Leadersheep Society in Iceland by Olafur R. Dyrmundsson "Although efforts have been made to preserve leadersheep by keeping leader rams at AI centres for over 40 years, it was felt that greater attention should be paid to them. The Leadersheep Society was founded in April 2000 and its name in Icelandic is: Forystufjarraektarfelag Islands. The Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Gudni Agustsson was actively involved in the foundation of the society....Leadersheep were and still are kept on Brunastadir Farm in South-Iceland where his father and now his brother raise cattle, sheep and horses. The main aims of the society....are to support the maintenance and preservation of leadersheep, improve individual recording, gather information past and present and disseminate educational material about them in due course. In the early stages, emphasis will be placed on attracting interest of all those breeding and keeping leadersheep, to record them regularly, mainly through our breeding societies and give support to the selection of promising rams for the AI services. In a survey carried out 8 years ago, 960 purebred and 490 crossbred leadersheep were recorded in the country. This winter (2000) the total number of sheep in the country was 490,000. Most of the purebred leaders are in Northeast Iceland and relatively many farmers up there keep them, even as many as 20-30 in a single flock. Now we hope to obtain more up-to-date information on their distribution. A Nordic study is in progress on the origin of Nordic breeds and strains, including Icelandic leadersheep. A DNA analysis is being undertaken so we should learn something more about their genetic background in the near future." My thanks go out to Dr. Olafur R. Dyrmundsson for his generous contribution of this article and for his permission to reprint it here. Also, thanks go to Gumundur Johannesson of Southram Station for providing the photographs of the leader rams. For more information about Southram please visit http://southram.bssl.is
The Lavender Fleece is proud to be a member of the Leadersheep Society of Iceland. Here at our farm we have leadersheep from the bloodlines of all five leadersheep in North America: Blesa, Ari, Biskup, Prestur and Skumur. In fall 2005 we AI'd our flock and added the 6th leaderram line, Leifur, to our flock. For more information about our leadersheep, please visit our leader ewes page and ram sires pages.