Dorper Sheep History            From The Fall 2003 Newsletter      
Click on the images to enlarge.  You can go to our Links page and find the link to the AMERICAN DORPER SHEEP  BREEDER'S SOCIETY for more breed information.

EVR Full Blood Ram.jpg (62082 bytes)

 This is our Full Blood Ram we purchased at the National Show and Sale in Sedalia, Missouri.  He is the Sire of last May's lamb crop.  He weighed 265 pounds last time I had him on a scale.
 

 

 

Echo Valley White Dorper Ewes-4.jpg (65181 bytes)

  Here are a few of our ewes.  Yellow tags are 1/2 Blood, White are 3/4, Orange are 7/8, and green are 15/16.

   
    7-8ths Ram Born Feb 02.jpg (83204 bytes) What impressed me about the White Dorper breed from day one was the amount of muscle they have.  This is a February 2002, 7/8ths ram we purchased at the Sedalia sale.
   
   
   
       

All our sheep graze during spring, summer and fall.  During the winter they have free access to grass and alfalfa mixed hay.  I stopped feeding grain because they just get too fat.
   
   
   
   
   
   

These photos of the ram lambs were taken in mid September, 2003.  All are May, 2003 lambs.   

 
   
   
   
   
   
    All of the these rams have been blood tested, 11 have "RR" genetic resistance to Scrapie,  14 tested "QR" .   
   
   
   
   
   
   

As of October 31, 2006, ADSBS Records Show:
Fullblood Dorper Ewes:                               4,844
Fullblood Dorper Rams:                              3,869
Percentage (37% to 99%) Dorper Ewes: 14,805
 Percentage (50% to 99) Dorper Rams:      2,151

                                           Dorper Total     25,669

Fullblood White Dorper Ewe:                           1,071

Fullblood White Dorper Rams:                            835

% age  (37% to 99%) White Dorper Ewes:     9,859
  % age   (50% to 99%) White Dorper Rams: 1,347
                                         White Dorper Total  13,112

                                                                   Total 38,781

             ADSBS Membership is 546 members.

   
   
   
   
    Lamb.jpg (103791 bytes) 3/4 Blood lamb-caught napping out of the wind.  These lambs are streamlined and vigorous when they are born.  Then at about 3 weeks they start to bulk up.  
   
   
   
   
   
    7/8 Lamb 
   
   
   
    3/4 Blood and 7/8ths Rams born January, 2004 have all been sold, we have Spring, 2004 and February '05 rams available now.   All '04 rams carry at least one "R" gene.  Sheep with one "R" gene are resistant to Scrapie.   The '05 rams will be tested this spring.
   
   
   
     
    Testimony 
     We bought two 7/8ths White Dorper Rams from Echo Valley Ranch.  Bred them to our ewes which are mostly Dorsett.  Lambs were weaned, started on full feed.  They weighed 115 pounds at 4 1/2 months.  Thirty days later we hauled them 25 miles to the auction and they weighed 150.6 pounds on the auction market scale.  They averaged 1.2 pounds per day Average Daily Gain.  Darwin Ochsner, Alpena, South Dakota