African 4-Horn Sheep

Finally, the first 4-Horn sheep in Australia!  These are the result of an embryo importation program which began in 2008. Limited breeding stock are available for sale. For further details see the farm sales page!

Details of the breed's origins are steeped in mystery and seem to be lost in the sands of time. It could, however, be hypothesised they are the result of a combination of various indigenous African fat-tail sheep breeds and Jacob sheep were possibly involved in their make up as well. What ever their origin they have long established and stabilised as a breed in their own right. African 4-Horn Sheep have persisted over time but only in small numbers.

In this strain of sheep predominantly only the rams develop horns, ewes generally just have four horn buds. On the rare occasion ewes develop horns they are a much smaller 'feminine' version of the rams horns There is no set colour for the breed and can be any colour or combination of colours a sheep can possibly be. They naturally shed/moult their winter coat of hair and wool gradually in the Spring and early Summer, so do not require shearing nor produce a fibre of any value. They are also a fat-tailed breed of sheep which means they store the bulk of their fat reserves in their tails, similar principle to that of a camel's hump, and do not require tail docking as they are naturally bare-skinned on the underside of their tail.

There are only a few other multi horned sheep breeds around the world. These include; Jacob, Hebridean, Manx Loaghtan, (some)Desert Painted sheep, Navajo-Churro and Four-Horned Hair Sheep.

How they came to be in Australia

I have done many trips to South Africa and on each trip I would hear rumours of 4-horned sheep. I always followed up any leads but each time it would result in a dead end. I began to wonder if they were just an urban myth or had been lost to extinction. It was my close friend in South Africa, Stephan Higgs, a livestock agent, stud stock breeder and sheep and cattle judge who unearthed the 4-Horn sheep in his travels in 2007. Stephan e-mailed me photos of the sheep, asking if I wanted any. Of course I did and so in partnership with a couple of friends in Australia, in early 2008 we purchased some sheep from the flock and eventually had them sent to a quarantine embryo collection centre, in South Africa. The project was fraught with obstacles, delays, and problems, as it would seem almost all importation projects tend to be. Thank fully despite everything, the embryos were collected and imported successfully in the end. The embryos were implanted into recipient/surrogate ewes on one of the partner's properties. The resulting lambs were born in July/August 2011. In July 2014 I was able to bring my share of the flock home to the farm. The breeding program is now well under way.