Other names |
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Country of origin | Italy |
Use | Meat, milk |
Traits | |
Weight |
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Wool color | off-white, brown or black |
Face color | white, sometimes spotted |
Notes | |
dual-purpose, milk and meat | |
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The Bovec ( Slovene: bovška ovca, Italian: Plezzana, German: Krainer Steinschaf) is a breed of domestic sheep from the upper valley of the Soča or Isonzo river, now in Slovenia. [1] [2] [3] The breed is named in both Slovenian and in Italian for the town of Bovec or Plezzo; in the Trenta valley it may also be called Trentarka. It is raised in the Soča valley in Slovenia, in the areas of Resia and Tarvisio in Friuli in Italy, [1] and in Styria and Carinthia in Austria. [4] The breed is raised for milk and for meat. [1]
The Bovec may be whitish, or in about 30% of cases, black or brown. [1] They have small ears, short, thin legs, and their belly is bare. [5] The back legs are inclined forward so that they can walk on steep meadows easily. [2]
Height of rams is 64 cm (25 in) and ewes 60 cm (24 in) at the withers. [1] A breeding ewe provides approximately 1.23 lambs per litter, lactates for 210 days and in that time yields 221 kg (487 lb) of milk with 6.3% fat. [2]
In 2012 a population in Slovenia of 3500 was reported to DAD-IS. [2] Other sources estimate the number of pure-bred examples there at 1200. [1] [5] The Krainer Steinschaf population in Austria was reported to be in the range 2719–4000 in 2012. [6]
The Plezzana is one of the forty-two autochthonous local sheep breeds of limited distribution for which a herdbook is kept by the Associazione Nazionale della Pastorizia, the Italian national association of sheep-breeders; [5] in 2013 the herdbook was empty. [7] The population in Italy is estimated at 40–50 head. [1] [5]