If there are any breeders who have wiltipoll and Dorpers, I would like to hear arguments for and against each breed. Same if you are a Dorper breeder, what are the advantages of the Dorper over other breeds?
From what I have been told, Dorpers are not really a fully shedding sheep!! It seems they almost always have some wool left on their backs.
People I know who have Dorpers, have been having trouble with deformed hooves, especially on rams that are carrying a lot of condition - is there any truth in that?

I am a breeder of White Dorpers and I love them. As with other breeds the quality varies. I have full blood white dorpers and find most are full shedders. The shedding has alot to do with climate. This year I found that some that shed completely last year retained some backline which can be a good thing. It protects them against weather changes like we had last week. We had extreme heat and now its raining and cold. As far as hooves I dont have a problem though when the ground is soft they can grow a little long.They are sheep with fantastic,easy going natures. They lamb easily and are good mothers. I am yet to find a real flaw.
I hope this is of some help with your breed comparisons.

I breed Wiltipolls and also have a commercial flock of damara/dorper/wiltipoll mix. I recently bought a dorper ram for the commercial mob with the impression that he should be a good shedder, but unfortunatly he has most of his coat on. I recently received some information that if the sheep are deficient in selenium they tend to hold onto their coat, so i will give this ram a dose of selenium in spring to see if it makes a differance, as our soils are deficient where we live.
In the 06 drop a number of our ram lambs held onto their coat, while some lost it completely in a very short period of time. We have also noticed that alot of our lambs that are born late or have a poor start to the season tend to shed poorly. I feel a solution to all this is to make sure that they are not deficient in minerals and then cull all those that dont shed well from the breeding stock. From personal experience i have found that alot of dorper breeders dont feel that full shedding is a breeding priority, where as with wiltipoll breeders this is their main objective.

Hi All,
We have Dorpers and find there is diffently seems to me that some Dorpers shed some dont fully but we can have real cold snaps here & find Dorpers that keep abit of wool do better. Not that they need shorn just that topline of wool.As for deformed feet have not had that problem & our ram is huge.
I also breed alpacas so if anyone is after a guard for sheep let me know.
Sam eYKAMP

Wiltipolls x Dorpers
We have had Wiltipolls since 1993 and in the last 4 years have used a white Dorper ram with our ewes, as well as Wiltipoll rams: we have around 200 ewes.
The white Dorper has increased the muscling on some of the the progeny without loss of the large frame of the Wiltshire. However other progeny have developed into smaller framed sheep.
As yet, we don't believe that the Wiltshire or Dorper breeds can produce terminal sires that equal PDs, Suffolks and Texals but they do offer a maternal line which is a godsend given the current shambles of our wool industry.

We have had both Dorpers and Wiltshires/Wiltipolls, and I have my personal pros and cons.

Dorper:
-lots of muscle
-easy to condition
-sometimes get a bit too big for their frames
-they shed, but some have "blankets" on their backs throughout the summer then shed it before the new growth

Dorper x Wiltshire/Wiltipoll:
-great muscle-to-frame ratio
-larger animals, longer too.
-shed well

Wiltipoll:
-shed
-still put on fat well
-large frame good muscle from hybrid vigor from the other breed influences

I personally prefer the Dorper x Wiltipoll, but otherwise the Wiltipoll.