. The Cotswold turned out to be the ideal meat supplier for the marshes due to their better resistance and less demand for feed, and were often kept in pure breeding. In displacement breeding, the marsh sheep gave them an even larger frame, more depth and more weight.
Also came Southdown , "Oxfordshire" and "Hampshire" to Germany. Allegedly, some of these black-headed animals should also have been included in the breeding, but this thesis is to be doubted, since both the Leicester and the Cotswold have dark nasal mucous membranes, and therefore no black-headed sheep can be held responsible for this characteristic. These "dark" races definitely laid the foundation for the black heads in the hinterland.
The German white-headed meat sheep was classified in the group of British long-wool sheep, just like the Cotswold and Leicester. This assessment is void, at least for a large part of the sheep bred today. Since the market demanded meat with ever lower fat levels, Berrichon du Cher have been crossbred since the 1970s , resulting in a strong change in genetics. Leicester Longwool also played a role in the breeding of the “Berrichon du Cher”, but not such an important one. Essentially, merinos that were crossbred to improve the locally available animals were involved. In the 1970s, a limited number of Ile de France were crossed into the Berrichon du Cher. In contrast to the breeds of the British long-wool sheep, the Merino breed has an out-of-season heat.
In Schleswig-Holstein, Texel was crossed in addition to the Berrichon .
Successes at the federal sheep shows
The German white-headed meat sheep is successfully represented at the federal sheep shows that take place approximately every 10 years. The last two federal sheep shows took place in 2001 and 2011 on the occasion of the agra agricultural show in Leipzig. In 2011, the German white-headed meat sheep was the third strongest meat sheep breed in terms of the number of animals exhibited among the 15 meat sheep races shown.