Bright Future For Fast-growing Modern Damara Sheep

Since importing his first Damaras from Namibia in the late 1980s, stud breeder Frank Blumenthal has firmly believed in the integrity of the breed. The Free State farmer says that the modern indigenous Damara has over the years evolved into a well-muscled animal with outstanding disease resistance and fertility under the hottest, driest conditions. Annelie Coleman reports.

- Annelie Coleman

Frank Blumenthal’s passion for his Damaras is almost tangible. “I’m far too loyal to my breed to even consider crossbreeding,” he says.

He knew from the first time he came across the Damara in 1979 in the far northern corners of Namibia that this was the ideal sheep breed for South Africa’s harsh, arid farming areas. The name of the breed is derived from the Damara area of Namibia.

THE FIRST DAMARAS

Blumenthal and his family farm on Zandraai (6 000ha) on the banks of the Orange River, near Luckhoff in the Free State. Zandraai Farms specialises in the production of export-quality popcorn and wheat under irrigation. The Damara sheep are kept on Karoo-type veld and grain stover. The farm’s official carrying capacity is one small stock unit on 3,5ha, and the flock is rotated according to grazing conditions. The flock normally consists of about 1 000 animals kept in 21 camps, each with its own watering point.

Temperatures fluctuate from below freezing in winter to the high 30s in summer, and the annual average rainfall is about 250mm. At the time of Farmer’s Weekly’s visit, the flock was down to 800 animals.

Blumenthal brought his first Damaras to South Africa from Namibia in 1987 and continued importing them until 1992. The animals came from a wide area north of Kamanjab and Grootfontein. He was determined to acquire as many of the true Kaokoland Damaras as possible, and therefore obtained animals from a variety of owners and breeders. This enabled him to establish a wide genetic base.

According to Blumenthal, Damara-type sheep occur in most of Africa’s desert areas, including Nigeria, Mali, Niger and Mauritania. With survival of the fittest being the main selection criterion in nature, only the hardiest and most adaptable animals have survived over the millennia, thus retaining the breed’s robust genetics.