In 1989 I purchased a property on Western Eyre Peninsula , between Minnipa and Pt Kenny. I originally ran merino wethers, then a merino self replacing ewe flock . By the late 90's was looking for alternatives and so went to South Africa in '98 to look at their Dorper and other meat breeds. I imported Dorper embryos in '99 and started a small pure Dorper flock at Keith.

The original plan was to build up to a pure Dorper flock at Minnipa but it soon became apparent that they had too much initiative with fences to run them under my system ( minimal supervision with 5-6 wire transiently electric fences ).

Next plan was to run a line of Wiltshire X ewes with Dorpers as terminal sires but although these were very good ewes the seasonal breeding trait was too strong, so on to plan 'C' which was to breed a line of Van Rooy X ewes out of the Wiltshires ( both these breed are quite good on fences ) and again use Dorpers as terminal sires. The interesting result here was that although the Wiltshire and Van Rooy were both good shedders, it seemed like the genetic pathways of the trait were different in each breed and so did not add together but bi- passed each other. By this stage I had a drop of Dorper cross lambs out of these ewes which looked quite good and I decided that this would be my final breed . Since I did not want to keep cross -breeding for ever, I have been attempting to fix this type since then .Every sheep I own (ewes and rams ) is this breed except for a few old Van Rooy X ewes for joining to pure Dorper so I can keep bringing in outside genetics..last of these died 2022 . The last of these got joined in ‘18 to a couple of black head dorpers which were hanging around from another project…. have kept two ram lambs from this which are black heads but the same combination as everything else. ( Assumes black head dorpers are the same as white dorpers …a bit of a stretch but is what I was told when in Sth Africa. ) Will see how their progeny look…. Too many coloured lambs from these boys for my liking so will keep a few of the white lamb rams out of this line in 2020 and see how they go. 2022 - even the grandsons of the blackheads ( totally white ) throw a few coloured ..maybe 5% but I can live with that…assume with selection it will fade out in time.

It was a deliberate decision not to incorporate any damara in the breed as I felt the clean shedding trait did not compensate for all the bad features , especially temperament and carcass variability.

I originally left tails long on the rams for ease of identification in the paddock, especially for hoggets and I docked tails quite long on the ewes ( to teats at marking ) as short tails are associated with a much higher incidence of rectal prolapse ( recent work also indicates significantly lower incidence of arthritis in lambs which are docked correctly vs too short ).Since some ram buyers dislike long tails , I have now reversed the process … dock rams and leave everything else long. . Up til now I have had no problems with the meatworks and long tails but as yet have not sent a load which is mostly long. Update 2016 ... left all tails on except for rams, have sent about 620, almost all long tails with no comment back from works. Update Mch ‘19 …have sold couple thousand long tails to 3 different meatworks with no complaints.

July 2016

Purchased more land so, to increase my numbers have joined lambs to drop at 14 mths old , plus will rejoin main ewe mob at weaning to lamb again at 8 mths interval .Since it has been an exceptional season I don't anticipate any feed problems but I know management of the lambing groups will get pretty complicated ( normally the young ewes would slot back into the main group 10 mths after lambing but not with an 8mth joining for the mature ewes.) Because am so understocked have culled nothing which reared a lamb so still have a few woolly backs around. Only had one flyblown sheep this summer out of about 800.... in the wettest summer we have had for a while I can live with that.

May 2018

Original property burnt out on January ... no longer understocked! So far had 2 lambings at 8 mth intervals giving 116% and 106% of ewes joined, next will be in July….marked 128% of ewes joined. Has been succesful in getting my numbers up but management issues with lucerne pasture on sand mean I probably won't go there again once I get back to my normal joining ( after this lambing ). I find lambing hoggets at 14 mths works (80-100% lambing ) and they will rejoin to lamb again at 24 mths to fit in with my main line.

Mch’19

Had 3 flyblown this year…2 were horned teasers (vasies ) fight wounds on head and one was an old cull ewe which still had a “saddle”. I am old and cynical enough to think that the only reason you would advocate keeping a backline of wool on these sort of sheep was if you did not have enough clean shedders. I had a few sunburnt lambs last summer when I lambed couple mobs in pdks with no trees but did not seem to cause any significant problems … they healed ok….. but I now select against the really pink lambs plus set stocking lucerne country in summer does not work here anyway.

 May’19 Never stop learning … because of split lambing , had hggts lambing at 14-16mths in line with my main ewes … gave about 30% lambing ( wet at lamb marking) Next batch which were joined to lamb at 12 & 14 mths old just gave 86% sil … some of these are quite small and even allowing for losses between scanning and lamb marking this is more what I was expecting. In hindsight have never tried lambing hoggets at the least fertile time of year ( autumn ) before and it clearly does not work, at least for my line.

Jan’21 Back to 8 mth joining ( for 5 weeks adults, 6 wks maidens )….just marked 112% so happy enough with that….8 mths after the previous lambing, although was hoping for more. Fine tuning the system …lambing ewes in paddocks which am going to renovate next year so can afford to wreck them…. keeps the weight off the ewes until they have finished lambing. Have also decided to lamb ewe hggts at 16 mths instead of 14, can’t sell scanned empties as lambs but means they will line up with the main line….I realise I could just leave them another 2 mths after weaning before joining but I then lose the weaning stimulation to ovulation effect .

Aug’21 Middle of lambing ..expect it will be my best result ever …. would like to think this is the result 20 years of culling every ewe which has not reared a lamb but realistically is probably more a seasonal effect plus maybe a bit more effort in baiting foxes.

My plan continues to evolve… since I had some out of synch hoggets, have now decided my best option is to split my total flock into 2 equal mobs, lambing 4 mths apart so that I will now have a lambing every 4 mths. To increase no.s in the smaller group, I have joined a mob of lambs to lamb at 12 mths old….don’t expect a good result at this time of year but if I get a couple of hundred it will help balance the numbers and will still have time to scan and rejoin the empties to lamb at 16 mths. I will be fairly forgiving of 12 mth old lambs which don’t succesfully rear a lamb.

Sept’22 Lambed another mob at 12 mths old to balance my numbers…scanned 88% preg, marked 100% on ewe numbers joined….this is a seasonal effect …do not go that well at other times of year.

July’24 Been dry season, finally on top of the feed situation …I think. My approach was to lock up all scanned preg ewes and feed hay only for 2 1/2 mths. Was surprised how well they maintained …mostly poor quality ‘22 hay. Sold their lambs as stores apart from some replacements. other ewes with laf left in pdk on thin feed. Would not eat the hay and battled a bit …lost a few with the cold wet weather when it finally arrived but no more than I would have lost from mastitis and the odd cast ewe in a normal season. Out of about 1000 ewes in that group', had no mastitis at all and maybe one cast. Weaned their lambs 2 weeks early and ewes went into yards on hay while the preg group went out into the pdk ready for lambing. Had saved a few pdks with reasonable pick for the lambs and after 5 weeks they are starting to go ahead. Moral is …have more hay ! Rams are out with the weaned ewes now, will give them 6 weeks joining instead of the 4 I would norma lly join at this time of year. Most have picked up now but a few of the old , and the young ewes are still pretty lean. Dont expect a great result and because of the season will cut the young ewes a bit of slack instead of selling everything that is dry. The next paragraph was written for another time …this season is the first time my sheep have been skinny since they moved from Minnipa on Eyre Peninsular.

I don’t expect this system would work in harder country, but my situation is fairly reliable rainfall, good lucerne/veldt country but very fragile, deep sand which sheep will destroy if it is grazed hard. So to keep the weight off them, I have to keep them working.

Breed Objectives

The original aims were :

Fully shed ( by October to reduce grass seed damage )

Stay in paddock

Tough enough to autumn lamb on dry feed west coast ( probably a bit optimistic)

Still slot into the local prime lamb market (18-20kg carcass)

In addition, since bringing a portion of the flock back to sandy country north of Keith, I have had to start selecting for feet ( never see foot problems at Minnipa ).Have also decided that I like the pigmented nose and feet from the Wiltshire heritage and also like those lambs which have a short woolly coat rather than hair ... irrelevant for the end product but is much more acceptable to the average buyer if I have to bail out and sell as stores.These are minor selection traits. In hindsight am selecting away from the short woolly coat and trying to aim more for a sleek white hair coat.

I am trying to breed an animal which requires minimal inputs and will produce an acceptable carcase from grass. Am not aiming for an animal which is going to 'top the market' but requires grain or irrigated lucerne to finish. At the end of the year, meat produced/Ha is more important for the bottum line than meat produced /head.   

Average ewe weight is about 60-65kg liveweight and mature rams about 100kg. Dressing % for 2015 lambs from Keith averaged about 47%, but was back to 42% for the lambs from Wudinna which had a hard start in life until after weaning.

The Eyre White breed will produce an 18-20 kg carcase lamb @ 5-6 months on reasonable pasture with minimal inputs. No shearing, crutching or dipping costs and almost zero fly problems.