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Volume 7 No. 2 Spring 2003
Editor, Laurie Ball-Gisch
A Glimpse of Southram’s History
Gudmundur Johannesson
Southagri - The Agricultural Association of South Iceland (www.bssl.is)
The Sheep Breeding Centre of South Iceland or Southram, as it is usually referred to,
was founded on the 25th of November 1968 and has therefore now been operating for nearly
35 years.
Background
Artificial insemination of sheep has been practiced, although not on a commercial
scale in Iceland since 1956, or twelwe years before Southram was founded. One can say that
Southram’s history begins in 1956 when Dr. Halldor Palsson, then national sheep
breeding consultant, made an agreement with Southagri to lease facilities at
Thorleifskot for experiments on artificial insemination in sheep. Hjalti Gestsson,
Southagri’s sheep breeding consultant, arranged rams for semen collection. Semen from
these experiments were used fresh in various locations in the North, West and South
Iceland. Approximately 400-600 ewes were inseminated every year. In 1956, the
first year of operation, semen was collected from seven rams including Durgur from
Fjall farm, Valur from Steinsholt farm, Thrandur from Stora-Armot farm and Jokull from
Austurkot farm. These inseminations continued in 1957 and 1958 when the first progeny
testing was performed by using selected lamb rams. Seven lamb rams were selected, three
from Laxamyri farm and one from each following farms: Steinsholt, Hrafnkelsstadir,
Thrandarholt and Stora-Armot. The progeny test took place at sixteen farms in four sheep
breeding clubs. Approximately 200 ewes were inseminated. Unfortunately this proved to be
to an expensive method at that time and was not done again until 1988.
Foundation of Southram
The contagious disease eradication regulations severely restricted movement of
sheep and under these situations the sheep breeding authorities in Iceland realized that
new breeding schemes and methods had to be developed to optimize the breeding of the
Icelandic sheep. On 25th of November 1968 The Sheep Breeding Centre of South Iceland
(SOUTHRAM) was founded by The Agricultural Association of South Iceland (Southagri) and
fourteen local sheep breeding clubs in South Iceland. In the beginning Southram’s
sire facilities were in an inexpensive shed at Thorleifskot and semen collection and
preparation was performed in The Dairy Breeding Centre which at that time was operating in
Thorleifskot. It has always been one Southram’s main goals to offer as good and
inexpensive semen as possible. Rams were bought from Skaftafellss*sla (s*sla is a county),
from Lundur Sheep Breeding farm near Akureyri and from The Sheep Breeding Club, Thistill
in Thistilfjordur in North Iceland. Two of the first rams came from Nordurhjaleiga
farm and Seglbudir farm and three from Lundur Sheep Breeding Centre. Eight ram lambs were
bought: five from Thistill Sheep Breeding Club and three from Seglbudir farm. The ram
lambs from Thistill came from following farms; Holt (2), Sydra-Aland (2) and Laxardalur
(1). The first year 2,790 ewes were inseminated during the period 9th-20th of December.
Number of insemination
People’s interest in using AI as part of the breeding program grew quickly
and in 1970 the number of inseminated ewes had reached 4,000 and in 1977 a total of 8,915
ewes were inseminated.
The number of AI’ed ewes reached a peak in 1983 when almost 9,000 ewes were
inseminated. During the 1980s, sheep farmers in Iceland went through a recession. State
subsidies were reduced as a result of less lamb consumption. Quota was set on the
meat production and in the following years, people lost interest in breeding. The
number of sheep in Iceland dropped to about 500,000 but shortly before 1980 there were
around one million wintered sheep in Iceland. In recent years interest in
breeding has increased again and in 2002, a total of 13,845 ewes were
inseminated with Southram semen.
Since its foundation in 1968 nearly 260 thousand ewes have been AI’ed with
fresh semen from Southram excluding the number of doses which have been exported to the
USA.
Ram selection improves
From the beginning Southram has tried to follow up on the progenies of AI sires
by evaluating them in breeding shows and/or by lamb evaluation on the farms. Since 1973
each breeding club has had a ram show each year. In 1977 organized ram lamb evaluation
programs began. The aim was to select breeding rams with more accuracy than before. One
result was that Southram could more easily evaluate the performance of AI sires and make
better comparisons between AI sires. Organized ram lamb evaluations have changed the
breeding sires drastically and one can say that rams with poor conformation have
disappeared and the number of well muscled rams with great overall conformation and
harmony has increased as well. It is obvious that the use of artificial insemination
has played a big role in what one can call “a revolution” in sheep breeding in
Iceland.
Selection of rams for AI has improved a lot since Southram began operation. At first
the rams were mainly selected by performance of their progenies and their daughters’
milking abilities. They also had to perform well in breeding shows. The AI rams had
therefore proven themselves before they were used for AI. That meant slower
breeding progress than we are seeing today. Big steps have been taken these recent decades
to improve the ram selection and speeding up the breeding progress.
The main steps are as follows:
Since 1973 each breeding club has had a ram show every year giving better
overview of the rams and AI ram performance by evaluations of their sons.
• In 1977 ram lamb evaluation began giving better information of AI ram performance.
• Improvement of sheep recording and pedigree registration in the sheep breeding
clubs for calculation of milking abilities index and prolificacy index.
• In 1976 synchronising of ewes began resulting in more accurate selection of
breeding ewes.
• Foundation of Stora-Armot experimental farm has given Southram more opportunities
for progeny testing of rams.
• In 1981 Hestur experimental farm and the sheep breeding centres reached an
agreement that the top rams in Hestur progeny test each year would be sold to the sheep
breeding centres for AI. This has resulted in superior meat quality rams being bought for
AI after thorough progeny testing at Hestur experimental farm.
• In 1988 Southram began progeny testing again by inseminating 120 ewes in six farms
at various locations in South Iceland. This was done in good cooperation with specialists
at Hestur experimental farm.
• In 1991 ultrasound scanning of the eye muscle thickness and back fat thickness
began. Ultrasound scanning is now performed on every lamb evaluated in Iceland giving us
better estimation of the AI sires’ performance than ever before.
• Progeny testing on individual farms has also improved the ram selection
significantly and now almost every ram bought for AI is progeny tested.
• Today Southram performs progeny testing on chosen farms bringing together
outstanding individual rams from a number of farms. This means that Southram only buys
rams that have proven their performance through their offspring before being used for AI
all over the country.
Shortly after the inseminations started, sheep farmers began to notice that some
of the rams proved better than others. One of the first top sires was Gamur 74891 from
Oddgeirsholar farm. Gamur was at Southram breeding center for four years, and very much
used. In lamb evaluations he always came first or second and his daughters passed on his
reputation long after he passed away.
Soldan 71870 from Hestur experimental farm made a superb record at Southram. In 1972
he was Grand champion ram at show in Andakill parish and was awarded 1st prize for
progenies in 1974. He was at Southram for three years, and proved to be a superb sire. His
last year a total of 933 ewes were inseminated with semen from him.
Strammi 83833 from Hestur experimental farm was used for one year at Southram stud.
His qualities were great leanness along with exceptional body muscling. These qualities
have been passed on mostly through Hˆrvi 92972 who was widely used. Hˆrvi was
also from Hestur.
Aron 83835 from Hestur experimental farm is one of the best rams that Southram has
used. He was longbodied with great back, loins and gigot muscling, passing on these
qualities to his progenies.
Thettir 91931 from Oddgeirsholar farm was very popular amongst Icelandic sheep
breeders. His progenies had superb conformation and gigot muscling was the best at that
time. Unfortunately Thettir did not pass on the character for leanness.
Moli 93986 from Efri-Gegnisholar farm is the most used sire in Iceland ever. His
progenies were superb in every respect but his daughters have proven to be not prolific
enough. His sons and grandsons have also been widely used amongst farmers working on
improving fertility. Many of The Icelandic sheep breeders in USA have seen Moli as he was
at Southram stud when Isbona group came to Iceland in 1998.
Garpur 92808 from Laekjarhus farm carried on great meat qualities and gigot muscling
was magnificent. His sons are proving to be superior concerning meat grading as well as
passing on leanness. His sons and grandsons are widely used and as can be seen in the
Southram sire list, they really are outstanding.
Laekur 97843 from Laekjarhus farm is Garpur’s son. He has been used a lot,
passing on Garpur’s qualities and even doing better. Superb ram.
All 00868 from Hestur experimental farm is Laekur’s son. By mixing Garpur and
the Hestur sheep breeding line a great improvement in meat qualities and leanness have
been achived. The Hestur sheep is superb in combining meat characteristics and leanness as
a result of progeny testing for more than 40 years. All is already very popular, has
proven himself and is expected to do even better.
Semen export to USA
In 1998 Southram exported the first deep frozen ram semen to the USA after
several years of preparation in getting the necessary permits. The buyers, which we can
call pioneers, were Barbara L. Webb in Massachusetts and Susan Mongold in Montana. One
should not overlook the fact that StefanÌa SveinbjarnardÛttir supported and assisted
them and she can truly be called the “godmother” of The Icelandic Sheep in North
America. No one has worked as hard and with such an enthusiasm for introducing The
Icelandic Sheep abroad. Since then, Southram has exported frozen semen to the USA every
year and the prospects are good for the future.
In 2000, Southram participated in New York Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck. The
Icelandic Sheep was “The Featured Breed of The Show” which brought a lot of
attention to it. There we got a great and very much appreciated opportunity to meet
Icelandic Sheep breeders in North America by also participating in the Isbona general
meeting.
Southram also has had inquiries from countries like Denmark, Jordania, Estonia, the
Netherlands and UK but no semen has yet been exported to these countries.
New methods and development
Southram is now working on methods for extending semen life so that fresh semen
can be used for 2-4 days after collection. So far the results have been promising but not
good enough for commercial use. This would mean better utilisation of the semen which is
necessary as the center is being run at maximum capacity during the short breeding season.
Southram is also developing methods for freezing semen intended for vaginal
insemination, but until now all frozen semen has been for laporoscopic insemination. The
tests that have been made so far are promising and it looks like frozen semen for vaginal
AI will be available next autumn - in small quantities though - as this method requires
more semen per insemination than with the laporoscopic method.
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