The Dorset Breed
The Dorset Horn sheep breed is one of the oldest recorded breed of British sheep with the first flock book established in 1892. It unique ability to breed naturally out of season was soon recognised world wide.
The Australians, known for their shepherding skills, imported the Dorset Horn to further improve their existing flocks. As a result of this improvement the Poll Dorset emerged in its basic form. Since then the Poll Dorset has further improved into the sheep that are in so much demand throughout the world today.
In the mid 50’s a far sighted Dorset breeder “Bunny” Lenthall while visiting Australia recognised the potential of the Poll Dorset and returned home to the UK with with 2 stud rams. Since then the Poll Dorset have grown in popularity, they are now the more popular of the two.
So why the Dorset breed
- Natural breeding ability at any time of the year
- Ideal Terminal or Maternal Sire
- Perfectly suited to a forage based system
- Exceptional mothering ability
- Fast growing early maturing lambs
- High lambing percentages ( 3 crops in 2 years averages around 250%)
- Minimal management requirement