Ngarongo Dorset Horn

23/07/2023

Sorted the lambs tails and jab today, great group of lambs. Stevie-rose has a great little triplet ram lamb for pet day this year.

17/04/2023

Girl's out injoying the afternoon sun. Ted with his lighter head gear is alot happier.
He can see what he's eating.

06/07/2022

Wayne Frank a Dorset breeder in North Taranaki has a line of quality Dorset horn ewes available.

06/06/2022

More Lamb spam.😉

04/06/2022

Some nice big ewe lambs born this morning nice sunny day to greet them.
Six more ewes looking close to lambing in the next couple of days.

19/03/2022

Baxter the boxer trying he's hand at sheep do***ng.

19/03/2022

Ewes getting on top of the grass looking forward to some rain.

20/12/2021

Girl's and Boy's ready for there wool to come off ✂️today. Few of the older girls have been hiding under the trees as the heat of the day comes on this week.
Good luck to the Shearer 100 to 1 Mobile Farming there's a bit of weight in that yard.

24/10/2021

Lambs bouncing around stirring every one up.

28/08/2021

Post lambing sort out today. First lot of wethers ready for a new home. Ewe lambs are looking good.

22/05/2021

17/03/2021

Great evening for shifting the sheep.

07/03/2021

07/03/2021

The Dorset Horn originated in Dorset in south-west England. Like the extinct Pink-nosed Somerset to which it is related, it probably derived from cross-breeding of Merinos imported from Spain with local tan-faced sheep similar to the modern Portland. Unlike many British lowland breeds, Dorset sheep were not influenced by cross-breeding with the Leicester or Southdown breeds which were much used for this purpose in the latter eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
A breeders' society, the Dorset Horn Sheep Breeders' Association, was set up in 1891 and the first flock book was published in the following year.

The Dorset Horn was exported to many countries, among them Australia, South Africa and the United States, where the first arrivals were in the 1860s and where substantial numbers were imported from about 1880.

The Dorset Horn reached Australia in 1895,
an New Zealand in 1897 and again in 1903,
but had little attention given to it. A further importation in 1937 marked a period of breed increase, but numbers are still small.

Dorsets are an all white sheep of medium size having good body length and muscle conformation to produce a desirable carcass. The fleece is very white, strong, close and free from dark fiber. Dorset fleeces average five to nine pounds (2.25-4 kg) in the ewes with a yield of between 50% and 70%. The staple length ranges from 2.5 to 4 inches (6-10 cm) with a numeric count of 46's-58's. The fiber diameter will range from 33.0 to 27.0 microns.

Dorset ewes weigh from 68 to 90 kgs at maturity, some in show condition may very well exceed this weight, Dorset rams weigh from 99 to 124 kg at maturity. Dorsets are one of the few breeds that carry the "out-of-season" breeding characteristic. The ewes are good mothers, good milkers and multiple births are not uncommon. Dorsets work well in commercial situations both in the ewe flock and from a terminal sire aspect.

05/03/2021

Dorset's at a market 1920s England.

05/03/2021

I have been breeding my line of Dorset Horn since 2005 in Taranaki New Zealand.

We purchased our first 8 ewes from Avonstour Huiroa Stratford and borrowed a ram for our first mating.

In late 2006, I purchased a registered Empire Ram FSB15/04 from Leeston, South Island - he weighed 119kgs.

After having this empire ram I knew this was the type and look of sheep I wanted to work toward. However, his tight horns did effect our rams that followed.

In 2010, we bought 5 ewes from the Sands Flock from Cambridge, as it was being dispersed. These were Lochaire recorded Ewes and Ponsonby/Sands breeding - nice strong wide horned ewes and great size. The strong wide horns have followed on as I used a ram from one of the Sands Ewes for two more generations.

In early 2013, we bought in a ram lamb from North Auckland, his sire was Lochaire #96 and Dam Sands Pink 1-09 with nice wide horns. He was used for a number of years as I found it hard work finding a replacement.

In 2018, I then purchased an outstanding ram from West Melton Canterbury. He was a mix of Ponsonby and Spencer blood. Unfortunately, I only got a handful of lambs out of him. He caught his horn in a fence and I didn't find him til the next morning.....I was gutted! I am currently using one of his offspring and hope to replace him with another ram from the same outstanding line.

Over the years, we have averagely had 25 to 35 ewes. Generally 3 lambings in 24 months but every now and then missing one as a rest for the ewes.