Dorper veld rams that can adapt to any situation

Dorper breeder Christo van Deventer believes the breed has a bright future, with growing interest in the 'veld rams' produced by him and a select group of breeders in the Northern Cape. He spoke to Sabrina Dean about the importance of selecting based on performance data.

- Sabrina Dean

You can farm it on the veld. You can put it in a feedlot. Wherever it goes, the Dorper sheep produced by breeders involved in the Northern Cape Veld Ram Project (NCVRP) offers adaptability, performance, size to satisfy, and meat with quality to tempt the most discerning lamb connoisseur.

This is the gist of a conversation with Dorper stud farmer Christo van Deventer. He has been performance testing his bloodlines since 1992 when he first began entering his Dorper rams into the NCVRP.

Today, he has received numerous accolades, including Double Gold and Platinum recognition from SA Stud Book.

In the past five years, two of his rams were sold for the highest price at the group sale, with average prices steadily climbing.

Van Deventer is proud of the bloodlines he and other breeders in the region have created, saying the results show in the performance. He is also excited by the growth in demand for their rams from buyers across the country in recent years.

FAMILY FARMING OPERATION

Van Deventer is a third-generation farmer on the farm Brakpoort in the Prieska region, where he runs his Dorper stud under the name CC van Deventer. He grew up on the farm, which was first purchased by his grandfather and later farmed by his father, before he began farming there full-time in 1988.

Van Deventer says the family is not new to stud farming, with his father having operated a Karakul stud in the past. However, with the collapse of the hide market between the 1980s and the 1990s, they had to adapt.

At that stage he began buying some 'bont' (black head, white body) Dorper ewes, mostly sourced from stock originally bred by the well-known Dorper breeder Koos Vermeulen. Van Deventer purchased a small flock of ewes from Vermeulen's son in 1989.

"Over the years I then bought in a ram from here and a ram from there until we came to the point where we are today," he says.