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

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

In different countries, different animals are historically bred 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. Sheep farming has long been practiced in those areas where other types of pets simply could not find the necessary amount of food in conditions of free-range walking.

Basic breeds

There are different breeds of sheep: gissar, romanovskaya, kurdjuchnye varieties ... All and can not remember! Each of them is good in its own way.

Some breeds give a lot of high-quality meat, some of them are famous for their multi-fruit and high-quality skins, while others are bred for the sake of delicious fat, which is massively used for cooking pilaf and other culinary delicacies. Let's look at which species are divided into all animals of a given species (the classification follows the wool type):

• Fine-fleeced sheep. The most valuable, as from them receive an ideal quality fleece, from which make excellent woolen fabrics and yarn. The latter, by the way, goes also to the production of the famous Persian carpets, which decorate the homes of only the most wealthy people around the world.
• Semi-thin-root varieties. Also give a wool of good quality, but its thickness is higher, and the texture is coarser. But they are characterized by good early ripeness and good taste of meat.
• Coarse-wool breeds of sheep (gissar and romanian). Most often they are bred for the production of skins and meat, since the characteristics of the wool are not too high. If we talk about meat, then the first variety is particularly popular, but in terms of multiplicity and the quality of the skins, the "romance" wins. All sheep of this category are particularly advantageous to breed, since they are particularly unpretentious.

We will analyze the most noteworthy and beneficial for the maintenance in the conditions of an infield area of breed of sheep. Photos and the name of each are also present in the material below.

Romanovskaya breed

First we will tell you about these legendary animals, who feel great and reproduce themselves even in the conditions of the Central Russia, which you can not tell about other breeds of sheep. The formation of this variety occurred on the territory of the present Yaroslavl region, so that to our climate animals are perfectly fitted.

Productivity Information

Contrary to some historical legends, the breed was created solely by peasants. For many centuries of painstaking breeding, large animals have appeared in their farmsteads. The weight of sheep reaches 100 kilograms, the weight of females is 70 kilograms.

The maximum yield of meat from the carcass is 47%. For a year, about three kilograms of coarse wool are removed from the sheep, with the queens being one and a half to two times less. Each female brings at least two lambs at a time, but not so rare there are cases of the birth of a fucking! It's not for nothing that these animals are willingly purchased by foreigners in order to increase the multiplicity of their own sheep. And one more important point. Unlike other relatives, "novels" often bring offspring twice a year, which further increases their value.

Edil'ba breed

These animals in our country are not so widespread and not very well known, but they are definitely worth knowing about as many as possible people interested in sheep breeding. What is the reason for this? Now we'll tell you everything!

Like the above described species, this breed belongs to the coarse-wool. Sheep have a meat-greasy orientation, created by the method of "popular selection" in the territory of present-day Kazakhstan. We selected only those animals that, according to their constitution and other parameters, were most suitable for the harsh conditions of the nomadic life of local peoples. It must be said that this approach has yielded excellent results!

Edilbaevskie sheep equally well tolerate winter cold and summer drought, perfectly withstand long-term transitions, and also have a unique ability to eat off on scanty forages of dried, salted pastures.

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

In addition, the Edilbaev breed stands out among the meat-and-salted varieties with its dairy productivity. Each queen gives about 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

On this variety we will dwell in more detail. It should be noted that among all the variety of species the gissar sheep breed stands alone. They are known all over the world as the largest animals of the "family" we are considering. However, about everything in order.

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

In addition, the Hissarian breed of sheep, being similar in this with its Romanov kinsmen, is often used as "donors" to improve other species of these animals. Homeland of "gissars" is considered to be Tajikistan, but they are actively bred in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, as well as southern regions of our country. Unlike other breeds, these sheep are divided into three subtypes. Let's look at each of them separately.

Meat

The main characteristics of this type of sheep:

• Outward appearance is quite recognizable, since there is no prominent Kurdyuk: it is pulled up, and some individuals are not developed at all.
• Animals are characterized by excellent daily growth at an early age.
• In comparison with the representatives of the other two species, the gissarian breed of sheep of this subtype gives comparatively little fat.

Meat-greasy and greasy varieties

These sheep are distinguished by a prominent Kurdyuk, which in most cases are pulled up to the level of the back. In the case of an exceptionally greasy variety, it resembles a large sack that, in the case of outstanding representatives of the breed, occupies about a third of the entire body.

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

Productivity basics

Animals have strong, well developed skeleton. The height at the withers at the rams often exceeds 85 centimeters, in the queens, this figure ranges between 75-80 centimeters (which is also quite a lot). What else does the gissar breed of sheep? The photos will show that they have long, dry limbs on their marvelous (that's what they remind of racehorses). In addition, the animals look very impressive because of their elongated trunk, which contrasts with a strong and broad chest.

Their head is rough, their hump is a nose. All animals are cloddy (that is, they do not have horns in principle). The neck is rather short, the ears are long, "spread out". The weight of the krjuk at the greasy species can reach about 40 kilograms. The weight of some sheep can reach 190 kg. The uterus weighs less, but the sheep, which would be lighter than 80 kilograms, is difficult to find.

Breed problems

Firstly, the gissar breed gives an extremely scarce "harvest" of wool. Moreover, even by the standards of sheepskin sheep, it is very tough and rough. Even the sheep have an annual harvest of not more than 1.5 kilograms (at best), the uterus does not give more than a kilogram. In addition, the wool of females contains an extremely high percentage of awn and dead hair (from 18 to 34%), in males, this figure is from 11 to 24%. It is not surprising that such raw materials are used exclusively for the production of coarse felt. As a rule, gissar sheep can be either black, or dark-red.

Over the last quarter century, the number of breeds has decreased noticeably 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, the sheep of this breed number about 460 thousand, and the breeders are very worried by the fact that every year the number of hybrids, ie, not pure-bred animals, grows.

In addition, gissar sheep (photo presented in the article) clearly need "refinement" aimed at increasing the multiplicity and quality of the wool, but there was simply no one to do this (after the collapse of the USSR) , as the zootechnics institutes were destroyed. Currently, there is only hope for individual sheep breeders who do not allow the breed to finally mix with other varieties of sheep, maintaining the purity of their gene pool.

However, some researchers say that in no improvement (in terms of productivity) gissar sheep in Russia and other countries do not need. This opinion is based on the fact that this breed is not artificially deduced for several decades, but created as a result of centuries-old directional selection. This point of view has the right to life, but if the situation with indiscriminate incest is preserved, it will not lead to anything good.

Fertility and Productivity

Among other things, the uterus does not have a high fertility, two lambs for one litter is almost never there. However, this circumstance is completely compensated by decent milk productivity: 1,8-2,3 l of fat milk for one day. In just a couple of months, some outstanding representatives of the breed can produce up to 200 liters of the said product.

Basic information on the content of animals

Regardless of belonging to a particular subtype, they contain the sheep equally. It should only be noted that they do not like a more or less deep snow cover, and therefore it is necessary to change the pastures in advance, depending on the season. In addition, you need to be careful with wet fodder. Like all other breeds, these animals prefer dry food and dry grazing.

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