Simon Gill, President, European Wool Association
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/europeanwoolassociation
The European Wool Association covers a very large area of more than 50 Countries, but sometimes, just sometimes, I forget to look outside the back door. In the 1990s I came to live in Poland and for the last 30 plus years it has been my home. Yet when we think sheep I rarely cast a thought to whats going on in my adopted homeland being often too focused on the plight of rare breeds across the Balkans. The situation in Poland is in many ways just as bad.
When I first moved in 1992 to Poland there were still sheep numbers in the millions (perhaps even 7 million). Perhaps no country has seen such a drastic decrease in its sheep numbers as Poland. We in 2022 have an estimated 280,000 to 290,000 left.
There are some 15 native breeds of sheep in Poland and now ALL repeat ALL can be considered as being on endangered lists. This is worrying as a lot of these sheep have great genetic merit and potential and had their place in the rural landscape.
Of the 15 native breeds 10 can be characterised as having fine wools and these include “Polish Old Type Merinos” (a population of around 9,300) and Polish “Coloured Merino” (population less than 100).
Sheep were traditional to the Polish landscape and formed three groups. (Veterinary code and approximate population in brackets):
- The Mountain Sheep comprise “Coloured Mountain Sheep”( POG B- 2600) Podhale Zackel (CP- 9400), Polish Mountain (POG – > 600), Polish Heathland ((WRZ-9500) and the Swiniarka (SW- 2800). These are all coarse wool sheep.
2. The Longwool Sheep include the Kamieniecka (KAM- 6400), “Okulska (OLK-1500), Pomeranian (POM-8900) and Polish Pogorza Sheep(PG-2000).
3. Polish Lowland breeds comprise the “Greater Poland” (WLKP- 9700) Zelaznienska (ZEL- 2500), Corriedale (KOR- 2300) Uhruska(UHR- 8400) and the afore mentioned Merion types (MST and MB).
There is a scouring plant operating in Poland, but now the large textile industries of Poland rely on imports from Austrailia and New Zealand, and typically much of the wool of the coarse wool breeds is wasted and not utilised.
So when it comes to protecting sheep I also need to look in my own backyard too!
This information was taken from: Native Sheep Breeds in Poland—Importance and Outcomes of Genetic Resources Protection Programmes: Aldona Kawecka , Marta Pasternak , Anna Miksza-Cybulska and Michał Puchała
