Sheep
White Dorper ewe
After trying several different breeds of sheep on our farm, we have finally settled on a few that work for us.
Our ideal ewe would need no shearing (hair sheep), would not need to have the tails docked, would have good hoof soundness, would be parasite resistant, would have a pretty good meat conformation, but not too big, would have two lambs every year, these lambs would be born without assistance and would quickly get up and nurse and the ewe would take care of them by herself on pasture. Well, we could not find all of that in one breed (although the White Dorper came close), so we decided to crossbreed Dorper/Katahdin/Romanov.
We didn't come up with the idea of crossing those three breeds by ourselves. In our research for our ideal sheep we found the results of a US research centre. They were researching the best crosses to produce an Easycare sheep. First they crossed Romanov (known for their prolificacy) with a variety of hair and wool breeds. White Dorper/Romanov ewes were more productive than any other crossbred in their study.
The White Dorper bring great meat conformation, good growth rate on grass alone and a hair coat. The Romanov bring superior reproductive performance and great lamb survival. The Katahdin bring excellent shedding of hair coat, parasite resistance and good hooves. All three breed do not need their tails dock (although some breeders dock Dorpers).
Right now we have 9 purebred White Dorper ewes, 4 Dorper/Katahdin ewe lambs and a Romanov ram to breed with everyone. We had our first lambing (the pure Dorper ewes bred to Katahdin ram) this winter and were happy with the results.
We can't wait to see how the three way cross ewes (Dorper/Katahdin/Romanov) will perform. But for that we will have to wait another two years...
Our ideal ewe would need no shearing (hair sheep), would not need to have the tails docked, would have good hoof soundness, would be parasite resistant, would have a pretty good meat conformation, but not too big, would have two lambs every year, these lambs would be born without assistance and would quickly get up and nurse and the ewe would take care of them by herself on pasture. Well, we could not find all of that in one breed (although the White Dorper came close), so we decided to crossbreed Dorper/Katahdin/Romanov.
We didn't come up with the idea of crossing those three breeds by ourselves. In our research for our ideal sheep we found the results of a US research centre. They were researching the best crosses to produce an Easycare sheep. First they crossed Romanov (known for their prolificacy) with a variety of hair and wool breeds. White Dorper/Romanov ewes were more productive than any other crossbred in their study.
The White Dorper bring great meat conformation, good growth rate on grass alone and a hair coat. The Romanov bring superior reproductive performance and great lamb survival. The Katahdin bring excellent shedding of hair coat, parasite resistance and good hooves. All three breed do not need their tails dock (although some breeders dock Dorpers).
Right now we have 9 purebred White Dorper ewes, 4 Dorper/Katahdin ewe lambs and a Romanov ram to breed with everyone. We had our first lambing (the pure Dorper ewes bred to Katahdin ram) this winter and were happy with the results.
We can't wait to see how the three way cross ewes (Dorper/Katahdin/Romanov) will perform. But for that we will have to wait another two years...
White Dorper/Katahdin ewe lamb
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White Dorper ewe
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White Dorper ewes with a White Dorper/Katahdin ewe lamb
