For today’s stop on our EU tour we are in Hungary, learning about the Magyar racka juh Magyarország – the Hungarian Racka Sheep of Hungary. The Hungarian word for sheep is juh while the word for wool is gyapjú. You can see these sheep in this beautiful 1966 film called ‘Snow Scenes In Hungary’:
Typical Hungarian “Racka” Sheep – photographed by Francesco Veronesi and shared on Flickr under a Creative Commons 2.0 Non Commercial Share Alike License
Native to the pllains of Hungary, the double-coated and distinctively curly-horned Racka breed was displaced by Merinos during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. By the middle of the twentieth century, it had become endangered, its decline accelerated by losses during World War II. In 1983, a breed society was established to support the survival of the Racka.
Racka sheep in Hortobágy National Park, Hungary – photo found on Wiki Commons and released by an unknown author into the public domain
About 60 percent of Racka sheep are white (shading into and out of browns) and 40 per cent are black.
Photo of white Hungarian Racka Sheep, photographed at Tiergarten Bernburg, Germany – photo found on Wiki Commons and attributable to Tragopan Typical Hungarian “Racka” Sheep – photographed by Francesco Veronesi and shared on Flickr under a Creative Commons 2.0 Non Commercial Share Alike License
Lambs are born with very curly, lustrous wool, initially much like Karakul. Adults grow long, curly fleeces of variable quality, with undercoats between 16 and 30 microns (an exceptionally broad range) and outercoats between 40 and 60 microns, about 8 to 12 inches (20.5 – 30.5cm) long. An annual fleece, between 4 1/2 and 11 pounds (2-5kg) with a yield of 60 to 70 percent, consists of about two-thirds outercoat and one-third undercoat. Both types of fiber will felt.
Racka sheep in Hortobágy National Park, Hungary – photo found on Wiki Commons and released by an unknown author into the public domain
In this much more recent footage, filmed in Hortobágy, you can also see Racka sheep, and many other breeds of livestock traditionally kept on the Hungarian plains. Hortobágy is the largest protected nature reserve and the largest natural grassland in Central Europe with cattle, sheep, oxen, horses, tended by herdsmen. An 800 km² national park in Eastern Hungary, in the puszta, Hortobágy is rich with folklore and cultural history. It was designated as a national park in 1973 (the first in Hungary), and elected among the World Heritage sites in 1999. You can see it and the Racka sheep who live there in the footage below: