SHEDDING SHEEP IN AUSTRALIA

DORPER SHEEP

Raising sheep has never been popular amongst small farmers. Stories of blowfly strike and the need to shear sheep has been enough to turn off most small farmers.

However, a breed of sheep new to Australia – Dorper – is attracting the attention of a lot of small farmers.

Not every small farm has land suitable for raising cattle – poor pasture and insufficient water would spell disaster for small cattle farmers.

Dorper sheep are a cross between a Dorset ram and a Persion ewe and was developed as a breed in South Africa to better cope with poor grazing condition.

Dorper sheep are bred for their meat. Their wool sheds in the paddock where it degrades naturally. Dorper sheep also have a wool free breech area which means they don’t get flystruck and they don’t require mulesing.

Dorper sheep are hardy animals that thrive in tough conditions, and require very little veterinary attention apart from the normal 5 in 1 injections and worming procedures.


WILTSHIRE HORN SHEEP

The Wiltshire Horn Sheep has long been a popular breed in England and is said to have been first exported to Australia in 1951.

Like Dorper sheep, Wiltshire Horn sheep are bred for their meat.

According to the Wiltshire Horn Sheepbreeders Association lambs are born with both a wool coat and hair undercoat. The woollen coat typically reaches only halfway down the flanks. The chest, belly and crutch are usually entirely clear of wool. Lambs will start to moult wool in about November.

Wool grows back in the Autumn, covering the hairy summer coat, and from then on the sheep will lose and gain wool regularly each Spring and Autumn. The wool is short and coarse (like the wool from Dorper sheep) is of no commercial value.

The Wiltshire Horn Sheepbreeders Association says Wiltshire Horn sheep are a unique breed with many interesting and unusual features, and a long history, but individual Wiltshires all look different and have different personalities so that you can get to know them as individual animals, not just as a flock.