The Pomeranian Coarsewool Sheep or Pomeranian Sheep is an old domestic sheep

Domestic sheep

Sheep are quadrupedal, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Like all ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates. Although the name "sheep" applies to many species in the genus Ovis, in everyday usage it almost always refers to Ovis aries...

 breed from the Pomerania

Pomerania

Pomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East...

 region. The first records of similar sheep in Pomerania can be traced to more than 3000 years ago. This breed is raised primarily for meat and vegetation management

Targeted grazing

Targeted grazing is the use of domestic livestock to change the composition and structure of vegetation to meet management goals. This technique is often used in combination with other vegetation management treatments such as prescribed fire, seeding, chemical application, or mechanical means...

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Characteristics

This breed is polled

Polled livestock

Polled livestock are livestock without horns, of species that normally have them. The term refers both to breeds or strains which are naturally polled through selective breeding and also to naturally horned animals which have been dehorned...

 (hornless), and has a black head with slate-blue or grey wool on the body – lambs are born wholly black. The legs are also covered with wool, and the tongue is blue. The fleece has shorter hairs amongst the longer wool.

The breed is very hardy and is able to live outside all year, even raising lambs in the snow. The sheep thrive on poor forage

Forage

Forage is plant material eaten by grazing livestock.Historically the term forage has meant only plants eaten by the animals directly as pasture, crop residue, or immature cereal crops, but it is also used more loosely to include similar plants cut for fodder and carried to the animals, especially...

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Ewes average around 55 kg (121.3 lb) in weight, and rams about 65 kg (143.3 lb). The fleece

Wool

Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....

 ranges from 3.5 to 7 kg (7.7 to 15.4 lb).

History

Initially, this breed was called Grauwollschafe ("greywool sheep"), which in time changed to Rauhwollshafe ("coarsewool sheep") by dropping the first letter. The breed almost vanished in the second half of the 20th century, when the population dropped below 100 and it was placed on the Red List of endangered livestock breeds. The population has since recovered somewhat.