Finnsheep, (01)

The Finnish Landrace sheep date back to the early iron age in Finland and is adapted to the cold climate of Finland. The breed has traditionally supplied domestic needs for wool and fur and meat was used as a by-product. At present, lamb meat is the main product. The impact of imported breeds is small with some influence from Texel and Oxford Down. The lambs are of multiple colours, white (65 %), grey (5 %), black (20 %) and brown (19 %). A small proportion of the males are horned (1 %), otherwise both sexes are polled with short tails. The sheep grow single coated wool with mean fibre diameter of 24 - 25 micron and mean fibre length of 8 cm. The mean greasy fleece weight is around 1.2 kg (8 months age). The wool is used for clothes and souvenirs, and pelts are used for fur clothes and wool-skin floor rugs. Adult live weight is 105 kg for males and 72 kg for females. The breed is known for high fecundity with a mean litter size of 2.6 lambs at birth. Mean carcass weight of lambs is 18 kg when slaughtered at the age of 5 months. A large proportion of the carcasses fall into grade O in the EUROP classification system.  The number of purebred ewes is around 25,000 and total population size is 77,000 (year 2000)
See also Breeds of Livestock.

 

Local name: Suomenlammas
References: Juha Kantanen
Agrifood Research Finland MTT, FIN-31600 Jokioinen, Finland.
Photographs: Agrifood Research Finland MTT, FIN-31600 Jokioinen, Finland.

 

 

 

 

Created by ThEP and EE Edited by Emma Eythorsdottir for the North SheD group.
Agricultural Research Institute of Iceland.