How did I start out? you may be wondering; well, I’ll tell you. In 2020 I wanted to be involved in 4-H but didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I convinced my family to let me do a sheep project. We already had a barn and an acre of pasture that was fenced off and didn’t have any animals on it ;) At last they gave in! I did lots of research on what type of breed I should get and eventually the day came when we would go pick up our Dorper sheep. Please note, we left to get one or two. Did we get one? No, did we get two? No, we got three Dorpers! A ram, a ewe and a wether (the only one which would be used for 4-H). When we went to pick up the sheep, we decided to start a mini flock, however it didn’t stay mini forever. I had worked extremely hard getting my little wether, which we named Stomps, ready for the 4-H show. However, the show was CANCELELD AFTER ALL THE HARD WORK I DID! Oh well… I still got Stomps sold to a family member looking for some fresh lamb. After this I decided I should create a Dorper brand. I began reading and watching lots of videos about Dorpers and little did I know, the following year my ewe was about to give birth. At this time, I had two ewes: one fullblood (my original ewe which I still have to this day) and my newer ewe (that we call Goat). We bought her in the WSDA Reno Show & Sale in 2020. Goat gave birth first and had a beautiful set of twins which I named Scarlet and Star. These two were born an hour apart by the way. Scared me to death when I saw a second lamb the next morning! After this, my original ewe, Beauty, lambed. She also had twins which I named Clover and Patrick, which if you didn’t already guess where born on St Patrick’s Day. As the months went by, the lambs where weaned and in an unfortunate event, Patrick was killed by a Mountain Lion. I experienced the first real loss of one of my lambs. This same year I also experienced CL. A horrible thing to experience especially when you don’t know what it is or how to deal with It. Not to worry - we took care of it! With a little more experience, I began to grow my flock and soon attended loads of online sheep care classes and in person classes along with listening in on multiple podcasts about Dorpers. Each year whenever I enter sheep shows, I learn so much from these breeders. In 2020 I won the WSDA Dorper essay contest along with 3rd place in showmanship class. I also won the essay contest the next two years (so far). I love raising these Dorpers and love sharing what I know with other Dorper breeders. In 2022 I made my first sale. I sold one of my fullblood ewe lambs and was beyond happy. After that, I managed to make many more sales that same year along with multiple sales on my website! I continue to share what I know along with more and more about my story. it’s not made up, not a fake story, but my story. The story of how I got to where I am today and who picked me up as I fell along the way. Sometimes if felt like I should just give up, but as you can tell, I didn’t! I kept going and so should you. Continue doing what you love and pick up and support those young breeders who too are starting out just like I did. Thanks for joining me on this journey and to see me expand as I grow to many adventures along the way!
- MGDorpers
