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Pure
Bred Damaras
 The
Damara is a large, proportional meat sheep with long
legs and a long fairly deep body. The distinctive, wedge-shaped
fat tail narrows to below the hock. Most of the Damara's
body fat is stored in the tail, resulting in a leaner
body and tasty lean meat. The animal has short hair
and appears in various colour combinations of black,
white and brown.
The
ram displays a strong, masculine head with well developed
spiral horns. The ewe has a finer body type and is often
horned. The nose tends to be slightly Roman in females
and more prominent in males with a dewlap under the
chin.
Damaras have adapted to extreme climates and harsh environments
over many centuries of migration through Africa. The
Damara originated in Egypt as long ago as 3000 BC, later
migrating to Northern Africa.
The
animal today is extremely hardy and is able to adapt
and thrive even in adverse environmental circumstances.
Damara sheep tolerate heat better than other breeds
and are able to survive better on limited water supplies.
This makes them ideally suited to many Australian environmental
conditions.
They
have a high resistance to most sheep diseases and also
good tolerance against internal parasites. Because of
this and their strong firm teeth, their life expectancy
is generally high.
Rams
are vigorous, easily mating 100 to 150 ewes each quarter.
Some Damara rams of 13 years of age are still at stud.
They have longer life span than most other breeds.
Their
valuable hides appear in a wide variety of patterns
in various colour combinations of black, brown and white
Damaras
have been performing well in extremes. They excel against
all breeds in harsh dry sparse grazing. Damaras are
performing well against other breeds in -20 degrees
in snow in Canada.
Damaras have adapted to varied climate areas such as New Guinea with high rainfall, New Zealand with 1000mm rainfall, most states of Mexico, all states of Australia where they certainly excel in the harsh pastoral environments with 350mm rainfall to wheatbelt areas with 600mm rainfall and South Africa.
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