Ojinegra de Teruel
Ojinegra de Teruel
The Ojinegra de Teruel is a native Spanish sheep (Ovis aries Linnaeus, 1758) with a main aptitude for meat production.
Systematics –
From a systematic point of view it belongs to:
Eukaryota domain,
Kingdom Animalia,
Phylum Chordata,
Mammalia class,
Order Artiodactyla,
Suborder Ruminantia,
Bovidae family,
Subfamily Caprinae,
Genus Ovis,
O. aries species,
Ojinegra de Teruel breed.
Geographic and Area Distribution –
The Ojinegra de Teruel is a native Spanish sheep breed originating in the province of Teruel, in Aragon. It is also present in the province of Castellón, where it is called fardosca, and in the province of Tarragona, where it is called serranet.
Origins and History –
The Ojinegra de Teruel is a Spanish sheep included in the Official Catalog of Zootechnical Breeds of Spain, of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, where it is registered as a promotion breed.
This breed belongs to the entrefino stock and is often confused with the ojalada breed originally from Castilla y León, due to the centrifugal black pigmentation they share, around the eyes, muzzle, ears and hooves, like the xisqueta and montesina breeds.
This is because they are breeds that all share common ancestors.
Morphology –
The Ojinegra de Teruel is a breed with a subconvex profile, elongated proportions and medium size.
The fleece is medium to fine white wool with centrifugal black pigmentation around the eyes, ear tips, muzzle and distal extremities.
They are medium-sized animals with a height at the withers of approximately 68 cm in males and approximately 45 cm in females.
Productive attitude –
The Ojinegra de Teruel is a breed made up of sheep highly adapted to the harsh climatic conditions of the area, where very low temperatures and low rainfall prevail in winter throughout the year.
Its exploitation is mainly aimed at the production of meat, which is marketed with the IGP Ternasco de Aragón.
This is excellent quality meat.
This breed is considered very important for the maintenance of the traditional agricultural landscape where it is raised in semi-extensive conditions with the use of grazing resources and integration into fences in periods of scarcity.
Grazing is in fact carried out in uncultivated land and mountain pastures, concentrated in periods of scarcity and in calving.
The females become sexually mature at 9 months and the males at 12, while the average age of the male reproducers is 36 months and of the females 61 months.
The mean age of first calving is 14 months, with a calving interval of 300 days.
The average litter size is 1.13 births per year.
The productive life span is 8 years.
This breed has an average daily gain (average; gr/day) of 210.
The average age at slaughter is 3.5 months.
Guido Bissanti
Sources-
– Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
– Balasini Dialma, 2001. Applied zootechnics. Sheep and goats. Sheep and goats. For technical and professional institutes, Caledrini Edagricole, Bologna.
– Daniele Bigi, Alessio Zanon, 2010. Atlas of native breeds. Cattle, horses, sheep, goats, pigs reared in Italy, Edagricole-New Business Media, Bologna.