Zwartbles

The Zwartbles is a Dutch breed of sheep, which was in the 1920er/1930er years bred from the crossing of Schoonebeeker heath sheep with Texel and dairy sheep and called improved Schoonebeeker. Zwartblesschafe are strong, medium-sized sheep with good milk production. Dams can be easily mounted even the often derived from multiple birth lambs.

Features

The Zwartblesschaf is a very large framed, well muscled sheep with elongated head and long legs. It is unbehornt, has black or brown black wool and has a long, little bewollten tail. The ewe reached a shoulder height of about 75 cm and a weight of 50 to 60 kg, according to the national association and a weight of 75 to 100 kg. The buck can up to 130 kg are difficult at a height of 85 cm.

The head is hornless and the nose straight. The ears are horizontal. Dams have a well-developed udder and a good milk production, so that the often derived from multiple births births lambs can be reared easily. The heat is seasonal, initial registration in the first year possible in at least 50 kg of live weight. The foundation is well posed, dry and not too fine. The hull is deep and wide. Back, loins and legs are well muscled.

Typical are the white blaze on the forehead, which was also eponymous, the white feet and white tail tip. In this breed of sheep, the tail is not docked.

Use

The Zwartbles one of the meat sheep breeds and is expected in the Netherlands together with dairy sheep and Texel sheep to the grazing sheep. The breed is considered very willing to work with appropriate standards of care and feeding. It is held mainly in the hobby area.

Zwartblessen are considered ideal breed for direct marketers. You get fat not so carcases are produced 22 to 25 kilograms only low fat pad. Their meat has a mild very fine taste. The lambs are very grow fast and can be reached by supplementary feeding of concentrates daily gain about 400 grams. For pure grazing with little or no supplementary feeding of concentrates they reach the battle maturity of four to eight months.

Zwartblessen have very good mothering ability, easy births and come at a reasonable feeding enough milk to raise even triplets without assistance. The registered between 1990 and 1995 in the root directory births the average Ablammrate was little more than two lambs per litter, triplets were more likely than singletons. The likelihood of multiple births increases with age of ewes:

When Zwartbles sheep scrapie resistance is to be genetically fixed. To achieve this breeding goal, specifically genotyped goats have been used for several years.