Basco-Béarnaise facts for kids
The Basco-Béarnaise or Vasca Carranzana is a special sheep breed. It comes from the Basque region in Europe. This sheep was developed in the 1960s. Its main purpose is to produce milk.
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Where Do Basco-Béarnaise Sheep Come From?
This sheep breed comes from a group of sheep found in the Pyrénées Mountains. It started in the Béarn area of the Pyrénées. For a long time, these sheep have been moved between the lowlands and the mountain pastures. This movement is called transhumance.
What Do Basco-Béarnaise Sheep Look Like?
Basco-Béarnaise sheep have long, white, and hanging wool. Their horns are shaped like a spiral around their ears. Their heads and hooves are a reddish-yellow color.
Male sheep, called rams, always have horns. Female sheep, called ewes, can have horns or be hornless. Both male and female sheep are white and have one solid color.
Adult rams usually weigh about 80 kilograms (176 pounds). They stand around 90 centimeters (35 inches) tall at the shoulder. Ewes are a bit smaller. They weigh about 55 kilograms (121 pounds) and are about 75 centimeters (30 inches) tall.
What Are Basco-Béarnaise Sheep Good For?
The Basco-Béarnaise is a dairy breed. This means they are raised for their milk. Their milk is used to make a special cheese called Ossau-Iraty. This cheese has a special quality label called AOC.
A single ewe can produce about 120 liters (32 gallons) of milk. This happens over 130 days of milking. Their milk is very rich. It has a lot of fat (about 7.42%) and protein (about 5.39%).
These sheep are very good at living in the countryside. They give birth to lambs in the spring. Then, they produce milk during the summer. The milk gets its rich flavor from the plants they eat in the Pyrénées mountains.
Images for kids
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Head of an ewe
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Flock of ewes near Arudy in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department
