About Us        

 

Chaparral Sheep Ranch is located in the heart of Southwest Missouri Ozarks.  Originally beginning with quality Katahdin hair sheep in 2000, we quickly switched over to using a full blood Dorper ram in 2002 to gain faster growing lambs.  We couldn't be happier with the results.  We have continued to keep back exceptional quality Dorper ewe lambs to cross on desirable full blood and purebred Dorper rams.  Our current flock consists of all registered Dorpers and just a few select favorite Katahdin ewes.

 

Our goals are to maintain excellent shedding cover on fast growing, meaty animals.  The Katahdin base we started with has been very conducive to better shedding hair coat offspring with high maternal instincts.  Meat quality is supreme. We strive to continue to produce these attributes.

             

 

Lending a helping hand at the Chaparral are our working Border Collies, Great Pyrenees and Anatolian livestock guardian dogs. 

 

 

"He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog.  You are his life, his love, his leader.  He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart.  You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion."

                   --Unknown--

 

Dorper History:

The Dorper is a South African breed developed in the 1930's from the Dorset Horn and Blackheaded Persian. The breed was developed for the regions of South Africa.

The breed shows exceptional adaptability, hardiness, reproduction rates and growth as well as good mothering abilities.

The breed has the characteristic black head (Dorper) as well as white heads (White Dorper). The Dorper breed was developed through the crossing of the Blackhead Persian ewe with the Dorset Horn and this resulted in the birth of some white Dorper lambs. The difference in color is merely a matter of preference for each breeder. Black-headed breeders constitute about 85% of the members of the Dorper Sheep Breeders' Society of South Africa.

Its skin covering is a mixture of hair and wool, and will shed off. The Dorper skin is the most sought after sheepskin in the world. The skin comprises a high percentage of the income (20%) of the total carcass value.

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 blackhead and white Dorper breeders united into one association calling the black head sheep "Dorpers" and with the unmarked being called "White Dorpers".