The best breeds of sheep. Hissar breed: description and photo

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

From ancient times to this day, animal husbandry continues to be one of the main human occupations. It is quite simple to explain this fact: it is from animals that a person receives valuable meat, milk, wool and leather, as well as other categories of raw materials.

Different countries have historically bred various animals to meet the needs of the population, but sheep breeding is often the most common. This is due to the high "operational" qualities of these animals: they are very unpretentious to the conditions of keeping, feeding and breeding. Since ancient times, sheep breeding has been practiced in areas where other types of domestic animals simply could not find the required amount of feed in free-range conditions.

Main Breeds

There are different breeds of sheep: Hissar, Romanov, fat-tailed varieties… You can't remember them all! Each of them is good in its own way.

Some breeds give a large amount of high-quality meat, some of them are famous for their multiplicity and high quality of the skin, while others are bred for delicious fat, which is massiveused for cooking pilaf and other culinary dishes. Let's look at what varieties all animals of this species are divided into (classification is based on the type of wool):

• Fine-fleeced sheep. They are the most valuable, because they produce fleece of perfect quality, from which excellent woolen fabrics and yarns are made. The latter, by the way, also goes to the production of the famous Persian carpets, which decorate the homes of only the we althiest people around the world.
• Semi-fine-fleece varieties. They also give wool of good quality, but its thickness is already higher, and the texture is coarser. But they are distinguished by good precocity and good taste of meat.
• Coarse-wool breeds of sheep (Hissar and Romanov). Most often they are bred for the sake of obtaining skins and meat, since their wool characteristics are not too high. If we talk about meat, then the first variety is especially popular, but “romanovka” wins in terms of fertility and quality of the skin. All sheep in this category are especially profitable to breed, as they are especially unpretentious.

Let's take a look at the most remarkable and profitable breeds of sheep for keeping in a personal plot. The photo and name of each are also present in the material below.

Romanovsk breed

First, we will talk about these legendary animals that feel great and breed even in the conditions of Central Russia, which cannot be said about other breeds of sheep. The formation of this variety took place in the territorythe current Yaroslavl region, so that animals are perfectly adapted to our climate.

Productivity details

Contrary to some historical legends, the breed was created exclusively by peasants. Over the long centuries of painstaking selection, rather large animals appeared in their farmsteads. The mass of rams reaches 100 kilograms, the weight of females - 70 kilograms.

Maximum meat yield per carcass is 47%. For a year, approximately three kilograms of coarse wool are removed from sheep, and one and a half to two times less from queens. Each female brings a minimum of two lambs at a time, but it is not uncommon for quintuplets to be born! Not without reason these animals are willingly acquired by foreigners in order to increase the multiplicity of their own sheep. And one more important point. Unlike their other relatives, Romanovki often bring offspring twice a year, which further increases their value.

Edilbaev breed

These animals in our country are not so widespread and not too well known, but they are definitely worth knowing about as many people as possible who are interested in sheep breeding. What is it connected with? Now we will tell everything!

Like the variety described above, this breed belongs to the coarse-haired. Sheep have a meat and greasy orientation, created by the method of "popular selection" in the territory of present-day Kazakhstan. Only those animals were selected that, according to their constitution and other parameters, were most suitable for the harsh conditions of the nomadic life of local peoples. Needto say that this approach gave just great results!

Edilbayev sheep endure winter cold and summer droughts equally well, withstand long transitions perfectly, and also have a unique ability to eat on scarce fodder of dry, saline pastures.

The mass of the best rams reaches one and a half centners! The uterus does not show such outstanding results, but they can still please 80-90 kilograms of weight. Lambs in just one month of life alone can fatten up to 17 kilograms, and at the age of six months (under normal feeding conditions) sometimes reach a mass of 50 kilograms.

In addition, the Edilbaevskaya breed stands out among the meat-fat varieties for its milk productivity. Each queen gives approximately 150 liters of milk per year, but some sheep can please their owners with 200 liters. The product has excellent taste and nutritional qualities, and therefore is actively used in cooking.

Hissar breed

We will dwell on this variety in more detail. It should be noted that among the diversity of species, the Hissar breed of sheep stands apart. All over the world they are known as the largest animals of the "family" we are considering. However, first things first.

It is believed that animals of this breed are also generally recognized leaders in the production of high-quality meat and fat. In addition, they have excellent stamina and amazingly developed immunity. Finally, the Hissar breed of sheep is perfectly adapted for year-round open keeping.in the harsh conditions of high mountain pastures. Of course, they easily endure long hauls from summer to winter pastures, and vice versa. By the way, one such crossing may well exceed 500 kilometers.

Besides this, the Hissar breed of sheep, being similar in this to their Romanov relatives, is often used as "donors" to improve other varieties of these animals. Tajikistan is considered the birthplace of "gissars", but they are actively bred in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, as well as the southern regions of our country. Unlike other breeds, these sheep are divided into three subtypes. Let's take a look at each of them one by one.

Meat

The main characteristics of this type of sheep:

• Outwardly, the appearance is quite recognizable, since there is no prominent fat tail: it is pulled up, and in some individuals it is not developed at all.
• Animals have excellent daily gains at an early age.
• Compared to representatives of the other two varieties, the Hissar breed of sheep of this subtype produces relatively little fat.

Meat-greasy and greasy varieties

These sheep are distinguished by a prominent fat tail, which in most cases is pulled up to the level of the back. In the case of an exclusively greasy variety, it resembles a large bag, which in outstanding representatives of the breed takes up about a third of the entire body.

Note that the Hissar breed of sheep in Russia is represented mainly by the firstcategory, since fat tail fat is not very popular in our country, and for fattening such animals, a sufficient amount of carbohydrate feed is required, which makes their maintenance in our conditions not very profitable.

Productivity highlights

Animals have strong, well-developed bones. The height at the withers in rams often exceeds 85 centimeters, while in queens this figure ranges from 75-80 centimeters (which is also quite a lot). What else distinguishes the Hissar breed of sheep? Photos will show that they have surprisingly long dry limbs (in this they are somewhat reminiscent of racehorses). In addition, the animals look very impressive due to their elongated torso, which contrasts with a strong and wide chest.

Their head is rough, the nose is hooked. All animals are polled (that is, they have no horns in principle). The neck is rather short, the ears are long, "spreading". The mass of fat tail in sebaceous varieties can reach about 40 kilograms. The weight of some rams can reach 190 kg. Queens weigh less, but a sheep that would be lighter than 80 kilograms is hard to find.

Breed problems

Firstly, the Hissar breed gives an extremely meager "harvest" of wool. Moreover, even by the standards of fat-tailed sheep, it is very tough and rough. Even in rams, the annual shearing does not exceed 1.5 kilograms (at best), while the uterus gives no more than a kilogram. In addition, the wool of females contains an extremely high percentage of awn and dead hair (from 18 to 34%), while in males this figure ranges from 11 to 24%. No wonder such a raw goesexclusively for the production of coarse felt. As a rule, the Hissar sheep is either black or dark red.

Over the past quarter century, the number of the breed has declined markedly for the first time. So, in the early 90s of the last century, there were 497,084 heads, and more than 90% of them were completely purebred. To date, there are about 460 thousand sheep of this breed, and breeders are very concerned about the fact that the number of crossbreeds, that is, not purebred animals, is growing every year.

Besides this, the Hissar sheep (photos are presented in the article) clearly need to be "improved" aimed at increasing the multiplicity and quality of wool, but there was simply no one to do this (after the collapse of the USSR), since the institutes of animal husbandry were destroyed. Currently, the only hope is for individual sheep breeders who do not allow the breed to completely mix with other varieties of sheep, maintaining the purity of their gene pool.

However, some researchers say that the Hissar sheep in Russia and other countries do not need any improvements (in terms of productivity). This opinion is based on the fact that this breed is not artificially bred over several decades, but created as a result of centuries of directed selection. This point of view has the right to life, but if the situation with promiscuous incest continues, it will not lead to anything good.

Fecundity and Productivity

Among other things, the uterus is not distinguished by highfertility, there are practically no two lambs for one offspring. However, this circumstance is fully compensated by a decent milk productivity: 1.8-2.3 liters of fat milk in one day. In just a couple of months, some outstanding representatives of the breed can produce up to 200 liters of the mentioned product.

Basic information on keeping animals

Regardless of belonging to one or another subtype, sheep are kept the same. It should only be noted that they do not like more or less deep snow cover, and therefore pastures should be changed in advance depending on the season. In addition, you need to be careful with wet food. Like other fat-tailed breeds, these animals prefer dry food and no less dry pastures.

In principle, they are not afraid of extreme cold either, but it is desirable to have at least a simple canopy under which animals could hide from the strongest gusts of wind. Please note that drafts are strictly contraindicated for sheep of this breed. In general, they have no other features.