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Romanov sheep were brought into Canada from the Volga Valley in Russia in 1980. The original importation consisted of a total of 14 ewes and 4 rams. After five years they were released from quarintine, and began to spread throughout North America. The Romanovs of today all descend from these original 18 animals. The lambs are born black and begin to fade as they age- becoming a beautiful silvery grey colour. Triplets, quads, quintuplet births are quite common, and most are able to raise their young with little assistance. I believe the breed record is 9(yes nine!!) lambs born. Mothering ability is excellent- lambs are vigorous and are typically nursing within minutes of birth. Their prolificy is quite amazing, and they are also true out of season breeders which makes it possible to have two lambs crops per year, per ewe. Cross bred ewes that are even 1/4 Romanov have increased birth rates, twins and triplets would be born much more frequently. As well, most crossbred ewes would breed during all but the hottest months of the year- resulting in increased lambing rates as well as profits!! | |
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These are the newest additions to Veliraf Farm. We have searched for quite a while to find these elusive sheep. After quite some time,
our first girls have finally come home. Although we are a small flock just starting out, our ewe lambs have all come from out of season litters.
 The smallest litter size from our original girls is 2, and the largest litter size is 5. I find that quite impressive
considering all of our girls were born in October!!! I can hardly wait for our first purebred Romanov lambs to hit the ground here- though unfortunately we will have a bit to wait- since they won't be bred until the
fall of 2008. Our first lambs will arrive in the winter of 2009. Although we are new to Romanovs, we have raised other short tailed sheep such as the Icelandics and the Shetlands
Although the other breeds are not true out of season breeders- they do breed naturally from August to the end of March.
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