Top 7 Reasons Icelandic Sheep aren’t right for our Farm
Icelandic sheep are touted as a triple purpose animal (meat, milk & wool) and are pushed to homesteaders. Here are the reasons they aren’t right for us, maybe for you as well.
Before I dive into this post and get regaled as an Icelandic sheep hater, I just want to say this differs for everyone. I’m not saying I hate them, they just aren’t right for us. And what causes friction between the Icelandics and I – may cause harmony on your farm. Let’s get into it.
When I first began researching dairy sheep back in late 2023, the first thing I realized was my options for dairy sheep breeds were going to be limited in my rural location. I joined a dairy sheep group on Facebook to look into my options.
Many folks suggested to me that the typical high production breeds (East Friesan & Lacaune) were high maintenance, hard keepers and that I should look for hardier breeds for my farmstead.
The two breeds that were suggested the most were Finnsheep and Icelandics, with several people touting success with milking these breeds.
Lucky for me, a friend of mine just a couple hours away dabbles with a small Icelandic flock. She was happy to give each of my kids (3) a bred ewe to experiment with. Now that you know the backstory, lets get into the meat of why they aren’t for us.
Reason 1: They are wild!
I am sure this varies within the breed and flock to flock. Heck I know this, because my friend that I got them from – hers are super friendly! But that is not the experience we had. Ours are not friendly, they keep their distance. Which is fine for a meat or wool flock, but for kids trying to milk them, it made it more difficult.
Our other breeds are very sweet and kid friendly.
Reason 2: They are escape artists!
This is probably the biggest reason that we were unhappy having Icelandics in our flock. Out of twenty head of ewes, the Icelandics are the only ones who escape regularly. They will literally crawl underneath gates to let themselves out.
Any kind of gap they can find, they will crawl through or under it to get out. None of our other sheep have followed suit thank goodness.
Now you might be saying “Well, that’s because they are smarter than the other sheep.” And you might be right. But I think I’d rather have dumb sheep that stay where I want them than smart sheep that are always somewhere other than where I put them.
Reason 3: I did not find them to be hardy
In 2024 I lambed out 16 ewes of varying breeds. The only lamb that died on me was an Icelandic, we believe he died of bloat out on the pasture. I had three ewes come down with pinkeye. Were any of them my dairy breeds? Nope, two Finns and an Icelandic.
I have struggled with coughing and snotty noses out of the Icelandics, which has not been true of my other sheep. Why is this? I can’t say, I can only tell you what I have observed over the last year.
Reason 4: They are impatient
This reason really is not that big of a deal, it is just annoying and I don’t want my other sheep learning this. Prior to lambing, I supplement my ewes with grain to support them during the last six weeks of gestation. While my other sheep wait patiently for me to put grain out (minus some excited bleats here and there) the Icelandics stand at the gate and PAW! I hate that. Maybe you would find it endearing?
Reason 5: They have a tiny carcass
Two ewes both one year old. A dairy breed on the left and an Icelandic on the right.
We recently butchered three lambs, all about the same age. The Icelandic lamb was by far the tiniest, so small it almost felt like a waste of our time to even mess with cutting him up. My friends father likens butchering Icelandic lambs to butchering a chicken. He is not far off. Now in their defense, they are supposed to be the Cadillac of lamb meat. We have tried one package of steaks so far from our Icelandic lamb and I will admit, they were good. When I try a package from one of the other lambs, I’ll report back and let you know if there was any difference in flavor.
Reason 6: They don’t give much milk
For us, the main point of our flock is milk production. The wool and the meat is a great bonus, but milk is definitely the focus. Icelandics just don’t hit the mark for us when it comes to milk production.
Out of the three, we did have one with pretty good hand milking teats, one with ok length, and one that was impossible to hand milk.
When we separated the lambs overnight, my daughters could get at best a pint out of them.
Now I will admit, the milk was creamy and delicious, maybe even a bit creamier than our dairy ewes. But at only 1/2-1 pint per day and a short lactation, it just wasn’t worth it to us to continue milking them.
Reason 7: They need to be shorn twice a year
We shear our own sheep. Over the last year, we did only shear the Icelandics once. The problem with that though is their wool grows so fast, if you don’t shear them twice a year they get really matted. That is just not something we want to deal with. As beautiful as their wool is, we just don’t want the extra work of having to shear a second time during the year.
Conclusion
With their flighty, impatient personalities, low milk production, escape artist tendencies, unthrifty health(at least on our farm), extra shearing requirements and small carcass size, they just aren’t right for our farm.
I realize that many of the reasons I listed are things that can be addressed. Improvements to milk production, lactation length, carcass size, even shearing requirements are all things that can be selected for and pushed toward our own goals through specialized breeding, but that’s just not something we want to do. Why try to force an animal to thrive somewhere that it naturally does not want to thrive, when there are other breeds that do so well here?
I can respect that they are beautiful animals, and they have their place, it’s just not on our farm. What about yours?
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