Free Range Pork

Persian Pics

Persian Sheep - (Yes sheep not goats)

We now have a stud of 10 purebred stud ewes and 3 stud rams as well as little bendigo, our first purebred ewe lamb and Aramac, a purebred ram lamb.  We have a variety of colours included black headed, red speckled and doberman.

About persians..
 

Apparenty legend has it that the Persians arrived in South Africa in 1868 when a sailing ship from the Persian Gulf area was crippled by a storm in the vicinity of Swellendam. When the ship landed for repairs it was found to have four sheep of a strange breed on board - three ewes and a ram. An interest was shown in these animals by two farmers who persuaded the captain to exchange them for an equal number of their own sheep. They were subsequently taken to a farm near Worcester. Although one ewe was killed by a bull, the remaining sheep flourished and multiplied.

However like any good legend, Science has to interfere and archaeologists have recently questioned this story. It seems more likely that early Arab traders visiting the eastern seaboard brought the sheep with them, either as a source of food for the long sea voyage or for trading purposes. Scientists also question whether the large numbers of Persians present in South Africa late last century, could have arisen from so few sheep without signs of inbreeding.

This Blackhead Persian has been used in cross-breeding programmes to produce sheep such as the Dorper, a very successful commercial breed which can survive our challenging African conditions and has become popular in Australia.  The Van Roy has also been used to produce a fully white dorper in Australia.

Our 4 Persians were purchased in September 2010 from South Australia.  The first Persians were imported as embreyos and planted into Merino ewes in around 2005.

We purchased one red Skilder Ram - Lawson, one black headed Persian - Angel, One white with roan on her neck, Avoka and One Badger face - white body with black on the face with orange eyebrows - Aratula. It was a long process of badgering, both the gentleman who sold them to us and Tim who finally gave into letting me get them....I finally convinced him to let me get them as my wedding present eventhough we arent due to be married until July 2011.  Seriously though what more could a girl ask for for a wedding present than four gorgeous unique sheep!!