Askanian is a breed

Breed

A breed is a group of domestic animals or plants with a homogeneous appearance, behavior, and other characteristics that distinguish it from other animals or plants of the same species. Despite the centrality of the idea of "breeds" to animal husbandry, there is no scientifically accepted...

 of domesticated sheep found in Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

. It is a fine-wool

Wool

Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....

 breed bred for its wool. It was developed by crossing American Rambouillet

Rambouillet

Rambouillet is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France.It is located in the suburbs of Paris southwest from the center...

 with Merino

Merino

The Merino is an economically influential breed of sheep prized for its wool. Merinos are regarded as having some of the finest and softest wool of any sheep...

s in the early 1900s.

Characteristics

Both sexes display white and are unicolored. Rams are horned and ewes can be either horned or polled (hornless). On average and at maturity, rams weigh 115 kg (253.5 lb). Ewes weigh 61 kg (134.5 lb), grow to 69 cm (27.2 in) at the withers when mature and have approximately 1.27 lambs per litter. In 1980, there were over 1.6 million.