VN May 2023

Vetnuus | May 2023 12 Professor Gareth Bath Domestic animals reached southern Africa about 2000 years ago, with the migration of baNtu peoples from the north. Sheep were the fat-tailed, and hair type and natural selection had made them well-adapted to local conditions. As European trade routes to Asia developed and grew, ships exchanged goods for livestock with the local inhabitants. In 1652 the Dutch East Indies Company established a permanent refreshment station at Table Bay, and the first European sheep were introduced in 1657. After 1695, the Company officials were allowed to farm for themselves, and for the next century, their trade was with passing ships in the form of meat. The Dutch colony expanded when natural pastures deteriorated because of continuous and excessive grazing, and the farmers drifted away from Cape Town and became pastoralists. Their sheep provided a staple food, provided their clothing and bedding, as well as abundant fat for cooking, for making candles and also for butter and soap. Royal Monarchs in Europe were accustomed to giving and receiving expensive, rare gifts. Some Spanish Merina sheep, famed for their superior white wool, was given to the Dutch Prince William V of Orange-Nassau with far-reaching consequences for the Cape. The sheep did not do well in the cold, damp Netherlands and the Dutch Military Commander at the Cape, Colonel Robert Jacob Gordon, of Scottish extraction but loyal to the House of Orange, recognised the potential of these sheep and suggested in 1778 that they be tried at the Cape. The first shipment was sent to the colony, and they flourished and multiplied. This herd began the saga of the Merino sheep in southern Africa, the first breed to be found outside Europe. Gordon reported in 1780 that the 13 ‘Spaansche Schapen’ on Robben Island were doing very well, and the quality of the wool had not deteriorated. The numbers continued to increase, and there were 40 sheep by 1783. In 1789 the Dutch authorities sent another consignment of 2 rams and four ewes to Colonel Gordon but, with a change in government in 1791, ordered their return. Gordon complied, returning what was sent but none of their progeny. Gordon then sold some Spanish rams to progressive Cape farmers, who used the sheep as purebreds or for repeatedly back- crossing with the indigenous Cape sheep. In 1795 Britain sent a military expedition to take possession of the Cape, announcing that PrinceWilliam had authorised the surrender of the Dutch garrison. In good faith, Colonel Gordon complied but came under severe criticism from the garrison, which drove him to suicide in November 1795. In 1797 his embittered widow Nicolet sold most of his Spanish sheep flock, and 26 animals were sold to captains of ships on their way to Australia. The sheep that survived the voyage became the nucleus of the Australian Merino flock. British Governors at the Cape encouraged wool farming by waiving the duties and taxes on Spanish sheep. Large-scale adoption of wool farming only occurred because the market for quality wool in Europe seemed insatiable, and therewere good, reliable profits to be made from wool sheep. The Merinos spread from the west of the Colony to the east, where conditions were highly favourable. By 1840 wool was the Colony’s major export by value and has remained a major livestock agricultural export of South Africa ever since. MERINOS IN SOUTHAFRICA