site.btaLocal Sheep Compete Successfully with Foreign Breeds

Local Sheep Compete Successfully with Foreign Breeds

Plovdiv, Southern Bulgaria, October 27 (BTA) - Farmers in
Southern Bulgaria have managed, with much effort, to preserve
local sheep breeds despite competition from foreign animals
which are advertised as highly productive and bringing large
profits, Associate Professor Doicho Dimov of the Agricultural
University in Plovdiv told BTA last week.

He said Bulgarian farmers often fail to realize that the luring
characteristics of foreign sheep have been developed in
different conditions in other countries and there is
insufficient information about their performance in Bulgaria.

Dimov is vice president of an association which promotes the
breeding of the white Maritsa sheep and the splotch-faced
Maritsa sheep, which are indigenous to the area along the
Maritsa River in Southern Bulgaria. The two breeds were featured
 at an exhibition in Plovdiv last Saturday.

The farmers who took part in the exhibition were not only from
Plovdiv, but also from Ihtiman and Momin Prohod, among other
places. The idea for the event came from Agricultural University
 experts who have studied the white Maritsa sheep and the
splotch-faced Maritsa sheep for years. The two breeds are raised
 mainly for their milk and meat. They are part of the region's
heritage and have good commercial characteristics, Dimov said.

There are 5,800 sheep of these two local breeds, with farmers in
 other parts of the country showing interest in them in recent
years. Splotch-faced Maritsa sheep produce an average of 130
litres of milk over a milking period of 150 days. Their
productivity quotient is 1.5. At two months old, their lambs
usually weigh between 23 and 25 kg, and the average live weight
of adult sheep is 70 kg, with 3 kg of wool.

White Maritsa sheep yield an average of 120 litres of milk over
a milking period of 150 days. Their productivity quotient is
also 1.5. At two months old, their lambs usually weigh between
24 and 25 kg. This year, Pavel Draganov, a farmer in Duvanlii,
Plovdiv Region, has derived an impressive 307 litres of milk per
 sheep.

The association has 75 members raising sheep of the two Maritsa
breeds. If raised properly, the animals can bring a fair income
for their owners, Dimov said. They are fed in a more traditional
 way than the method used for foreign breeds. The milk from both
 the white Maritsa sheep and the splotch-faced Maritsa sheep has
 a fat content of up to 7 per cent, which is more than the
national standard of 6.5 per cent and more than the rate with
foreign breeds, which is less than 5 per cent.