The Van Rooy, also referred to as the Van Rooy White Persian, is a popular sheep breed that is native to South Africa.
There are many factors that make this particular breed favoured such as its adaptability, fertility and distribution of fat.
In South Africa, the climate isn’t always favourable for sheep farmers due to occasional droughts. This influences the nutritional value of grazing every season.
The summers are increasingly hot and the winter time is brutally cold and farmer’s also face an increase in diseases and internal parasites. A breed of sheep that can resist all these difficulties is almost impossible to come by but the Van Rooy sheep proves its hardiness and adaptability. It faces drought successfully and can grow and reproduce on minimum grazing.
The breed also has a strong resistance to extreme temperature changes, owing to its sufficient wool and farmers have less challenges in dealing with diseases and internal parasites as Van Rooy sheep are not easily affected due to their thicker skin.
Van Rooy sheep thrives in all the regions in South Africa and Namibia. Whether its high rainfall areas or bushveld and grassy regions, the Van Rooy has proved itself time and time again. Van Rooy ewe have an unlimited mating season and fertility is one of its outstanding traits. The breed is also in demand for cross breeding practices because of its fat distribution, regular reproduction and hardiness.
From an economical point of view, farmers who intend on breeding slaughter lambs for the meat market have readily searched for Van Rooy sheep owing to its diverse opportunities, as discussed above. The ewe also reproduces regularly, around three lambs in two years, and it remains one of the most hardy and adaptable sheep breeds in South Africa.
Sheep are commercially farmed for either meat or wool, but certain breeds yield good quality and quantity of both. In this article, we will ...