Suffolk sheep


Suffolk sheep,

relatively large breed, developed in England, well-known for its high quality meat. Considered to be a recent introduction to the United States, the breed has many desirable qualities and is becoming widely accepted there. Suffolks have bare heads, black faces, and bare black legs but no horns. They breed aggressively and have upstanding carriage, an active nature, the capacity for rapid growth, and a good mutton build; they are, however, relatively light fleece producers. Suffolk rams are widely used with ewes of other breeds to produce crossbred lambs for slaughter.

Suffolk Sheep

 

a breed of early-maturing sheep raised for meat and for their semifine wool. The Suffolk breed was developed in the second half of the 19th century in Suffolk, Great Britain, by crossbreeding Norfolk horned ewes with Southdown rams. Adult Suffolk rams weigh 100–120 kg, while ewes weigh 60–70 kg. Clip from rams is 5–6 kg, and from ewes, 3–3.5 kg. The wool is of 56th-58th grade and is 7–10 cm long. The yield of pure wool after washing is approximately 60 percent. Fertility is 130–140 lambs per 100 ewes. Suffolk sheep are raised in Great Britain, the USA, Austria, and other countries. In the USSR they have been used for crossbreeding.

REFERENCES

Builov, S. V., and V. M. Kurganskii. Miaso-sherstnoe ovtsevodstvo. Moscow, 1966.
Nikolaev, A. I. Ovtsevodstvo, 4th ed. Moscow, 1973.