About the Icelandic Breed

   Icelandic sheep are good all-around sheep.  Although our experience with sheep breeds is limited, Icelandic sheep seem to have more personality than other breeds, which makes them fun to have around.  Icelandic sheep come in many colors and patterns; 17 color pattern combinations and over 90 named patterns of white markings.  They are very pretty to look at.

Wool

   Is wonderful and versatile for spinning.  You can separate the tog (guard hair) from the thel (undercoat) or spin them together.  The tog is somewhat similar to mohair in its length and waviness, and good for worsted spinning.  The undercoat is very soft, and suitable for next to skin items.

Meat

   Icelandic ewes come into heat during late October, and lambs are born after an average gestation period of 142-144 days.  Lambs will reach their slaughter weight of 70 to 100 lbs in late summer, without grain feed.  At about the same time, most meat breed sheep lambs disappear from the market.  This is when your local co-op or natural foods market is begging for lamb meat for the ethnic market!

  Icelandic sheep meat is lean and mild in flavor.  It is often described as "gourmet" meat.

Milk

   Icelandic ewes were favored over cows in Iceland due to the heavy foraging needs of cows.  In North America, many people are milking their ewes, and produce wonderful products such as sheep milk, soap, lotion, cheese, and yogurt.  There have been many discussions regarding Icelandic sheep as a dairy breed.

Warning

  This site has been created by an Icelandic sheep shepherd.  I can tell you how wonderful they are.  If you are trying to find the down points of Icelandic breeds, you must look somewhere else.  You can find more impartial opinions from sites such as;

www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/sheep/icelandic/,

but even then, you'd have a hard time finding any "cons".