meatmaster sheep

It all started when…

We realized that during winter and going into spring, we were having to mow a significant amount of over grown lush green grasses, weeds and bushes in the olive grove, at great cost and requiring machinery to move through the grove, which we wished to minimize to reduce soil compaction.

Researching how farmers in parts of Europe were coping with rising input costs, climate change and the need to farm more sustainably we learnt of the integration of small ruminants and free range chickens in olive grove systems, within a silvopasture set up.

This led us to the meatmaster, a local South African breed developed by crossing the Damara and Dorper sheep. The meatmaster are developed along economic principles, and are known to be non-selective grazers, hardy, disease resistant, highly fertile and possessing strong maternal instincts, importantly they have an inherent herd disposition making them easy to manage in the intensive rotational system we envisaged.

In early 2025, we started with a small flock of 19 meatmaster sheep, and we aim to develop this into a stud operation within the next five years.