Icelandic Sheep

The Iceland Sheep breed is a short, stocky medium sized sheep. They can be naturally both horned and polled and are a winter hardy breed from the Northern European island of Iceland. The breed has been around for over 1,100 years and is one of the world’s purest.

Icelandic’s have been raised for over a thousand years for their  wool, meat, and milk. Their fleece is dual coated, meaning it has two layers which will often show different colors and can be used for different wool applications. The long outer coat is referred to as tog and the finer inner coat is pel. Each can be processed separately, but when used together a knitting wool called lopi. Their dual coat, when unshorn over winter, allows them to be a very winter hardy breed that can withstand some of the harshest climates. All icelandics are either black, white or brown (moorit) in base color with many showing other spotting and patterns that make for unique and beautiful looking sheep.

The Icelandic Ewe

Terminology:

 Ewe – an adult female sheep

Ram – an intact male (intact meaning he can still make babies)

Wether – a castrated male

Lamb – a young sheep

Tog – outer fleece, medium wool

Pel – inner fleece, finer wool

Lopi – tog and pel processed together

Moorit – brown base color

Polled – not horned through selective breeding

Horned – having horns