Perendale History

The Perendale is a ‘Dual Purpose’ maternal breed of sheep developed at Massey Agricultural College/University in the North Island of New Zealand in the late 1940’s by Professor Sir Geoffrey Peren.

It is the result of the ongoing development by ‘Prof Peren’ of a Cheviot over Romney cross to what we have now as the modern Perendale.

Professor Peren wrote “the qualities of the Perendale add up to a sheep well suited to satisfy the economic needs of the present day farmer who must carefully balance his returns against the costs of production”

That development of the Perendale sheep as an “EASY CARE” breed is now more important than ever and will provide effortless lambing, excellent mothering and survival, general hardiness and ability to survive under difficult condition with poor feed.

Perendales are able to offer the farmer a rugged ‘dual purpose’ flock capable of producing quality ‘lean’ prime lambs and a medium white wool fleece sought after for its ‘bulk’ in the spinning and weaving trades.

Since its inception the Perendale has become one of the top breeds in NZ with numbers exceeding six million with many flocks in excess of ten thousand.

In Australia Perendales have had a ‘chequered’ career starting off in the early ‘sixties’ and then falling away in the ‘eighties and nineties’ against a range of Prime Lamb specific breeds.

“Summit Park” have set out to re introduce Perendales as a true ‘dual purpose’ breed as it was first developed at Massey and supply the best NZ genetics available to those farmers who recognise the advantages of having a ‘wool-meat’ enterprise.