History

It is believed that the breed was first established on the Swedish island of Gotland by the Vikings. They crossed the native Swedish Gute sheep with Karakul and Romanov sheep brought back from expeditions deep into Russia. The Vikings took these sheep on their travels providing their crew with meat and skins along the route. Those early travels comtributed to the spread of these Northern short-tailed sheep and the development of related sheep breeds such as Icelandic, Finn and Shetland. Primitive horned Gute and Gotland sheep still exist on teh island of Gotland today.

Multipurpose Breed

Intensive and selective breeding in Sweden since the 1920's produced the modern Gotland, famous for its soft and curly pelts. While the pelts wree the most notable produce from gotland sheep, gotlands are a true multipurpose breed.

• Gotland pelts - prized world-wide.
• Gotland wool - a beautiful fiber for spinning and is a favorite wool for felting. The wool is typically 29 to 34 microns in diameter at maturity. Lambs wool is typically in the low to mid 20's micron range and can frequently be as fine as 18 microns.
• Gotland meat - lambs are active, quick to suckle and fast growing, reaching ideal slaughter size at 5-7 months of age. The meat is mild, good flavored and close-grained.
• Gotland sheep are bright, active and friendly. They are easy to lamb, have a high lambing rate, produce abundant milk and have strong mothering instincts. Gotland sheep are very inquisitive, making htem an entertaining sheep breed to own. They are hardy and adaptable to a veriety of management systems, making them a resilient sheep breed. They are a relatively small breed, making them an ideal small farm livestock alternative.

Gotland Sheep received world wide attention when the movie trilogy "Lord of the Rings" featured the Magic Elven cloaks made of (mostly) Gotland wool.

GSBANA Breed Standard

Breeding Up Rules

Foundation Ewes

Northern Short Tail Breeds
• Finnsheep
• Icelandic Sheep
• Shetland Sheep

Longwool and Luster Breeds
• Wensleydales
• Cotswolds
• Lincolns
• Border Leicesters
• Blue Faced Leicesters
• English Leicesters

Crosses of the Above Breeds

Other sources for information about Gotland Sheep.

• The British Gotland Sheep Society
• Australian Gotland Society
• Sheep Magazine article on Gotlands
• Stansboro Greys - Descendants of New Zealand Gotlands used in making costumes in the Lord of the Rings and Narnia films.