Hampshire Down: mutton sheep fast gaining in popularity

Hennie Jonker, an award-winning Hampshire Down stud breeder from Kroonstad, describes this sheep breed as a topmost mutton producer that provides sterling terminal sires for commercial and crossbred flocks. Annelie Coleman visited his Zorro stud to find out more about the breed.

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The Hampshire or Hampshire Down originated around 1829 in the rich agricultural county of Hampshire, in southern England.

A Hampshire farmer, John Twynam, crossed his then Hampshire flock with the Berkshire Knot and the Wiltshire Horn, which produced the first recognised Hampshire Downs in the UK. Hennie Jonker's Zorro Hampshire Down stud is farmed intensively on 6,6ha near Kroonstad in the Free State. The farm accommodates 700 sheep. Four hundred sheep form part of the Zorro feedlot while the stud concern consists of 300 animals, including 220 SP ewes and 25 rams.

The land is divided into 22 camps of planted pasture, each with its own watering point, and the pastures are irrigated from the Bloemhoek outflow from the Vals River.

FIRST HAMPSHIRES

The first Hampshires were imported to South Africa in 1942. Incidentally, the breed has been featured at the Royal Show in Pietermaritzburg for the past 55 years.

Jonker ascribes the breed's development in South Africa to one of the most prominent Hampshire stud breeders, Russell Shorten from Aliwal North, owner of the Rusda Hampshire Down stud.

He was introduced to the breed about 20 years ago when he and his brother ran a feedlot concern near Bethlehem in the Free State.

The Zorro stud, as far as numbers are concerned, is the biggest of the 21 current Hampshire studs in South Africa.

According to Jonker, there are many reasons why he selected the breed. Hampshires are outstanding lambers, with lambing problems being virtually unknown, and boast remarkably early maturity.

LONGEVITY AND HARDINESS