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The Romanov breed of sheep has been around for 200 years. It was bred in the Yaroslavl province by selecting the best representatives of local northern short-tailed sheep.
Short-tailed sheep are very different from their southern counterparts that displaced them. First of all, these are animals ideally adapted to frosts in the northern parts of the European mainland. Northern sheep have a high-quality warm coat, which they are able to shed when molting on their own. But the northern sheep are significantly inferior to the southern breeds in size and productivity, which is why they were forced out of the livestock sector.
Short-tailed sheep are still preserved in some places, but they no longer play any role in industrial animal husbandry and are preserved in a semi-wild state as a reserve gene pool.
Romanov sheep, named after the place of their original distribution – Romanovo-Borisoglebsky district, fully inherited resistance to frost and medium size from their northern ancestors.
Romanov breed standard
The Romanov sheep is distinguished by well-developed strong bones and a dry constitution. The head is small, hook-nosed, dry, black in color. Ears erect.
The body is barrel-shaped, the ribs are round. The upper line is straight without a clear emphasis on the withers. The back is straight, wide. The tail is short, inherited from the ancestors. In rams, the tail length reaches 13 cm.
Legs are straight, widely spaced, with smooth hair. Sheep of the Romanov breed can be both polled and horned.
The size of sheep, as well as those of their ancestors, is small. Rams of the Romanov breed usually weigh 65 – 75 kg. Individual specimens can reach up to 100. Ewes do not exceed 90 kg with an average weight of 45 – 55 kg. Sexual dimorphism in the breed is well expressed.
Selection of the Romanov breed of sheep continues to this day. Today’s standard suggests a height at the withers of no more than 70 cm. The desired type of Romanov breed suggests a strong bone structure, a strong constitution, a deep and wide chest, well developed muscles and a complete absence of horns.
Sheep should be larger than ewes, with a well-defined hunchback. The backbone of a ram is more powerful than that of a ewe.
The coat color of Romanov sheep is bluish. This effect is given by black awn and white fluff, which outgrows the outer cover. The head and legs of Romanov sheep are black.
The photo shows thoroughbred sheep with black heads and legs or with small white marks on the head.
Romanovka lambs are born black and only with time, when the undercoat grows, do they change color to bluish.
The Romanov breed of sheep gives the best sheepskins for fur products, while the meat characteristics of the breed are not very high and are more suitable for amateur sheep breeding. Sheepskins from 6-8 month old lambs are especially valued.
Coarse-wooled breeds of sheep are usually sheared once a year, but Romanov wool is sheared three times a year: March, June and October. Due to the rough fineness, wool is used only in felting production, which is why it makes little sense to produce it.
Romanov sheep are sheared from 1,4 to 3,5 kg of wool per year, while other coarse-haired breeds can produce up to 4 kg of wool per year. Romanovskys today are bred not for wool, but for sheepskins and meat. Wool is a by-product from ewes and breeding sheep.
The content of the Romanov breed
For a private owner, the maintenance of Romanov sheep does not present great difficulties precisely because of the origin of the breed. Having been bred in Our Country and having short-tailed sheep well adapted to the cold in their ancestors, Romanovki calmly withstand colds down to -30 ° C. Unlike the southern, more productive breeds, Romanovki do not need insulated buildings for wintering. Even in winter, they spend a significant part of their time outdoors in a paddock, going into shelter only in very cold weather.
For the wintering of Romanov sheep, an ordinary barn without insulation and deep bedding on the floor is enough. You just need to make sure that there are no gaps in the walls of the building.
Breeding Romanov sheep at home
Romanovki are distinguished by their multiplicity and the ability to bring lambs at least 2 times a year. The usual number of lambs at one lambing: 3 – 4 heads. Often there are 5 lambs. As a record, 7 cubs were recorded.
Ewe carry lambs for 5 months. There are 12 months in a year. Even if the ewe came into heat and inseminated immediately after the birth of the lambs, she will need 5 months to carry the next litter. Thus, it will take at least 10 months to get two lambings from one queen. 3 lambing can be obtained only if the first one happened in the first or second month of the new year. But the ewe carried these lambs last year.
Romanov’s lambs are quite easy if there are no complications in the position of the fetuses. With such a multiplicity, lambs are born small. But the sheep will lamb without problems only on the condition that the lambs are not entangled in a ball inside the sheep. This happens when there are several lambs. If this happens, you will have to call a veterinarian or an experienced sheep breeder to figure out which legs and heads belong to whom.
On the one hand, the multiplicity of Romanov sheep is a plus for the owner, allowing you to get 300 – 400% growth per flock, but on the other hand, the ewe has only two nipples. Strong lambs push the weaker ones away from the udder of the ewe, often preventing weak individuals from even drinking colostrum. At the same time, without receiving colostrum, the lamb will not have protection against infections, and its own immunity will not begin to develop. The sheep breeder is forced to manually milk the ewe and feed the colostrum to the lambs from the nipple.
When breeding this breed, sheep breeders are forced to practice artificial feeding of lambs with the help of milk replacers. If all the lambs are left under the uterus, then they are fed milk replacer for all. If someone is separated for manual feeding, then milk replacer is given only to lambs selected from the ewe.
If they do not die, they will develop very poorly, lag behind in growth, and the costs for them will be greater than the returns in the future.
This is where the trick lies. The basis of even the most expensive whole milk substitute for lambs is skimmed cow’s milk. It is very different in composition from sheep and can cause diarrhea in the lamb. Dairy fats in milk replacer are replaced by vegetable fats. Cheap milk replacers do not contain animal proteins and fats at all, they are replaced by vegetable analogues. The chances of a lamb dying on a cheap milk replacer are significantly higher than on an expensive substitute.
Diarrhea and abdominal pain in newborn lambs – the main scourge of sheep breeders – are most often caused by food that is not suitable for a lamb with a fully developed gastrointestinal tract. Cow’s milk is given to lambs only from the 10th day of life, 100-200 g per day. Provided that it is possible to give them sheep, using cow’s milk as a top dressing.
In the video, lambs of a different breed are hand-fed, but the essence of this does not change. Even with the correct position of the head and body, the lamb eats very greedily. Such greed can cause milk to spill into an underdeveloped rumen, causing tympanum and diarrhea as a result of putrefaction and fermentation in the rumen. Lamb wombs suck much more slowly.
But no goat’s milk or milk replacer can replace real sheep’s milk for a lamb, so the second option for feeding lambs from a multiparous ewe is milk from another sheep that has littered with a small number of lambs or brought stillborn cubs.
Diets of little lambs at different times of the year
The general rule for lambing at any time of the year is that the ewes must be separated from the rest of the flock so that they can easily lamb and other sheep do not trample the newborn lamb. Yes, and it will be easier to control the course of lambing.
After lambing, when the lamb rises to its feet and can run, the sheep can be placed in the flock. But if there is room, it is better to keep the ewe with the cub separately from the bulk of the sheep. In this case, the queens are kept 2 – 3 heads in one pen.
Up to a month, the lambs suck the queens and do not need other food, although they are interested in what was given to the mother. After a month, lambs begin to accustom to adult feed.
The lamb of winter lambing begins to be given tender hay of the best quality. First, they give soft meadow hay, then, increasing the amount of fiber, clover or alfalfa, harvested before the beginning of flowering. After they move to the leaves from the branches.
“Spring” lambs, along with the uterus, are driven out to the best pastures. At the same time, mineral supplements and vitamins are added to the diet of babies, since young spring grass is still not enough for the normal development of young animals.
In summer, newly born lambs graze along with the queens. Grain feed is gradually added to their diet.
In the photo, lambs in the summer with a uterus in the pasture. Sheep milk is clearly not enough for such a number of cubs, and feeding with compound feed is vital for them.
Conclusion
In fact, the breeding of sheep of the Romanov breed can be a very profitable business in Our Country, provided that the private household farm is aimed not only at breeding and getting offspring, but also at dressing sheepskins and sewing fur products from them. And it doesn’t have to be clothing. Sheepskins today began to be actively used in other areas. For example, as a lining under the saddle in equestrian sport.
Wool sheared from Romanov sheep will also find application, since today it is quite difficult to find natural felt, it has been replaced by an artificial analogue, which is actually very inferior to natural felt.
But in order to sell finished products, and not cheap raw materials, you need to either create a joint business with fur professionals, or learn how to process skins yourself.
But for keeping in the family as a small help, the Romanov sheep is quite suitable, due to its unpretentiousness and multiplicity. After slaughtering lambs at 3 months, you can get several tens of kilograms of first-class meat for yourself.