BREEDING HISTORY
In 1989 I bought a small plot of land in the countryside on the edge of Montecassiano, the town of the Marche region where I live in. I started growing a vegetable garden, building fences and shelters for house animals. My father-in-law Vincenzo knew a sheep merchant, from whom we bought four beautiful lambs to be slaughtered for Easter of 1990. They were all pure Fabrianese breed, two males and two females, very beautiful specimen, which grew quickly and without any difficulties. Then Easter came and, except for one male, all the lambs came out alive for we were becoming keen on them we decided to lamb the ewes. So my little farm started up, where all the females born here are intended for breeding. After about three years I changed the Fabrianese male, which had sired several females during its breeding life, with a mighty crossbred male, Fabrianese on Barbaresca. After three more years I changed it with another crossbred male, Fabrianese on Massese and after three more year, having a fairly good number of crossbred Fabrianese breeding ewes, I introduced in my farm some exotic mighty rams of Suffolk breed.
For four years I had been breeding the females those rams had sired, while selling former crossbred Fabrianese dams, then I also sold the rams and started inbreeding their offspring, obtaining a quite homogeneous group of dams, which are mighty, very resistant to diseases, strong and perfectly fit for the environment of the Marche region. In May 2009 I had the chance to buy 11 specimen lambed by Romanov ewes, which came to Italy years before and since then bred by a woman in the Emilia region. In May 2010 I bought 17 more lambs from Emilia as well and in October 2010 I had the chance to buy from a man from Veneto a flock of Romanov sheep made up of 24 females and 5 rams.
Currently in the farm there are two groups of Romanov sheep, which are kept separate and which have no kinship between them, and by switching sire rams in these two groups, so avoiding consanguinity, we will breed lambs to be then sold for breeding.

Later, in early 2010 I sold my breeding rams and left only Romanov rams in my farm. They had been mating and breeding all my crossbred Suffolk – Fabrianese ewes, which in early February 2011 lambed their first crossbred offspring sired by Romanovs. These lambs are specimen of great strength, which are standing up within few minutes of being born, ready for their first sucking and ready for a walk following their mums to open meadows and back to the shelter as if they were one week old. If literature on pure and crossbred Romanov sheep is reliable, the female lambs born on this year - which have been sired by a Romanov and, as already said, which are very mighty and stronger than pure Romanov ewes, since they took their physical structure from their impressive mothers, whose weight is sometimes twice the standard weight of a pure Romanov – will lamb many times during their life, as those pure Romanov breed, which have such a powerful body but are bred for meat, do. For this short period I have been breeding Romanov sheep, I have been realizing, in addition to their capability to average more than two lambs per litter, their frequent mating. I sold one-month-old lambs and reintroduced their mother in the flock, after two days rams bred them, and this has never happened with sheep of other breeds. Romanov sheep is sort of unique and peculiar breed under many aspects. I have been learning on it and, on this website, I will keep on writing my past and future experiences and telling my best way of breeding pure and cross bred Romanov sheep.
December 2011:
My adventure with Romanov sheep is in progress. Last June I bought two male and four female “French” lambs whose sires and dams belong to the French center GEODE. Currently there are three different blood types in my farm. parents coming directly from the French center ge.o.de, hours of blood groups distinct from their present farm are three. Females, lambed from my former meat sheep, which I sold in the meantime, have grown up, they are now 9 months old and are all pregnant, as well as my pure Romanovs which have been bred by Romanov rams when they were only 6 months old. They are thirty ewes and they are so beautiful, far larger and heavier than Romanov sheep of same age, a little bit shorter than their Suffolk-Fabrianese mothers but pretty plump and chubby. Now let’s see how many times per year they will lamb and if their “performance” gets closer to pure Romanov’s I will be able to say I got the best meat ovine breed in Italy, without wanting to sound arrogant, and then I will start 50% crossbreeding second generation Romanovs. Even the 42 Romanov dams in my farm are pregnant and will give birth from mid-December, all of them are in excellent health, plump and ready to spring at their best a (hopefully) numerous offspring.
Recently I have taken some pics to update this website. I am taking more pics after the births.