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Article: Considering a sheep dairy? Consider Icelandic sheep. (The sheep shed).
- Article from:
- Countryside & Small Stock Journal
- Article date:
- May 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Countryside Publications Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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What struck me right away when my first Icelandic sheep lambed were the similarities that these sheep had with dairy goats. I had a commercial goat dairy in years past and these ewe lamb mothers had udders that would be respectable for a good milking dairy goat. The udder structure was similar with a good medial suspensory ligament, good teat placement and good hand milking size. It was obvious that these sheep were milked for centuries in Iceland. In fact Icelandics were used as the main dairy animal in Iceland and known as the poor man's cow for 1,000 years. Not until the 1940s did this change with the advent of mechanized haying in Iceland, which allowed enough hay to ...