Introduction After more than 35 years of breeding various Sheep Breeds most successfully, and despite having excellent sale and show results, I found myself becoming increasingly frustrated with the Stud Breeding industry because of a number of reasons. Each Breed Society proclaimed its breed to be the most economical with which to farm, without having the Commercial Breeders as the heart throb of their industries. Stud Breeding had become something of a sport people played. You get together a few times a year and see who can win the Show and sales game by having the champion animal or getting the highest price. Members become so fanatical and carried away with this game that any positive criticisms are viewed as an insult to the breed or taken very personally. The game also fuels jealousy and self interest as many members even resort to treachery and deceitfulness in their pursuit to win the game. Most annoying is the fact that in spite of all this, most Breed Societies and their members are able to bluff themselves that everything is being done to improve the Breed economically and that the breed is indeed the best to farm with commercially. Also seeking the goodwill and blessing of outside role players such as the Wool and Meat industries, Breed Societies and Breeders allow them to influence their selection, not realizing that these role players first interest is, and rightly so, either the Wool or Meat industry and not the Breed or the Farmer. These frustrations gave birth to the realization that the meat Sheep Farmer most of all needed a Breed and a Society with one aim in mind: ~ To promote economical and profitable commercial sheep meat production ~ I am very proud to have initiated, along with some other likeminded Farmer Entrepreneurs, the development of a Sheep that later led to the establishment of the Meatmaster Breed. To learn more about how we have solved the above problems and have managed to breed a Sheep to meet all your commercial needs, please click here to visit the Meatmaster Society Website.  Daily we are attracting more and more open minded Breeders which all have the same aim in mind: ~ To farm with a sheep that places the most money in their pockets ~ Be sure to download the Meatmaster Presentation to be found on both Websites.   Natural Selection of Meatmasters For all our Meatmaster selection we consider it vitally important that all sheep are at all times run just on the open veldt with no feeding or licks.  Only in severe cases will certain sheep be dosed and inoculations are only done for blue tongue and pulpy kidney.  Under these natural and harsh conditions we would then select in the following manner... a) Cut Costs: To select for the most profitable sheep for our area we keep costs to the minimum by selecting for the following: Excellent covering:  Good shedding ability in summer with enough fine fluff in winter.  Reason:  No shearing costs, no tick treatment, no after shearing weather risk. Strong herd instinct, easy lambing, no tail cutting. Reason: Reduced labour costs and minimum lamb losses. Huge emphasis on adaptability. Reason:  No feeding costs, minimum dose and inoculation costs. Tick and parasite counts are done for selection purposes. Reason: To save on costs, time, labor and effort. b) Improve Production: To generate maximum income we have a policy of zero tolerance for: All ewe lambs must lamb before 13 months. All ewes must lamb at least every 365 days. All ewes must rear a lamb able to be marketed off the mother before re-mating has to take place. All sheep must meet marketing standards. No fat localization. All sheep must have a good enough conformation to qualify for the highest grades possible. Good growth to the age of 5 months is essential. Any mature ewe not in lamb or losing a lamb before weaning will be culled. 20% of the weakest producers will also be culled each year after receiving BLUP values. To achieve the above all ewe lambs are classed at 12 months and linear scored for the following: covering, condition, head, pigment, width and muscling, length of body, depth of body, shoulder height, legs, conformation and body size. At the same time all lambs not pregnant will be removed.   Carcass Quality of Meatmasters With Meatmasters we are fully aware of the fact that it is no good just to breed a very tough hardy and fertile sheep that grows well. We also have to deliver to the market an acceptable carcass able to obtain the best grading possible. We are very excited that in a relatively short while we have managed to achieve results that are much better than expected. Not only do we get a good grading on the big numbers we have slaughtered monthly, but have also for interest sake entered some lambs for the National Slaughter Lamb Competition held at Bethulie. We were very pleasantly surprised with the results as we never expected we would compete with breeds known for their good conformation such as the Dorpers, Mutton Merinos, Dormers etc. There where 59 groups entered and our Meatmasters managed a 9th place. There where also 236 single carcasses entered, and here the Meatmasters managed a 22nd, 23rd and 55th placing. The Lambs averaged 41.5 kilograms. Although on the hoof their weights surprised everyone, as they where obviously off their mothers, they where still ignored by the judges as it was never realized that once slaughtered their carcasses would look so good. It is never the intention of the Meatmaster to win this competition as we realize that, to breed a truly profitable sheep, we have to get the balance just right between a conformation suited for easy lambing and very high fertility and a carcass acceptable to the market.  With the placing we received we are convinced we have got the balance just right.   Managing and Feeding of Meatmasters All Meatmasters run on a multi camp system and change camps every two weeks.  All ewes are mated, lamb and rear their lambs, including all twins, without exception in the veldt under natural conditions.  All lambs are also weaned just onto natural veldt.  We encourage twinning with our selections but ewes must be able to rear their lambs in the big groups under these natural conditions. All stud sheep are recorded, but for selection of the flock sheep we follow the following practice: All lambs not lambing at 13 months are discarded. All ewes not in lamb at lambing time are culled. Before lambs are weaned a wet dry test is done on all ewes by way of removing all lambs from their mothers for the night and seeing in the early morning, when the ewes have swollen udders, what ewes are not in milk. These ewes that have lost their lambs are also culled. When 85% of the lambs have been sold and only the weakest 15% are left, a wet dry test is again performed to find the mothers of this 15%. These being the weakest mothers are also taken out for sale. All rams also spend their entire life just on the open veldt.  There is no feeding before mating or for the sale of rams. It has to be stressed again that no feeding of any kind ever occurs on any of our breeding animals. Only old ewes not fit for further breeding if necessary will be fattened and sold for slaughter. This is stressed because a lot of breeders don’t see licks or strategic feeding as having fed their sheep. Our Meatmasters will only have rock salt available to them throughout the year. This feeding and management system ensures that only the best breeding material capable of performing under these adverse conditions is kept for breeding purposes.   Recording Meatmasters for Profitability All Meatmaster Stud Sheep are recorded on the SHEPHERD Sheep Program. To select the most profitable breeding ewes, data recorded is analyzed to give you the following important information: Age at first lambing, Inter lambing period, Death of Lambs from birth to weaning, Weight of Lambs at 100 Days. Weight of Lambs at 270 Days BLUP calculations by the program are then used to select which ewes and rams are putting the most money in my pocket. All the linear scores recorded are also taken into consideration for selections. This is to ensure that all sheep meet breed standards regarding fat localizations, covering etc. BLUP calculations are also used so that young sheep can be more accurately selected for production potential. The aim of all recording done serves only one purpose, which is also the ultimate aim of Meatmaster breeding: To make sure that only the most profitable sheep are selected for breeding purposes. Worldwide Interest in Meatmasters Although the Meatmaster is still only in its infancy stage, it is remarkable to witness the International interest in the Breed. In South Africa the Breed is already very well known and been openly debated by Sheep Farmers. With only very limited Breed promotion having taken place, it is astounding to notice the amount of Sheep Farmers that are inquiring about the Meatmaster. Six years ago when attending an International Sheep and Goat conference in Brazil it was very evident that international Sheep markets were looking for a Sheep Breed of pure hair type that has good meat characteristics. This gave us great hope that the Meatmaster in the long term will gain international acceptance. In our wildest dreams we would however never have envisaged that six years down the line the Meatmaster name would already be registered both in Australia and Mexico. In Australia there are already a couple of Breeders breeding Meatmasters from Dorpers and Damaras that are available there. Having seen their Sheep I am totally convinced that the Breed has a bright future in Australia. It bodes well for both their domestic market as well as export market, producing a high quality product for the European and American markets. We have also learned that Meatmasters are being bred in Canada and look forward to hearing more about the Breed’s development there. What we can learn from all this is that we are entirely correct breeding a type of Sheep like the Meatmaster. We must now endeavor to painstakingly breed the Meatmaster along the plans and principles decided upon. South Africa and many other countries need a Meatmaster Sheep and if we are able to stick to our principles and breed a truly successful hairy meat Sheep, we will reap the benefits for many years to come. Having achieved tremendous success with the breeding of commercial Meatmasters we now aim to take the Breed to the next level with the establishment of a truly dynamic Stud Industry.