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Quick Facts About Icelandic Sheep |
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Quick Facts About Icelandic Sheep |
REPRODUCTION | ||
| Reliable twinners - Most ewes will twin in their second year and thereafter. About 15% will triplet. | ||
| Lamb easily - The lambs are small, averaging 5 to 7 pounds, which makes delivery easier and decreases birthing problems. | ||
| Excellent mothering instincts - even ewe lamb mothers claim their twins and are doting caring mothers. They are fast to clean their lambs, bond well, are attentive and keep good track of their babies. | ||
| Strong lively newborns - lambs jump right up, aggressively find the udder and nurse within minutes. | ||
| Excellent milking abilities - used for producing dairy products up until 40 years ago in Iceland. Can easily produce enough milk for triplets. Good udder attachment. | ||
| Market weight reached 4 to 5 months from birth - weighing 90 to 110 pounds by Sept/Oct; ram lambs need no castration because they reach market weight before they come into rut. (Our ram lambs weighed between 80 and 112 pounds at 121 days after birth.) |  White Icelandic lambs | |
| Rate of gain - our lambs gain between 3/4 to1 pound per day on mother's milk and good clover/grass pasture alone… no creep feed for lambs, no grain or supplement for their dams. | ||
| Early maturity - ewe lambs will easily breed at 7 months and lamb at 1 year. Ram lambs are able to service up to 30 ewes at 7 months of age. | ||
 White ewe with her lambs |
Long production life - many ewes produce into their 13th year or longer. | |
| Strong seasonal breeders - cycle naturally from mid November through April. It may be possible to develop a flock that lambs in the fall to supply the Easter market. | ||
| Good terminal sire candidates - because this breed is unrelated to modern breeds and has a meat conformation, lambs produced from a cross to modern breeds should produce maximum hybrid vigor and gain in market lambs. | ||
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photos, graphics, and text: © Copyright Tongue River Farm, 2002 |
