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Sheep and horse round-ups in Iceland
1. Icelandic sheep and horses are unique Nordic breeds grazing free-range natural pastures.
2. Out of the total of 474.000 winterfed sheep some 1.000 are of a special leader sheep strain only found in Iceland. They are mainly coloured as are some 20% of the Icelandic sheep population. Some 70-75% have horns. Icelandic sheep are hardy, prolific, particularly the coloured ones, and their products, meat, wool and skins are of high quality. A poster with 35 colour photographs shows the great variation within the Iceland breed of sheep.
3. In winter all sheep are housed and fed mainly hay and silage. They are either shorn in November-December and February-March or in early July. The wool has two types of fibres, long and short.
4. The ewes are bred in December and most of them lamb in May, just when spring grass is growing.
5. Sheep roam freely on extensive summer pastures without any shepherding. A few are lost, mainly lambs attacked by foxes.
6. Sheep are gathered and sorted in all parts of Iceland in September, horses too in some parts of North-Iceland in late September or early October. The number of sheep gathered and sorted in each area may be several hundreds or thousands.
7. Sheep gathering takes 1-7 days, in most cases on horses which have excellent qualities for travelling in the mountainous and rough inland areas of the country.
8. Previously only men took part in this operation but nowadays women are participating with good results.
9. All sheep and most horses have ear-marks. Horned sheep (a few have four horns) are often branded and coloured ear-tags are commonly used. Microchips and freeze-brands are increasingly used for horses. Records of ear-marks are published regularly throughout the country and a national record was published in 1998.
10. The gathering and sorting is planned according to an ancient law. Many visitors participate or just come to see what is going on. All are welcome.
Further information may be obtained from Dr. Ólafur R. Dýrmundsson, the Farmers Association of Iceland, Tel. 563-0300/317. Fax: 562-3058. E-mail: ord@bondi.is
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