Zucca Modenese

Zucca Modenese
Conservation status
  • FAO (2007): extinct: 69 
  • DAD-IS (2026): not listed            
Country of originItaly
Distribution
Usetriple-purpose: meat, milk, wool: 308     
Traits
Weight
  • Male:
    70–80 kg: 309 
  • Female:
    50–60 kg: 309 
Height
  • Male:
    80–90 cm: 309 
  • Female:
    70–75 cm: 309 
Wool colourwhite: 742 
Face colourwhite

The Zucca Modenese is an Italian breed of domestic sheep. It is distributed principally in the province of Modena in Emilia-Romagna, in northern Italy, but was formerly present also in the provinces of Bologna, Ferrara and Reggio Emilia. It was identified during a census by the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche in 1983. It is one of three endangered breeds of sheep in the province of Modena; the others are the Cornella Bianca and the Modenese or Balestra.: 7 

History

The Zucca Modenese is thought to derive from cross-breeding or inter-breeding of the local sheep populations of the Province of Modena with rams of breeds of the Veneto – such as the Alpagota and the Lamon – during the winter months when flocks of both were moved to lowland pastures in the provinces of Ferrara and Rovigo.: 308  The Zucca Modenese has a high incidence of crop ear, a characteristic shared with some breeds of the Veneto.: 308 

The total population was estimated in 1983 at between 100 and 200 head; in the twenty-first century it may consist only of a few scattered individuals,: 308  or may be extinct.: 742  It was listed as extinct by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2007,: 69  and in 2026 was not among the breeds reported to the DAD-IS database. It is not among the forty-two autochthonous local sheep breeds of limited distribution for which a flock-book is kept by the Associazione Nazionale della Pastorizia, the Italian national association of sheep-breeders.: 254 : 37 

Characteristics

The Zucca Modenese is of medium size: ewes stand some 70 to 75 cm at the withers and weigh between 50 and 60 kg, while rams weigh from 70 to 80 kg and stand between 80 and 90 cm at the shoulder.: 309  The sheep are polled in both sexes; the facial profile is somewhat convex, particularly in rams.: 742  The ears are pendent and of medium size; they may be incompletely developed.: 308 

Use

It is a triple-purpose breed, reared for meat, for milk and for wool.: 879  The milk yield – excluding that taken by the lambs – is some 80 to 100 kg in a lactation of 90–120 days.: 309  Lambs were traditionally slaughtered at a weight of about 10 kg.: 309  The wool yield is low, at approximately 1.5 kg in two shearings.: 309 

References

  1. 1 2 Barbara Rischkowsky, Dafydd Pilling (editors) (2007). List of breeds documented in the Global Databank for Animal Genetic Resources, annex to: The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Rome: Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. ISBN 9789251057629. Archived 23 June 2020.
  2. 1 2 Breed Data Sheet: Italy, Sheep. Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed September 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Daniele Bigi, Alessio Zanon (2008). Atlante delle razze autoctone: Bovini, equini, ovicaprini, suini allevati in Italia (in Italian). Milan: Edagricole. ISBN 9788850652594.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Valerie Porter, Lawrence Alderson, Stephen J.G. Hall, D. Phillip Sponenberg (2016). Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds and Breeding (sixth edition). Wallingford: CABI. ISBN 9781780647944.
  5. ↑ Maurilio Cargioli (2012). Recupero e valorizzazione della pecora Cornella Bianca (in Italian). La Newsletter di R.A.R.E.. (41, October 2012). Associazione RARE. Archived 20 May 2025.
  6. ↑ Le razze ovine e caprine in Italia (in Italian). Associazione Nazionale della Pastorizia: Ufficio centrale libri genealogici e registri anagrafici razze ovine e caprine. Archived 21 September 2013.