Meat · Breed · Short entry
Manchega
The white-fleeced sheep of La Mancha in central Spain and the only breed whose milk may be used for Queso Manchego. It is a polled, convex-faced sheep kept for milk and for suckling lambs. Spain's breed catalogue estimates that about 90 % of the breed is still in its home region.
Sheep of the southern meseta
Spain's official breed catalogue says the Manchega is named after La Mancha, about 34,000 km2 of plateau mostly above 600 m in the provinces of Albacete, Ciudad Real, Cuenca and Toledo. It places the breed's ancestry among the early Mediterranean sheep that spread west, the "ovis aries celtibericus", from which several Spanish, French and Portuguese breeds also descend. The breed is now also kept in Madrid, Valencia, Castile and León, Andalusia, Portugal and South America.
The catalogue's averages describe a semi-intensive system based on grazing, crop stubble and fallow land, often supplemented with concentrates. Lambs are slaughtered at about 2.5 months with an 11.7 kg carcass. Ewes give milk with about 7 % fat and 5.6 % protein. The Queso Manchego regulatory council states that Manchega sheep are the only breed allowed for Queso Manchego, made from raw or pasteurised milk.
How it connects
Breed
- similar Lacaune
