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Welcome to Smokey Creek Farm!
We breed and raise Dorper sheep, and also sell naturally-raised lamb from our farm near Arthur, Ontario. All of our stock is purebred and registered on the Canadian Livestock Records Corporation (CLRC)
website. We chose Dorpers because of their
excellent meat qualities and ease of management. Dorpers are 'hair'
sheep, meaning that they have a light wool or hair coat that generally
sheds in warmer weather. With today's low wool prices and high shearing
costs, that is a handy benefit! We also like the temperment of the
Dorpers. They tend to have a calm and quiet disposition and are easy to
manage. We rarely see a "rammy" Dorper ram, and that means fewer
trips to the chiropractor.
The quality, health and welfare of our animals is our driving concern. We value our customers and have seen quite
a bit of repeat business over the years. We maintain a closed flock to improve health
and minimize exposure to disease, and we are participants in the
SheepFlock Improvement Program and are registered under Canada's Scrapie Flock Certification Program.
Our lambs are vaccinated against a variety of sheep diseases. While
we endeavour to minimize the use of antibiotics and systemic medicine,
we do treat wuth antibiotics if an animal is ill, and our flock is
treated periodically with antihelminitics when on pasture.
Dorpers are good
breeders, and ewes generally will drop twins, with some singletons and
the occasional trio. Several years ago, we successfully tried a shorter
season "out of cycle" breeding program and were able to breed the ewes
about every 8 months. However, we decided to go back to an annual
breeding program, since it gives the ewes more time to recover between lambings and it's
easier on the lambs to be born in the
spring, rather than on a cold January night!
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