Rampur Bushair

The Rampur Bushair breed is fairly widespread in Himachal Pradesh and a few numbers are found in the Uttarkashi, Almora and Udham Singh Nagar districts of Uttarakhand.

They are medium-sized animals. The fleece colour is predominantly white, with brown, black and tan also seen in varying proportions. The ears are long and drooping. The face line is convex, giving a typical Roman nose. The males are horned; most females are polled. The fleece is of medium quality and dense. The legs, belly and face are devoid of wool. The size of migratory flocks ranges from 20 to 1,000 and of stationary flocks from 2 to 10. Under farm conditions lambing percentage varies from 52.9 to 88.3%. Breeding is pure, except in limited areas where cross-breeding with exotic fine-wool breeds has been initiated (Rambouillet and Merino).   

The annual average fleece weight is 1.17 kg, average fibre diameter is 35 μ with a medullation percentage of 24. According to the 18th Livestock Census of 2007, there are 70,032 Rampur Bushair sheep in the country. (Refer to the maps below)

Text Source: http://www.fao.org/docrep/004/x6532e/X6532E06.htm#ch5.2.2

Photo Source: CSWRI, Avikanagar