The Sokolsky breed of sheep is an ancient Ukrainian breed of sheep smushkovogo direction of productivity, bred by folk selection in the territory of modern Poltava region.
The name comes from the village Sokolki [ clarify ] Kobelyak district . These sheep are distributed in the Poltava and partly Dnipropetrovsk regions of Ukraine, a small population of breeding sheep of the Sokol breed is located in the Volchansky district of the Kharkov region. Until recently, sheep of the Sokolsky breed accounted for about 1% of the total number of sheep in Ukraine, but recently the breed was considered endangered. The live weight of producing rams is 60–65 kg, the ewes are 40–45 kg, and the dirty wool is 3.5–4 and 2–3 kg, respectively; The length of the braids is about 20-25 cm. The rams are horned, the ewes are horny (hornless). The live weight of lambs at birth is 3.5-4 kg. 55–60% of gray and 40–45% black smushka with a coating structure mainly “bob”, “roller” and “ring” are obtained from sheep of the Sokol breed.
The history of these sheep can be traced back to the 1400s AD, when the first Ruthenian migrants from the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania appeared after the Tatar-Mongol invasion, which, along with other good, livestock and grain, brought sheep with them.
The lands between Pslom and Vorskla, contrary to popular belief, were not completely deserted “Wild Field” at that time - they were considered to be their lawful patrimonies of Murza and the khans of the Golden Horde, such as Mamai, Kochubei, and others who wandered here by their kind two centuries. Of course, there were clashes between the Tatars and settled settlers, as a result of which the cattle, which at that time were a clear measure of wealth, changed hands several times. It was precisely as a result of the mixing of Tatar sheep with the imported ones that the ancestors of sheep appeared, who became famous throughout Russia for their unique gray hairs .
The 19th century can undoubtedly be considered the period of official formation, flourishing and maximum spread of the breed, when the owner of the “ultrafashionable” hat with the characteristic “gray” glow from the Gogol sung in “Evenings on the Farm near Dykanka” and their strict mothers.
After the reform of the army during the time of Alexander III, the Sokol and related karakul sheep “put on their shoulder straps” and have not removed them until now - the statutory uniform headgear of the highest commanding staff of the army and navy, the company of the guard of honor of the presidential guard gray and black Sokolsky and Astrakhan sweets.
Sometimes there are smushki light gray color, but the lambs that are born with it, because of homozygosity for certain genes are not viable and die from timpanii at an early age, therefore, if you do not score such a lamb to get a smushka, it will still die. Through breeding in recent years, the staff of the Institute of Livestock NAAS were able to reduce the incidence of such unviable lambs from 25 to 6%. Queens, lambs which went to smushki, you can milk. Each such uterus can give up to 60 kg of milk in 4 months of lactation.
But the Sokol sheep are valuable not only in sweets and milk: long gray braids, up to 25 cm long, of which the fleece of adult sheep consists of - the best material for creating distinctive Slobozhansky carpets, which were called "Kotsy". The manufacturing techniques of those carpets have been lost, but there are a lot of mentions in different sources and a few samples in the storerooms of ethnic museums. The closest analogue of these universal carpets, blankets and curtains can be Hutsul "lizhniki" made from the wool of Gornokarpatsky sheep with a similar composition. The Kocese fishery was so common in Slobozhanschyna that in Kharkov there was a whole big street called “Katsarskaya”.
Long, coarse, durable and very warm wool obtained from a trowel is the best material for making real Russian felt boots, but most often now the coarse wool is used for felting technical felts that are indispensable for vibration isolation and insulation in the widest sphere of the national economy - from building houses to aviation. Combing out wool from Sokol sheep, down and unkempt wool can be used for felting various artistic products made from wool (so-called felting), natural stuffing of toys and the manufacture of natural yarn.