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The Dorper breed was developed
out of necessity. During the early 1930's, South African
farmers exported a surplus of mutton and lamb, from the
fat tailed indigenous breeds, to London's prestigious
Smithfield Market. The carcasses were rejected because
the European consumers were accustomed to the high quality
New Zealand Canterbury lamb.
The South African Meat Board took on the challenge of
producing a meat sheep breed that would produce a higher
quality carcass and yet, thrive under arid to semi-arid
conditions. A breeding project was finalized in 1946 and
the Dorper earned a prominent place in the history of
South African agriculture. In 1950, the South African
Dorper Breeders' Association was formed.
According to Dr. Q. Campbell in his book "Making
Money with Mutton Sheep", "One of the most successful
crosses of exotic rams bred to adapted ewes proved to
be the Dorset Horn X the Blackhead Persian".
The Blackhead Persian sheep, a hardy, fat-tailed desert
breed from Arabia, brings to the Dorper its hardiness,
thriftiness, adaptability, pigmentation and hair covering.
It also brings remarkable fertility, with the ability
to breed every eight months and to produce a high number
of twins. In addition, the Persians have very valuable
skins used in the production of fine leather products.
The Dorset Horn rams crossed with Blackhead Persian ewes
produced fast growing and heavily muscled lambs yielding
very satisfactory economic returns under a variety of
environmental conditions. The Dorper ewes from this cross
were excellent mothers that could be bred in any season.
In the early 1950's, a controversy arose concerning black
markings vs. a pure white sheep. Some breeders preferred
a white sheep, called the Dorsian, while others chose
to select for confirmation rather than color and use the
black markings as their trademark. In 1964, the controversy
was settled when the two groups of breeders
united into one association calling the black head sheep
Dorpers and with the unmarked being called White Dorpers.
The modern day Dorper is numerically the second largest
breed in South Africa with over 10 million head (over
1/3 of the total number of sheep). In recent years, the
Dorper has become popular in the Middle East, China, Canada,
Australia, South America, Mexico and the United States.
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