The Icelandic sheep (Icelandic: íslenska sauðkindin)[1] is a breed of domestic sheep. The Icelandic breed is one of the Northern European short-tailed sheep, which exhibit a fluke-shaped, naturally short tail. The Icelandic is a mid-sized breed, generally short legged and stocky, with face and legs free of wool. The fleece of the Icelandic sheep is dual-coated and comes in white as well as a variety of other colors, including a range of browns, grays, and blacks. They exist in both horned and polled strains. Generally left unshorn for the winter, the breed is very cold-hardy. Multiple births are very common in Icelandic ewes, with a lambing percentage of 175% - 220%. A gene also exists in the breed called the Thoka gene, and ewes carrying it have been known to give birth to triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets, and even sextuplets on occasion.
Ewes can be mated as lambs as early as five to seven months, although many farmers wait until the ewe's second winter before allowing them to breed. They are seasonal breeders and come into estrus around October. The breeding season can last up to four months. Rams become mature early and can start breeding as early as five months.
Descended from the same stock as the Norwegian Spelsau, brought to Iceland by the Vikings, Icelandic sheep have been bred for a thousand years in a very harsh environment. Consequently, they are quite efficient herbivores.
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The colors of Icelandic sheep are inherited in a similar way to those of other sheep, but they display more variety in color and pattern than most other breeds, and there are some variations not seen in other sheep. Each sheep carries three genes that affect the color of the sheep, and for each gene, there are dominant and recessive alleles. Each lamb will receive one allele from each parent of each of the genes shown below.[2][3]
| Locus | Gene name | Dominant alleles | Recessive alleles |
|---|---|---|---|
| B | Base Color | black | brown (moorit) |
| A (agouti gene) | Pattern | white (gray, badgerface, mouflon) | (gray, badgerface, mouflon) solid |
| S | Spotting | no spotting | spotting |
The base color of all Icelandic sheep is either black or moorit (brown), each coming in a variety of shades and tones. Black is the dominant allele. The appearance of these colors can be altered by patterns and spotting.
There are six patterns alleles in the breed. The most dominant pattern of these is White, which will conceal any other pattern, color or spotting that may be present, producing a solid white sheep.
There are several other patterns which will change the appearance of the color the animal shows. One of these is Gray, which together with the base color gene will give rise to either gray black or gray moorit. Another is Badgerface, which shows as lighter coloration on the back, sides, neck, ears and face, with a darker color on the underbelly, under the tail, parts of the neck and around the eyes. Once again, this pattern will show as either grey badgerface or moorit badgerface. A further pattern is Mouflon. These sheep will be light-colored where badgerface sheep are dark, and dark where badgerface sheep are light.
The gray, badgerface, and mouflon patterns are equally dominant. A sheep can display any of these patterns individually, or they can display two of them at the same time. Sheep carrying both Badgerface and Mouflon show as plain-coloured sheep with slightly darker markings where the two patterns meet.
There is also a single allele that is currently found only in Iceland that displays as Gray Mouflon – it is separate from the normal Mouflon pattern. This single gene is dominant to all genes other than White.
The least dominant pattern is solid, which is essentially no pattern at all. Solid-patterned animals will simply show their base color all over. To be solid, a sheep must inherit the solid pattern from both parents – the parents could be solid themselves, or they could carry a solid allele hidden by another other pattern allele.
White sheep can also carry any one of the five other patterns, but it will be hidden by the dominant white color (note that white in sheep is genetically a pattern, not a color).
This gene gives rise to white markings on the feet, face, head or over large parts of the body. The unspotted areas may be any of the patterns and colors described above.
There are two alleles for spotting: spotted, and unspotted; unspotted is dominant. Only when bearing two spotting alleles will the sheep display spotting.
In Iceland, this breed is almost exclusively bred for meat.[4] Lambs are not fed grain or given hormones. The lambs are ready for killing by four to five months, when they weigh 70 to 90 pounds (32 to 41 kg). The meat has a fine grain and distinct, delicate flavor. The meat of the Icelandic sheep is considered a gourmet style of meat.
Icelandic fleece is dual-coated. In Icelandic the long outer coat is called tog and the fine inner coat thel. When separated, the outer and inner coats are used for different woolen products.
Tog is generally classified as a medium wool around 27 micrometres in diameter. It is good for weaving and other durable products.
Thel, being the finer wool and classified as such, is generally around 20 micrometres in diameter. This fine wool is used for garments that touch the skin.
Tog and thel are processed together to produce lopi, a distinctive knitting wool that is only made from the fleece of Icelandic sheep.
Historically Icelandic sheep were used for milk. There is an 8-week period where Icelandic ewes give milk. After the first two weeks, the lambs were weaned off the mother's milk. Then for the next 6 weeks, the ewes would be milked daily. Most provided about 1 litre (2 imp pt) of milk per day, while good ewes gave 2 litres (4 imp pt) to 3 litres (5 imp pt). The milk was used directly, or made into butter, cheese, an Icelandic soft cheese called skyr, or naturally sweet yogurt. Sheep milk is good for cheese, because it is high in fat and dissolved solids. A high yield of high-quality cheese can therefore be made from small amounts of the milk.
Sheep are not milked in Iceland today, and instead the lamb is allowed to continue suckling.
Icelandic sheepskins come in many colors and are generally not dyed. The hide is quite soft and is generally 6 square feet (0.56 m2) to 8 square feet (0.74 m2) in size. Depending on whether the wool has been shorn, the wool can be up to 8 inches (200 mm) in length.
Dry-cleaning will strip the natural oils out of the skin and wool, rendering it scratchy and rough. Gentle wool cleaners are generally used to keep the sheepskins soft.
The sheepskins are used for mittens, gloves, hats and to upholster footstools. When stitched together, they are used for rugs and blankets. The variety of colors inherent within the sheep often makes articles made from Icelandic sheepskin quite striking.
The only type of sheep in Iceland is the native northern European short-tailed sheep brought there by the settlers, the Vikings, 1100–1200 years ago.[5] Without them Icelanders would not have fared nearly so well through centuries of hardship on an isolated island just south of the Arctic Circle. Sheep grazing in winter was one technique which had to be utilized in order to sustain the people of Iceland. As a result, a unique, small population of sheep developed which displayed outstanding abilities to help the farmers and shepherds manage the flock on pasture, namely the so-called leader-sheep (Icelandic: forystufé). Although farming practices have changed and reduced their role, these highly intelligent sheep with special alertness and leadership characteristics still form a population of approximately 1000-1200 sheep within the total national sheep population of just under 500,000.
Most leader-sheep are colored and horned – even four-horned in a few cases. They have a slender body conformation, long legs and bones generally, yet of lighter weight than other sheep in the flock because they have been selected for intelligence, not for meat traits. Leader-sheep are graceful and prominent in the flock, with alertness in the eyes, normally going first out of the sheep-house, looking around in all directions, watching to see if there are dangers in sight and then walking in front of the flock when driven to or from pasture. They may even guard the flock against predators. There are many stories on record about their ability to sense or forecast changes in the weather, or refusing to leave the sheep-house before a major snowstorm.
In a quest to preserve the Icelandic leader-sheep, in April 2000 a group of interested individuals founded the Leader-Sheep Society of Iceland. Chief among their priorities is to improve the individual recording of these sheep throughout the country and to plan their breeding more effectively. It has been noted that the "best" leader-sheep have been found in flocks in northeastern Iceland, but farmers in all parts of the country are interested in their conservation. The society is also supported by people who do not keep sheep, because they feel that Icelandic sheep in general have a special role in Icelandic culture.
In North America (both the United States and Canada), the Icelandic sheep is only registered through the Canadian Livestock Records Corporation (CLRC). Registration involves tattooing to the CLRC standard.