Bojnurd – North Khorasan province in northeast has launched Iran's first targeted breeding program to develop a dual-purpose dairy-meat sheep by crossbreeding indigenous Kurdish ewes with Assaf rams, provincial officials announced.

 

Mehdi Shekari, Deputy Director for Livestock Production Improvement at the North Khorasan Agricultural Organization, said the project will be implemented at the Hosseinabad Kurdish Sheep Research Station in Shirvan in collaboration with the Animal Science Research Institute of Iran and the province's Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center.

 

The program aims to improve livestock productivity, enhance farm profitability, and increase farmers' incomes while preserving the genetic purity of the province's Kurdish sheep breeding nucleus. Selected ewes outside the breeding nucleus will be inseminated with Assaf ram semen, and the resulting first-generation (F1) offspring will be used exclusively as commercial dual-purpose sheep.

 

Shekari said the Assaf breed, developed from Awassi and East Friesian sheep, is renowned for its high milk yield. Combining its genetics with the hardiness of the native Kurdish breed is expected to increase milk production, improve lamb growth, and strengthen commercial sheep farming.

 

He added that North Khorasan is home to 2.2 million small ruminants and produces approximately 74,000 metric tons of milk and 21,000 metric tons of red meat annually, highlighting the province's significant role in Iran's livestock sector.