sheep
Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated ...
indigenous to the
province of Biella
The Province of Biella ( it, Provincia di Biella, Piedmontese: ''Provincia ëd Biela'') is a province of Italy located in Piedmont. It was created in 1992 and its capital is the city of Biella.
It has an area of , and a total population of 17 ...
in north-western Italy, from which it takes its name. It may also be known as the Razza d'Ivrea, after the town of
Ivrea
Ivrea (; pms, Ivrèja ; ; lat, Eporedia) is a town and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. Situated on the road leading to the Aosta Valley (part of the medieval Via Francigena), it strad ...
, or as the Piemontese Alpina. The Biellese is one of the seventeen
autochthonous
Autochthon, autochthons or autochthonous may refer to:
Fiction
* Autochthon (Atlantis), a character in Plato's myth of Atlantis
* Autochthons, characters in the novel ''The Divine Invasion'' by Philip K. Dick
* Autochthon, a Primordial in the ...
Italian sheep breeds for which a genealogical herdbook is kept by the
Associazione Nazionale della Pastorizia
The Associazione Nazionale della Pastorizia, or roughly "national association of pastoralists", is the Italian national body responsible for the administration of sheep- and goat-breeding. It maintains the herd books for more than a hundred in ...
, the Italian national association of sheep-breeders.
History
The origins of the Biellese breed are unknown. In the early part of the twentieth century it was considered by some to be a sub-type of the Bergamasca breed; others did not share this view. The much-reported derivation of it, with the Bergamasca and other Alpine breeds, from Sudanese sheep is a hypothesis published in 1886 in the ''Traité de zootechnie'' of André Sanson, and is based on
craniometry
Craniometry is measurement of the cranium (the main part of the skull), usually the human cranium. It is a subset of cephalometry, measurement of the head, which in humans is a subset of anthropometry, measurement of the human body. It is dis ...
; it has no foundation in science. The breed was numerous in the area of Biella; in 1942 numbers were estimated at 40,000. As with many other Italian breeds, numbers dropped sharply after the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
. However, interest in the breed revived in the 1960s; the breed was officially recognised in 1985 by the then Ministero dell'Agricoltura e delle Foreste, and a herdbook was established in 1986. By 1994 there were more than 50,000 head, of which 1900 were registered in the herdbook. At the end of 2013 the total number registered was 1016; there has been no recent census of unregistered stock.
Use and management
The Biellese was formerly considered a dual-purpose breed, yielding meat and wool; it is now kept now principally for meat production. Lambs are usually slaughtered at a weight of 12–15 kg, or rarely at 18–20 kg. Some wether mutton from castrated animals slaughtered at 12–18 months is sold in the markets of
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
and
Ravenna
Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 408 until its collapse in 476. It then served as the ca ...
; there is demand from some immigrant communities for large entire (uncastrated) lambs. The wool is of carpet quality; rams yield about 3.5 kg, ewes about 3 kg, per year.
The Biellese is commonly used for hybridisation with other breeds such as the Frabosana, the Garessina, the Sambucana and the Savoiarda to improve meat yield and growth rate.
As in the past, management of the Biellese is most often
transhumant
Transhumance is a type of pastoralism or nomadism, a seasonal movement of livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions (''vertical transhumance''), it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and lower val ...
: the flocks are kept on
alpine pasture
Alpine transhumance is transhumance as practiced in the Alps, that is, a seasonal droving of grazing livestock between the valleys in winter and the high mountain pastures in summer (German ' from the term for "seasonal mountain pasture", '). T ...
from June to October, and over-winter in the valleys, where they are fed hay. About 75% of the population is managed in this way. Management of a further 20%, mostly in the area of origin, is
nomadic
A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the popu ...
; these are often kept in relatively large flocks of 800–1000 head. Only a small percentage are kept in the same place year-round.