Why are Dorpers are so popular with Australian farmers?

So... some reasons to breed Dorpers:

Breed Characteristics
Adaptable.  Dorper Sheep are able to thrive in a wide variety of climatic conditions; from arid to semi tropical areas. They are suited to areas of 100mm - 760mm annual rainfall.

Economical   The concept behind the development of the Dorper Sheep was to develop a sheep that could give the maximum returns with the least inputs. Thus Dorpers have excellent feed utilisation and conversion abilities (ie they do well even on pasture with poor nutritional value where other sheep breeds would not thrive, thus converting a poor asset into profit). They require low levels of maintenance in comparison with most other sheep breeds, as they are a wool shedding sheep and therefore do not require shearing, crutching, mulesing, jetting, nor constant surveillance for fly strike. They are also supposed to be disease resistant.

Good Grazing habits. Dorpers are non selective in their grazing, i.e. they eat everything , including weeds. Other sheep breeds are highly selective in their grazing habits, preferring and only doing well on clovers and softer grasses. Dorpers like goats, like coarser grasses and woody weeds, and like goats seem to do better if they have roughage in their diet.

Meat Production. Dorper lambs are only small at birth, but make rapid weight gains from the time they begin to eat. They are grazing by day 2 and from that time fill out and grow very quickly. A live weight of 36kg can be reached by 3.5 - 4 months of age. Meat processors prefer the Dorper and Dorper cross lambs because their carcasses have excellent meat yields and fat distribution.

Fertile. Dorper sheep is one of the most fertile of sheep breeds. It has a long breeding season, which unlike many other sheep breeds is not seasonally limited. It is possible to have lambing intervals of eight months. This coupled with the fact that Multiple births are prevalent, especially after the ewe's first lambing. The ewes are good milk producers and excellent mothers. The lambs are vigourous and stay close to their mothers from the time they are born. Hence weaning rates of 150% and above are not uncommon.

Fast Growing   As the Dorper and Dorper cross lambs grow rapidly they can attain high weaning weights. This in turn means
that they are ready for early marketing and therefore less feed and animal health (eg. drenching) and husbandry inputs.

Long Lived. The literature about Dorper sheep out of South Africa tells us that the animals are long lived. The oldest Dorpers in Australia would be about 10 years old. At Winrae our original Dorper ewes are 9 years old are still going strong; producing and rearing twin lambs.

Hardy. One of the main aims in developing the Dorper Sheep was hardiness. The engineers of the breed have certainly been successful in this respect. Our experiences have been such that Dorper and Dorper cross sheep have survived experiences that would have made other breeds of sheep curl up their toes and die. They seem to have a very strong will and ability to survive.

Temperament. Dorper Sheep are intelligent and curious so can become very easy to handle with very little training. The rams, unlike some other sheep breeds, are good to work with in the yards (they are unlikely to want to bash you up).

The Dorper is a fast growing meat producing sheep. It was bred by crossing a Dorset Horn sheep from Britain with a Persian sheep form Iran in the 1930's. The breed was introduced to Australia in the early 1990's

Dorpers are shedders and are attractive to local producers as shearing and muelsing husbandry activities are reduced and in a purebred are non-existent.

Inherent characteristics of  the breed such as rapid growth rate, good muscling and an ability to produce low fat scores make it an ideal Prime Lamb with great taste.

These sheep are non-selective grazers and adapt well to Australian conditions. Dorper Lambs grow rapidly on the abundant supply of milk from their mothers and their ability to graze at an early age. As the lambs show good maturity at 4-6 months of age this ensures tenderness and a superior flavour.

 

Winrae Dorpers