In the early 1990s, determined to utilize the advantages of
the indigenous fat-tailed hair breeds and realizing the huge gap between the
fat-tailed breeds and the well-muscled British and European breeds and the need
for a truly good pure hair breed with good meat qualities, a group of South
African farmers decided to develop a composite breed.
Various fat-tailed breeds were thus crossed with
well-muscled breeds and the dream of the Meatmaster emerged. Meatmaster sheep
are selected solely for economic factors under natural conditions. They have
been exported to Namibia, Australia, and Canada. The Meatmaster must just have
a percentage of Damara blood in it. The rest can be that of any other sheep
breed.