Many people when seeing Persian sheep for the first time mistake them for goats.\u00a0 They are however a handsome breed of sheep.\u00a0 The outstanding feature of Persian sheep is their colour and pattern.\u00a0 Persian sheep come in two basic varieties:<\/p>\n
1. Coloured head(kleur kop in Afrikaans)\u2013\u00a0in this variety the entire sheep is white except for the head which can be either black, brown, red, tri-colour or blue.<\/p>\n
2. Harlequin or Speckled\u00a0\u2013 these sheep have solid coloured heads, legs and tails, while the body is covered with spots and patches on a white background.\u00a0 The pattern on each\u00a0 individual sheep is unique.\u00a0\u00a0 Harlequin Persians are called \u2018Skilder Sheep\u2019 in Afrikaans which literally means painted sheep . This term describes these beautiful animals well.\u00a0 These sheep are extremely attractive and can also either be black, brown, red, tri-colour or blue<\/p>\n
Both varieties can be routinely inter-bred and the resultant lambs always have the distinct pattern of one variety or the other. Genetically the \u2018coloured head\u2019 pattern is recessive to the harlequin pattern. This means that to breed a \u2018coloured head\u2019 lamb either both parents must have coloured heads or be carrying the \u2018coloured head\u2019 gene<\/p>\n
In both varieties the hooves are coloured and match the coat colour. The ewes do not have horns. The rams\u00a0 also generally do not have horns but approximately\u00a0 one in fifty rams having small horns that sit flat against the head.<\/p>\n
Persian sheep \u00a0also have a number of distinctive structural features. They have a large flap of skin called the \u2018dewlap\u2019 which extends below their throat and \u00a0also a prominent anterior breast bone called the \u2018manubrium\u2019.\u00a0 When in good condition they store fat naturally in an area around the tail base.\u00a0 This fat can be used as an energy source and is a characteristic shared by some other African breeds of sheep.\u00a0 Because of this characteristic this group has sometimes been referred to as \u2018fat bottomed\u2019 sheep.<\/p>\n
Persian sheep have a unique tail which is about the size of a human finger and sits at a somewhat quirky angle on top of the tail fat pad.\u00a0 The first part of the tail is attached to the rump while the second part is pushed upwards and ends in the tassel or \u2018sambokkie\u2019 which hangs down perpendicularly.\u00a0 The overall appearance is that of an attractive, exotic animal.<\/p>\n
Persian lambs reach maturity at an early age and thus also put on fat early. The fatty tail is used in venison products such as dry wors and processed meats.<\/p>\n
The skin of the Blackhead Persian is remarkably thin and tough, making it suitable for the manufacturing of leather gloves.<\/p>\n
Rams have an average birthweight of 2,6kg, while ewes weigh on average 2,55kg at birth. Mature weights are 68kg and 52kg for rams and ewes respectively.<\/p>\n
The Blackhead Persian is one of the parent breeds of the well-known Dorper breed. It also played a role in the upgrading of the Karakul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Many people when seeing Persian sheep for the first time mistake them for goats.\u00a0 They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5356,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chicken"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jaguzafarm.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jaguzafarm.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jaguzafarm.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jaguzafarm.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jaguzafarm.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jaguzafarm.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jaguzafarm.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jaguzafarm.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jaguzafarm.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jaguzafarm.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}