The making of our freezer lambs..

As the trends turn more and more toward home-grown, healthy, grass-fed, small carbon "footprint" foods and supplies, marketing our farm produce should become easier and easier.

Our sheep are commercial(not registered) Dorpers a relatively "new" breed of shedding meat type sheep. Meat sheep, definitely! Lambs generally weigh about 7 pounds at birth and will weigh between 80-100 pounds by the time they are 4-5 months of age, and incredible rate of gain! Shedding, yes, they shed off their wooly winter coat when the weather gets warm, usually retaining a strip of wool and hair down the middle of their back. They look like they are wearing a bad hair-piece, but it works wonderfully to protect them from the summer heat and keep the skin on their back from sunburning.

The most recent purchase for the farm was a group of 20 pregnant ewes which came from Jim Joerger in Missouri. The ewes were very pregnant when we purchased, some already had lambs at their side and several delivered lambs within a few days of arriving at the farm here in Oklahoma. The rest of the flock are sporting large pregnant bellies and will most likely lamb within the next 3-4 weeks.

We will have freezer lambs available for the Easter season 2008, check back for price list and to order your lamb for Easter. Our ewes are bred to lamb several times through the year so we will have lambs available all year long.

Here is a bit of breed information from the American Dorper Breeder's Society website: http://www.dorperamerica.org/

Dorper Sheep – Meat Sheep for the Modern Producer
Hardy and Adaptable - Dorper Sheep are highly adaptable and do well in harsh, extensive conditions as well as in more intensive operations.
Excellent Maternal Qualities - Ewes are excellent mothers and heavy milkers. Lambs are vigorous and have high survivability.
Long Breeding Season - Dorpers are non-seasonal or have an extended breeding season. They can easily be managed to produce three lamb crops in two years.Reproductive Efficiency-Dorpers are very fertile and prolific. Lambing rates of 180% can be achieved per lambing. They are early maturing and will produce a lamb crop at one year of age.
Pre-potency - Dorper sheep cross well with commercial ewes of other breeds and as terminal sires produce fast growing, muscular lambs.
Non-Selective Grazers - Dorpers are excellent converters of a wide range of forage types and they excel in grazing or weed control operations.
Heat and Insect Tolerant - Because of their Blackhead Persian origin, Dorpers have natural tolerance to high temperatures and heavy insect populations. They are productive in areas where other breeds barely survive.
Parasite Tolerant - Studies indicate Dorper Sheep are better able to deal with a parasite burden than many other breeds.