|
Dillydorper HistoryThe Dorper is a South African sheep breed released into Australia a decade ago. IN 1996 Cashdown purchased some of the first embryos released. As our policy is not to introduce new sheep onto the property, these embryos were implanted into some of our stud Wiltshire Horn ewes. We were so impressed with the Dorpers, that we purchased more embryos in 2000 to add to our numbers. Even though the black head Dorper is the predominant Strain in South Africa we also purchased some White Dorper embryos as we wanted to compare the two types. We found that the Black Headed Dorper out performed the White Dorper in our conditions. This being the case and as our meat buyers didn't seem to mind if the lambs were black or white (they paid more for the bigger animals), we quit our White Dorpers to concentrate upon breeding superior Black Headed Dorpers. Characteristics for which we are selecting for are:
In Autumn 2004 we carried out an AI program on our ewes with semen from Amarula 02-0244. As a result we had some magnificent lambs on the ground. Cashdown is confident that Australian Breeders will develop the breed making it an ideal animal for Australian Conditions and that the Dorper will become a mainstay in Australian Sheep meat industry. |