Dorper

The Dorper was created in South Africa in the 1930s, crossing Dorset Horn rams with Blackhead Persian ewes, to produce a meat sheep for the arid country of the Karoo. The name is the two breeds run together.

They are hair sheep that shed, black headed on a white body, and they grow fast. Dorper lambs reach market weight quickly on forage that would not finish a wool breed, and they will do it in heat and drought.

They are non-seasonal breeders and the ewes are hardy and low maintenance.

The trade is fat and shedding. Dorpers lay down fat earlier than most breeds, so they need finishing watched or the carcass is over-fat, and shedding is less complete in some lines and some climates, which leaves an animal needing shearing after all.