Winrae Dorpers

This year, we are celebrating 27 years of breeding Dorpers for Australia’s tough and harsh climate. We started in 1998 with five embryos from Tien Jordaan, which were born in 1999, thus establishing Winrae Dorpers!

We have been predominantly Dorpers since then, adding a small number of White Dorpers in 2023, and we continue to grow those numbers. We have a consistent line of rams we present each year for sale. 

Our natural focus allows us to push for fertility and performance in lamb rearing and lamb quality produced by each ewe. We syndicate mate in larger paddocks at a rate of 1-2%. We class our ewes before each joining, based on conformation and lambs raised, with an extra focus on the quality of lambs produced by each ewe. Our classed out ewes are sold to the meatworks.

Ewes are the backbone of our stud and our strict selection produces the quality stud and commercial rams we have on offer each year. We maintain our ewe base of 650 ewes on grass country with mineral licks always available, and we expect the ewes to maintain their weight and reproduce on native pastures both here at Warialda and at Moree.

Our rams are raised on native and improved grass country and are also maintained with mineral licks. They are supplementary fed a maintenance ration (not feedlot conditions), of grain before sale time to have them presenting in a good condition. Our clients often comment that our rams come in after joining in the same condition they went out, and have very high conception rates. They aren’t overfed and overfat, so when you put them out to work, they won’t melt and lose heaps of weight. 

The Dorper is hugely popular, and we are seeing the market expanding and the lamb market being extremely strong for over-the-hook prices. It is a very exciting time to be in Dorpers, and for those new to the breed, welcome! We are only a phone call away if you need any advice, and we happily offer our services to our clients by way of education, classing and breeding advice. We are a family-owned and operated stud, with Nick and Mel operating the day-to-day work and our sons or daughter, Billy, Jack, Pete or Grace, helping when they are home for sale time.