Dolf's Dorper Training Gallery

(See bottom for new pictures)

See if you can sum up the best characteristics of each sheep first, and then have a look at the captions below. This will aid you in the development of an "eye" for the Breed!

Judges look at more than one hundred different traits in deciding between the best of the best.

I hope this gallery will be your strongest motivation for doing a Course on the Dorper Breed. The more we learn, the more we realise how small we are and how little we know...

Best regards,Dolf Lategan

01 Reserve Grand Champion Ram

Picture 001

Did you see the same characteristics as for the Grand Champion?

Well done!

The meat qualities of this ram is outstanding and his depth excellent. Less body length than the Champion, though.

02 Junior Champion Ram

Picture 002

This is a nice ram!

What do YOU see? Come on, trust your instincts...

03 Reserve Senior and Reserve Grand Champion Ewe

Picture 003

Another good example of a Type 5 ewe with a strong eye muscle and a long thigh muscle (hamstring)

Can you imagine the offspring when these ewes are mated to the Champion rams above...?

04 Junior Champion Ewe

Picture 004

How would you fancy a flock of ewe lambs like this one?

See if you can find the outstanding characteristics in this fine lamb.

05 Senior and Grand Champion Ram

Picture 005

Come on White Dorper breeders, what do you say?

Look at the ennobled head. Fine muscling, a strong topline, good covering, depth.

06 Junior and Reserve Grand Champion Ram

Picture 006

Whau! Only a lamb, and he has already made his mark!

Look at the Type, length, bone, muscling, head, big ears, shape and many more good characteristics in this fine young animal.

07 Junior and Reserve Grand Champion Ewe

Picture 007

After the examples, see if you can find the best characteristics in this beautiful ewe yourself.

Maybe you'll have some questions or comments - Mail them to me! (Quote the picture number if you want.)

08 Young lamb showing potential...

Picture 008

Can you recognise why this lamb already shows potential?

Yes, they do change a lot, but a good, strong lamb that shows potential will be worth looking after. Try not to produce any human-induced deficiencies like weak hocks, docking the tail wrong, etc. 

09 The ideal covering...

Picture 009

This ram carries the ideal covering on a Dorper. With this covering, shedding will be natural. This is a fine animal, with good breeding characteristics.

10 Line Breeding...

Picture 010

This ram, at 7 months, portrays the potential of excellent breeding characteristics: outstanding balance, shape, muscling, length of body, colour and covering. The ram also has outstanding length in the rump. This ram was studded as a type 5 at ten months.  

Using this ram in a project, utilising inferior ewe material ...

produced the following...

Corrective mating was the goal of this project.  The ewe was short in body length, short in the rump, off-type, not well balanced, with poor meat qualities.  The ram, having all the opposite characteristics, being half the flock, established himself in the offspring.  This ram lamb reached a weight of 27kg at 50 days of age.  Definitely not what would have been expected if you only saw the ewe material!

Breeders are faced with challenges like this every day, and we will aim to assist with examples that will make you think and try something new.  That's what it is all about after all.

Do you want to do a course on this Breed? Contact your Regional representative, or, if you are not living in South Africa, mail details of your whereabouts and the number of animals you have in your region to me, and we'll see if we can make a plan to assist you in some way.

Watch this Website for exiting new developments and more course material like this page!

WE ARE WORKING ON A CD-ROM CONTAINING SIMILAR TYPE OF EDUCATIVE MATERIAL ON THE DORPER.  THIS PROJECT WILL BECOME A REALITY BEFORE THE END OF THE YEAR.

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