Proud new sheep owners:)

[Mudpups]

I just had to come and share that we are now the proud owners of a small flock of dorper sheep:) We only have 14 - one pure bred ram, two whether lambs and one ewe lamb that are still on thier mums, and the rest are F6 ewes that have lambed before...so hopefully not going to be too difficult come lambing time. They are not dog broke, but have been reasonably well handled so are not stupid like a bunch of merinos are LOL The lady we bought them from has been breeding them for 10 years and has been extremely helpful answering six million questions (we also drenched them all so we know how to do that when the time comes around again!)

 

Now all I need to do is train myself to work them so I can train my dogs to help

[Deanna]

I'd love to see pictures of your new Dorpers!

 

I really love the look of the black-faced Dorpers from what I've read/researched about them (and I also love that they are a hair breed so that removes the need to shear every spring), but I've been warned off of them because I was told that they can be hard to dog. I'd be very interested to hear your experiences with them, and anyone else's experience with Dorpers and herding.

[Sue R]

Great news! I am envious of you. Enjoy!

[juliepoudrier]

Re: dorpers and dog working, IME they tend to get very heavy fairly quickly. So when working them, you might want to split them into smaller groups and rotate them often to keep them lighter as long as possible. (I prefer heavier sheep when just starting a dog, but then when you get to driving training, hard-to-move sheep can be more problematic.)

 

Re: shedding, IME dorpers often don't shed out completely, so you'll likely end up shearing the "rug" that tends to stay on their backs, even when everything else has shed out. If you really want sheep that shed, consider culling those sheep that don't shed well and using a ram that does shed well--that is, work on your genetics to improve the shedding in your own flock. Remember that one of the breeds used to create the dorper was the dorset, so the wool genetics are in there and you'll need to work to get that wooliness out. It can be done, but as I said, it will require you to breed and cull for that characteristic (ease of shedding)--unless the breeder you got them from has already done that for you.

 

Good luck with them! I truly enjoy my sheep; they have individual personalities and quirks that I find entertaining. And lambing is always great fun!

 

J.

[Mudpups]

Thanks for the info Julie! The breeder has been selectively breeding for ten years, so has done some of the work for us in regards to selectively breeding for good shedders (as well as culling difficult sheep/escape artists etc). Some of ours havn't fully shed yet and do have the back blanket, although it is easily lifting off on most of them...ROFL had to do a bit of sheep wrangling to get them in the float, we'd grab one and come away with a handful of hair!) I'm quite looking forward to developing and improving the flock, but we were incredibly lucky to get f6 and f7 ewes - ewes in general are hard to get and anything over f3 is as rare as hens teeth!

 

We decided on dorpers for many reasons - the shedding being a big thing, but also because they are good mothers, flock well, are hardy, not as picky feed wise, generally healthy, and also because their meat is not as fatty as other breeds (hubby has a medical condition that causes major problems if he eats fatty meat/food).

 

I will post photos soon when I get a chance to re-size and upload them, LOL got chores to do now;)