Our Commercial story

Gary & Janice Fiegert farm MELASHDAN, a 1700 ha property in the Butler Tanks district north of Tumby Bay consisting of four separate blocks of land in a 20 km triangle. They were 90 % continuous croppers growing wheat, barley, peas, lupins and canola with 10 % for the sheep. Merino CFA ewes were bought in each year in Nov / Dec, joined to White Suffolk rams and all sold again in Aug / Sept the following year.

After a run of poor seasons, a decision was made. To reduce the risk, they would concentrate on wheat, some barley and a self-replacing sheep flock.

Our first experience with White Dorpers was with scanned in lamb, F2 and F3 merino cross ewes, which we purchased, due to lamb two weeks later, in August 2008. All paddocks were in crop at that time, so the ewes had to lamb in the feedlot, were fed barley straw baled from behind the header, as well as lupins, and still went on to wean 100% of the resulting lambs.

At that time, we also brought in ex-stud Suffolk and White Suffolk CFA ewes, which have produced outstanding first cross lambs.
In January 2009, a line of three hundred F3 and F4 ewe lambs (born in July, August and September 2008) were purchased from Genelink. Joined at eight months, these ewes had a 75% lambing at the age of thirteen months.

These ewes were 3 years old in June/ July 2011 and we are about to mark their 4th drop of lambs. Last year these ewes weaned 180% for the year. We expect these ewes to wean even more lambs per year in the years ahead.

Further purchases of 200 F3-F4 Genelink ewe lambs in August 2009 and 330 in October 2010 giving us a great line of commercial cleanskin sheep.

We like the clean white appearance of the white Dorper and the fact that we can drive right through the mob without disturbing them. They are good mothers with plenty of milk and are very protective. The lambs are small and strong when born and very mobile soon after birth allowing for very easy lambing. The White Dorper has a very strong herding instinct which makes them very easy to muster. If disturbed, their first reaction is to herd together and then they will come to investigate you They are very hardy with a very high survival rate. They are non-selective grazers.

The paddy melons have disappeared and the resistant ryegrass is now more of an asset than a liability. They seem to prefer the dry roughage. We are amazed at how well our January drop lambs do and believe they really do have a better feed conversion on low quality feed, as is claimed We can lamb any time of the year and not revolve around a shearing date. Thus avoiding all the hassle's associated with wool production and harvesting. Repairs and maintenance, shearing, crutching, mulesing, labour etc.

The White Dorper compare's well with cattle, but with a much faster return on your money. They have a thick hide that the grass seeds cannot penetrate. They recognise gates, can be taught to respect fences, and in a good paddock of feed and a few trees will be very content. We wean our lambs into an older mob and they settle easily.