Danish landrace sheep, (13)

The Danish landrace sheep originate from the old landrace sheep in Denmark that were crossed with Leicester and Oxford Down in the 19th century. The sheep are medium sized, with long legs and long body. They are mostly white in colour (90 %) with a small proportion (10 %) brown. The body is white with brown spots on the face and tail. About 10 % of males are horned, otherwise both sexes are polled with long tails. Face and legs are more or less covered with wool. The sheep grow double coated wool type with mean fibre diameter of 33.6 micron. The greasy fleece weight is around 3.5 kg. The wool is used for blankets and carpets and the pelts for nappa leather. Adult wither height is 70 cm for males and 65 cm for females and the mean live weight is 80 kg and 50-60 kg for males and females respectively. The mean litter size is 1.5 lambs at birth and 1.33 lambs weaned. Mean carcass weight of lambs is 20 kg when slaughtered at the age of 5-6 months. The largest proportion of the carcasses falls into grade O in the EUROP classification system.
The population size is around 370 sheep (year 2000).

Local name: Dansk landfår, Hedefår
References: Torkild Liboriussen, Genressourceudvalget, Afd. for Husdyravl og Genetik, Danmarks JordbrugsForskning, Forskningscenter Foulum
Postboks 50, DK-8830 Tjele, Danmark.
Photographs: Genressourceudvalget, Danmarks JordbrugsForskning, Forskningscenter Foulum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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