The high-altitude Barkly East district in the Eastern Cape is traditionally
a wool-producing area, but with their 188% lambing percentage, Tippy Dormehl’s
mutton-producing Dormers have convinced the sceptics, writes Mike Burgess.
Dormer sheep were initially bred for mutton production in the Western Cape, so it’s unusual to see these heavy-set animals grazing in the mountains of the southern Drakensberg and the Witteberg near Barkly East. But stud breeder Tippy Dormehl’s Dormers are thriving on the farm Lower Rosstrevor and have shown a unique ability to survive and produce mutton in this high-altitude area with legendary harsh winters.
Dormers arrive in Barkly East
When Tippy’s late dad, Basil, acquired his first Dormers in 1985 to crossbreed with his Merinos, at least a few Barkly East farmers thought the decision to be slightly unconventional. But Tippy says his dad’s vision and determination with the breed has proved spot-on. “Dad wanted an animal that was short-set with good conformation, and also hardy and fertile,” he says “It was a hard farm and a breed was needed that could be farmed extensively to produce enough top-quality mutton.” Soon after the first Dormers reached Lower Rosstrevor, a stud became a reality. Initially the rams were only used in the commercial flock and then much later, they were sold informally to breeders.
Tippy took over the stud after his father’s passing and held his first production sale in 2006. At the time, he was running 200 stud ewes, built up over the years from genetics sourced from well-known breeders including the late Piet de Wet, Piet van Zyl and Charl van Rooyen. He also had an additional 2 500 commercial Dormer ewes.
Tippy’s motto: quality, not quantity
This year Tippy decided to focus on his stud and sold his entire commercial flock. He increased his stud flock from 200 to 500 ewes along with 2 300 replacement ewes on 2 500ha, shared with a growing Simbra stud. His aim is to offer more rams and ewes at his production sale in 2010. Tippy’s strategy is to decrease his overheads by farming with fewer, but better quality stud animals. “I’ve learnt that it’s not necessarily about numbers, but about quality stock and providing the sheep with enough food and space. I now need fewer inputs – for example this year, I don’t have to buy extra feed as I’ll have enough cut lucerne to feed the Dormers in the veld. The condition of the flock is much better than when I had to feed those big flocks,” he says.
The Dormers’ high fertility
Running fewer sheep allows Tippy to take full advantage of one of the Dormer breed’s strongest traits – fertility. Twins are becoming the norm on Lower Rosstrevor, with a lambing percentage of 188% having been achieved in May and August 2008.
“The conception rate is incredible at about 76% twins and 13% triplets,” explains Tippy. “I’m running my stud at 500 ewes now, but I think I’m going to have over 1 000 lambs from them this year. In the end, two lambs are better than one, especially if you can afford to feed them, because you’re going to get more money back.”
Tippy has always selected for twins, and many of his best rams have been from twin lambings. “All my replacements are twins, because the genetics are there,” he says.
Lambing twins and triplets, his Dormers need supplementary feed, so they’re supported on 180ha of green feed, including lucerne. Tippy has introduced important management tools to ensure a high conception rate. “My sheep are mated over 22 days in small camps in groups of 50 to 70 ewes to a ram,” he explains.
“I always keep a teaser ram in the group to provide competition and keep my Dormer rams working. It’s important to make sure that the ram doesn’t think he has got all year.”
Tippy also collects the groups of ewes and rams once every second day, so that the rams can get to every ewe, because he finds that the ewes often drift off in groups.
The lambs are marketed directly from the ewes for a quick return.
“At five months I was weaning and selling at 40kg to 42kg in my commercial flock,” explains Tippy. “In the stud flock, I average 43kg at four months.”
Lambs which are not destined for the production sale are marketed at four to six months from their mothers, which he believes makes more economic sense.
Focus on numbers sold, not price averages
Before Tippy’s first production sale in 2006, farmers used to buy rams privately from him. Then they began pressuring Tippy to let them be the first to visit the farm for their yearly quota of rams. Following the advice of a friend, Tippy tentatively decided to go the route of production sales. From the start, he’s preferred to focus on offering more affordable, extensively reared quality rams at affordable prices. “I want to offer farmers a good price so they can perhaps buy an extra ram. In fact, the top buyer at the sale is given an extra ram! I go against convention because I’d prefer to sell more rams for less, than fewer rams for a higher price. I believe this is a better marketing strategy. Also, my rams don’t get fed and pepped up before the sale. They get supplemented, but not boosted. They’re hardy and fertile with good conformation and won’t fall apart on the veld,” he says.
It’s an approach to breeding Dormers that seems to have paid off for Tippy – in the past four production sale, he’s sold 1 400 ewes and 280 rams. This year, a single buyer bought 500 ewes. He has no reserve price on his sale and has never failed to sell all the Dormers on offer. Starting from next year, buyers can look forward to seeing more than 100 registered stud rams and between 400 and 500 ewes on Lower Rosstrevor.Contact Tippy Dormehl on 045 971 9141 or 082 7718949. |fw
