Sheep and agriculture
Antonía Helga Guðmundsdóttir
Kjarkur and Ás the best rams 2014
Kjarkur and Ás were chosen as the best rams 2014.
Kjarkur from Ytri- Skógar is the most comprehensive breeding ram in Iceland in 2014 and Ás from Skriða is the best ram lamb. Breeding station awards were hand out today when Landssamtök sauðfjárbænda had their meeting and the breeders got trophy made of Sigríður Kristjánsdóttir from Grund like usual.
Kjarkur from Ytri-Skógar
Kjarkur 08-840 from Ytri-Skógar under Eyjafjöll was born in the spring 2008. He is son of Kveikur 05-965 who also got the same award in the year 2010.
Kjarkur was used a lot in the winter of 2009 to 2010 and he has a big group of sons that came in check in the autumn 2010. His daughters has showed an amazing outcome as a product ewes in the autumn 2011 and that delivered Kjarkur one of the highest BLUP breeding valuation for production that has not go any lower from this time. Kjarkur has the score 114 in breeding valuation in the ram file for the year 2013.
Kjarkur’s offspring has always been little bit under the average in weight but their back muscle is thick with small fat and their format does change little bit but there are some lambs on the top. His daughters have been very prolific and good product ewes.
Kjarkur was his fifth winter at the breeding station this winter and over 4.000 ewes has been breed with him. Sons of Kjarkur can be found all over the land and two of his sons has come in to the breeding station, their name is Hængur 10-903 and Salamon 10-906. Kjarkur does deserve this award as the most comprehensive breeding ram in Iceland which his owner received.
The orginal text in Icelandic
Kjarkur og Ás bestu hrútarnir 2014
Kjarkur frá Ytri-Skógum er mesti alhliða kynbótahrútur landsins árið 2014 og Ás frá Skriðu besti lambahrúturinn. Verðlaun sauðfjársæðingastöðvanna voru veitt í dag, við lok aðalfundar Landssamtaka sauðfjárbænda og hlutu ræktendur hrútanna farandverðlaunagripi gerða af Sigríði Kristjánsdóttur á Grund, svo sem venja er.
Kjarkur frá Ytri-Skógum
Kjarkur 08-840 frá félagsbúinu að Ytri-Skógum undir Eyjafjöllum fæddist vorið 2008. Kjarkur er sonur Kveiks 05-965 sem hlaut þessi sömu verðlaun árið 2010. Kjarkur fékk mikla notkun veturinn 2009 til 2010 og stór hópur sona hans kom til skoðunar haustið 2010. Dætur hans sýndu síðan glæsilega niðurstöðu sem afurðaær haustið 2011 sem skilaði Kjarki einu hæsta BLUP kynbótamati landsins fyrir afurðasemi, sem þó hefur lítillega lækkað frá þeim tíma. Í hrútaskrá fyrir árið 2013 stendur Kjarkur í 114 í heildareinkum í kynbótamati.
Afkvæmi Kjarks hafa alltaf verið aðeins undir meðaltali í þunga en með þykkan bakvöðva, fitulítil og gerð þeirra breytileg þó ætíð komi fram nokkrir toppar undan honum. Dætur hans hafa síðan reynst mjög frjósamar og góðar afurðaær.
Kjarkur var sinn fimmta vetur á sæðingastöð nú í vetur og hafa rúmlega 4.000 ær verið sæddar við honum. Víða má finna góða syni hans og nú þegar eru tveir þeirra komnir til notkunar á sæðingastöð, þeir Hængur 10-903 og Salamon 10-906. Hann er því vel kominn að heiðursnafnbótinni „mesti alhliða kynbótahrúturinn 2014“ sem Sigurður Sigurjónsson ræktandi hans veitti viðtöku.
I choose this text because rams are my favourite sheep and I used dictionary, English-Icelandic/Icelandic-English and English dictionary on the internet.
(From a longer text)
http://www.bbl.is/index.aspx?GroupId=38&TabId=46&NewsItemID=7972&ModulesTabsId=191
Icelandic sheep
Icelandic translation
Íslenska sauðkindin er af kyn af innlendu sauðfé. Sú íslenska er af kyni af Norður Evrópu stuttrófu kyni sem sést á stuttu náttúrlegu rófunni. Íslenska sauðkindin er kyn sem er meðal stór, yfirleitt með stutta fætur og sterka og er andlitið og fætur laus við ull. Ullin á íslensku kindinni er tvöföld og getur ullin verið hvít en einnig er til mikið úrval af litum eins og brúnn, grár og svartur. Kindurnar eru annað hvort hyrndar eða kollóttar. Yfirleitt eru þær hafðar órúnar yfir veturinn en þetta kyn þolir vel kulda.
Algengt er að kindur eigi fleiri en eitt lömb í einu og er hlutfallið í sauðburði 175%-220%.
Til er gen í kyninu sem kallast Þokugenið og þær ær sem bera það hafa verið þekktar fyrir að bera þríburum, fjórburum, fimmburum og allt upp í sexburum stundum.
Ærnar geta fengið fang sem lömb eða um fimm til sjö mánaða en þó eru margir bændur sem bíða þangað til að ærnar eru komnar á sinn annan vetur með að leyfa þeim að fá fang. Fengitíminn er árstíðarbundinn og hefst í kringum október. Fengitíminn getur staðið í allt að fjóra mánuði. Hrútar verða snemma kynþroska og geta byrjað að lemba um fimm mánaða.
Íslenska sauðkindin, sem á sama uppruna og norska Spelsau kindin, var flutt hingað til lands með víkingum og hefur hún verið ræktuð í 4000 ár í erfiðu umhverfi. Þar af leiðandi varð sauðkindin duglegur grasbítur.
Litir íslensku sauðkindarinnar erfast á svipaðan hátt til annarra kinda en þær sýna meiri fjölbreytni í lit og mynstri en aðrar tegundir og það eru nokkur afbrigði sem sjást ekki hjá öðrum kindum.
Hver kind ber þrjú gen sem hefur áhrif á lit á sauðkindinni og fyrir hver gen eru víkjandi og ríkjandi samsætur.
The original text in English
The Icelandic sheep (Icelandic: íslenska sauðkindin)[1] is a breed of domestic sheep. The Icelandic breed is one of the Northern European short-tailed sheep, which exhibit a fluke-shaped, naturally short tail. The Icelandic is a mid-sized breed, generally short legged and stocky, with face and legs free of wool. The fleece of the Icelandic sheep is dual-coated and comes in white as well as a variety of other colors, including a range of browns, grays, and blacks. They exist in both horned and polled strains. Generally left unshorn for the winter, the breed is very cold-hardy. Multiple births are very common in Icelandic ewes, with a lambing percentage of 175% - 220%. A gene also exists in the breed called the Þoka gene, and ewes carrying it have been known to give birth to triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets, and even sextuplets on occasion.
Ewes can be mated as lambs as early as five to seven months, although many farmers wait until the ewe's second winter before allowing them to breed. They are seasonal breeders and come into estrus around October. The breeding season can last up to four months. Rams become mature early and can start breeding as early as five months.
Descended from the same stock as the Norwegian Spelsau, brought to Iceland by the Vikings, Icelandic sheep have been bred for a thousand years in a very harsh environment. Consequently, they are quite efficient herbivores.
The colors of Icelandic sheep are inherited in a similar way to those of other sheep, but they display more variety in color and pattern than most other breeds, and there are some variations not seen in other sheep. Each sheep carries three genes that affect the color of the sheep, and for each gene, there are dominant and recessive alleles.
I chose this text because it is about the Icelandic sheep and I used English-Icelandic/Icelandic-English dictionary.
( Taken from longer text)
Kápa
Þjóðgarðsvörðurinn
Svaðilfari
An Interview With Hugrún from Kjarlaksvellir
I decided to take an interview with this person because she is a sheep farmer like me and I thought it would be interesting to see how her sheep farm is and how many sheep she has.
1. What is your name?
2. Where do you live?
3. How many sheep do you have?
4. Do you have some others animals, if so which animals?
5. What is your favorite time of the year around sheep and why?
6. Do you herd your sheep up to the mountain?
7. If the answer is yes in question 6, how long does it take to herd the sheep home and do you herd on horses, by walking or on ATV bikes?
8. What do you think could go better in sheep farming?
9. Do you think the farmers are getting reasonable price for the wool?
10. Are you for or against joining ESB and why?
I took an interview with a nice lady name Hugrún. She and her husband Gummi live at Kjarlaksvellir in Saurbæ in Dalasýsla. They have about 480 sheep and they also have 17 geese and 7 hens. Hugrún thinks that the spring is her favorite time because the sheep are having their little lambs. She told me this time of the year can be difficult however it is fun to see new life being born. All of their sheep are herd up to the mountain to stay over the summertime. In the autumn they drive lots of people to go and collect the sheep and it takes about 6 or 7 hours to do that.
Hugrún said it could be more positive for sheep farming and the fertilizer, plastic for hey and other stuff could be cheaper. She says that farmers are not getting enough money for the wool but several years ago the wool paid up the fertilizer but now it only pays 1/3.
Hugrún is against joining ESB and she says that we have nothing to do there and we will lose all the power in agriculture.
Bændablaðið
This magazine comes out twice in month but I really liked that it came out in every week because it is one of my favourite paper.
There are usually good and interesting news in the paper but sometimes there is news that I don’t think should belong in the paper. I would really like to some news or interview with young farmers because I would like to see how they are doing.
There are lots of news about sheep and cows and sometimes there is only news about these animals. I would like to see more news about horses and other animals like sheep dogs and pigs for example.
At the end of the paper there are advertisement and sometimes there are advertisement that do not connect to agriculture, for example there is a men asking for vinyl and sometimes are women looking for a farmer that does live alone and the women wants to live with them and I think advertisement like that doesn’t belong in this paper.
Because this is my favourite paper it is difficult to be critical but this is what I think could been better
3 videos
1. Richard Turere: My invention that made peace with lions
http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_turere_a_peace_treaty_with_the_lions
I chose this video because I thought it was interesting. I could not find a video connect to sheep or sheep farming so I looked for a video connect to agriculture.
The boy, Richard Turere, in this video is from Africa and he is responsible for his father cows. His family lives near Nairobi national park where the lions live. There is no fence to stop the lions to come and kill his father cows and the boy hates the lions. The morans are the warriors who protect his community and they are upset about the cows kill by the lions so the kills the lions. He tried many things to stop the lion. First he tried to use fire but that helped the lions to see trough the cowshed. The second idea was to use a scarecrow and that worked the first night but when the lion came the second night they discovered that this thing did not move so they weren’t scared to the scarecrow. One night he walked with a torch and that night the lion did not come and he discovered that lions are scared of a moving light.
Richard got a good idea. He put up moving light on the fence and that worked because the lions have not come after he put this up. An old lady liked his idea and asked him if he could put up some lights at her place because the lions had killed many animals from her. Richard has but up seven lights in his community. Because of this invention Richard got scholarship in one of the best school in Kenya.
He wants to become an aircraft engineer and a pilot when he grows up.
With this invention he has not only saved his father’s cows but also the lions.
2. Birke Baehr: What's wrong with our food system
http://www.ted.com/talks/birke_baehr_what_s_wrong_with_our_food_system
I chose this video because I think it is important that people think about where the food comes from.
In this video is an 11 year old boy, Birke Baehr, talking about what is wrong with our food system. He says that corporations are trying to get kids to get their parents to buy some stuff that isn’t good for kids. Birke says that kids think that the food comes from happy little farms were cows and pigs live happy and good live but this is not how it is. Some food is not good for people because it can cause cancer and problem in lab animals. He talks about rats that had eaten some genetically engineered corns suffered from kidney and liver toxicity.
Some farmers use chemical fertilizers, toxic is sprayed on plants to kill bugs and when it rains is goes into the ground or goes into people’s waterway.
Birke talks about one farmer who works against the system and he is called lunatic farmer. This farmer doesn’t use these toxic chemicals like other farmers. Birke wants people to think about the food and buy directly from local farmers. Some people think that the local food is more expensive but Birke says that we can either pay the farmer or the hospital.
Birke wants to become an organic farmer.
3. Ludwick Marishane: A bath without water
http://www.ted.com/talks/ludwick_marishane_a_bath_without_water
I chose this video because I thought it was really interesting.
Ludwick Marishane was taking a sunbathing with his friend and one of his friend talked about taking a bath without water and Ludwick thought it was really interesting and liked the idea so he went home and did a little research. He discovered that over 2.5 billion people in the world do not have proper access to clean water and 450 million live in Africa and five million of them live in South Africa. Diseases thrive in this environment like trachoma. Trachoma is infections that can causes that people can get permanently blind and this disease leaves 8 million people blind each and every year. To avoid getting infected is only cleaning your face with water. Ludwick thought this was shocking and wanted to do something to help people avoid this infection. He did research on the internet and wrote down a formula. Ludwick had invented DryBath the world’s first bath substituting lotion which is lotion that people put on their skin and don’t have to go to bath and it is now available on the market.
Ludwick has learned that poor people don’t buy products in bulk but they buy products on demand so they packaged DryBath in little sachets. He also discovered that rich kids want to buy DryBath.
Ludwick realized that by using DryBath people can save 80 million liters of water and also save two hours of day for kids who are in rural areas, two hours in school, two hours for homework and two hours for kids to play. DryBath is a lifesaver for poor people.