East Friesian (sheep)

The East Friesian milk sheep is a very adaptable and resistant bred in East Friesland sheep, which is distinguished by the breed as a three -purpose breed, especially for small farms. In larger herds, it is rather rare. There are known three color varieties: black, white and brindle. The white color variety is by far the most widespread. It is almost the only viable way in the German dairy sheep farming and has proven itself in the German inland. The main distribution areas in Germany are Saxony and Lower Saxony. The East Friesian milk sheep is one of the most widespread dairy sheep breeds.

There is a large framed sheep with slightly ramsnasigem hornless head. The udder should forward his back and side hung tight and thus be suitable for suction of the Lambs as well as for hand and machine milking. The Udder depth should be at least three finger widths above the ankle. The performance of East Friesian milk sheep are summarized with the famous " 3 F ": Frohwüchsigkeit, precocity, fertility. At the age of 7 months, the young sheep should have reached their breeding maturity, so that they can bring their first lambs to the world at the age of one year. During the first 12 weeks, the lambs were to reach an increase of 300 to 400 grams per day. The Ablammrate should lie between 200 and 300 %.

The female East Frisian dairy sheep reached a live weight of about 70 to 100 kilograms. It annually provides approximately 5 - 6 kg white, semi- fine, long wool and an average of 400 to 500 kilograms of milk per 150 -day lactation with a fat content of 5 to 6% and a protein content of 4 to 5%, from the main dairy foods, butter and cheese are made ​​. The sheep milk is from a nutritional point of view a very good supplement to the human diet. Due to their high protein and fat content the people highly digestible nutrients are available. Due to the fact that dairy sheep are very often kept and milked in the pasture, the milk has a great deal of conjugated linoleic acid and compared to cow's milk more short and medium chain fatty acids.

Based on the EU Directive 2003/100/EC to " establish minimum requirements for the establishment of breeding programs for resistance in sheep transmissible spongiform encephalopathies " and the Animal Breeding Act, that "the performance of the animals is maintained and improved to take account of animal health "it is mandatory that farmed animals are genotypiert on their scrapie resistance. As certain genotypes are less susceptible to scrapie, this should preferably be used for breeding. By means of an ear cartilage or blood sample is given a quick and reliable method for genotyping.