Local farmer and sheep breeder, John Dell is adding to his already successful business with more accolades in Australia.
Local farmer and sheep breeder, John Dell is adding to his already successful business with more accolades in Australia.
His Dorper sheep fetched top prices at a recent sale in Dubbo, Australia with a single ewe, Dell 110409, going for 4 500 Australian dollars. His sheep regularly pick up all the top prizes at the Australian Sheep and Wool Show.
This is an amazing record for a sheep farmer who has no sheep at all on his Hounslow family farm about 20km from Grahamstown.
He no longer keeps sheep on this farm because the world's biggest importers of lamb carcasses refuse to buy South African products due to recent outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease.
Dell said that in the 1990s a group of Australians came to South Africa and told the Dorper Society they had a very good market for Dorper embryos overseas. They then formed an organisation in this country, set up a flushing station in Colesburg and began operations.
After about two years of trading, the Australians asked the local farmers to identify the best Dorper donors. They then took the best donors to Australia, promptly declared themselves insolvent and immediately began farming Dorpers in that country.
In the two years or so of trading embryos, the organisation managed to create an interest in Dorper sheep in Brazil, Australia and Canada.
In effect, they created a market for embryos where there wasn't one before, but it was still difficult to export embryos from South Africa because of concerns about diseases in this country and the rest of the continent.
Roughly eight years ago, a spate of foot and mouth scares in South Africa brought all embryo exports to a halt. As it is standard procedure among major importers to block exports for at least three years, Dell decided to branch out into Australia, so that if there were any more scares he would be able to supply the world from his Australian base.
This forward thinking has served Dell very well, as South Africa has not been able to export embryos for the past five years and all indications suggest that the situation is not going to improve in the medium-term future.
His son now uses the Hounslow farm for other purposes while his farm in Moama, New South Wales, Australia is thriving. Dell says that the Australian operation is currently the only certified European Union embryo transfer station in Australia.
He says he currently spends more time travelling around the world working as a consultant than as a farmer.
How are sheep embryos transferred?
The process of transferring sheep embryos from one genetically superior ewe to a donor ewe is delicate, requiring the services of a professional veterinarian. Yet it's lucrative.
The first step requires super ovulating hormone injections so that the donor animal produces more eggs than usual.
The injection brings the ewe into oestrus and consequently makes it receptive to donor sperm.
After several days, both ovaries of the ewe are artificially inseminated through a laparascopic procedure – injections through the stomach wall. After a further seven days, the embryos are ready for harvesting.
Microscopic embryos are harvested through a process known as 'flushing' that requires sterile water to be pumped into one side of the uterus and flushed out the other.
The embryos are graded under a microscope and they get washed to ensure that they are not diseased.
On average about six embryos are harvested per flush, so a similar number of recipient ewes needs to be prepared to receive the embryos.
The birth and rise of Dorper sheep
Dorper is a unique South African breed of sheep that John Dell has been breeding successfully in a rather unusual way.
The breed developed in South Africa in the 1930s when there was an over-supply of lambs in this country.
South African farmers tried to export their lambs but he says "it was a bit of joke" because they were of poor quality. The surplus of local lambs occurred mainly because the quality of our meat was not good enough for the British market.
The Department of Agriculture resolved that South Africa had to develop a new breed of sheep that was better suited to the harsh dry areas of this country and that could compete on an international market. Farmers were encouraged to experiment with different breeds until they found the solution to our problems with a cross breed of Dorset Horn and the desert Persian sheep – hence the name Dorper.
The first successful cross breed took place in 1933 and a Dorper Society was formed in 1950.
In 1948, Gowar Dell bought the Hounslow Farm, which was once home to the famous 19th century water colour artist, Thomas Baines, and took to breeding Dorper Sheep in a big way in 1958. The family still proudly retains its number 59 breeder number indicating that it was the 59th farm to start breeding the sheep.
Gowar became the first president of the Eastern Cape Dorper Sheep Club when it was established in Somerset East in 1960.
Gowar's son, John, took over the business in 1978 and is today a successful breeder even though there are no more sheep on the farm.
Today Dorper sheep are among the best breeds in the world for lamb carcasses.
Don't get fleeced
The fleece of the Dorper sheep is a mixture of hair and wool. The hair, which comes from its Persian heritage is hollow, does not take dye and cannot be woven, so Merino farmers do everything possible to avoid Dorper sheep. The problem is that if a single hair gets into the wool it can ruin a long piece of yarn and be very costly.
The business model
Dorper sheep have a big advantage over other breeds because they are not seasonal. Merino sheep will give you one lamb a year and will not come on heat until the next season.
A Dorper will lamb at any time of the year, with the best period being March to April and the worst time October to November. John Dell said, "We can mate our Dorpers three times in two years, whereas a Merino will only lamb once a year."
Dell went the embryo route because it was a means of adding value to his product.
"I used to send my old females to the abattoir and get a thousand rand for her.
"Now I send her to the embryo station and she gives me six embryos that I sell for $450 each – That means I get 27 500 dollars for each flushing, which is a lot more lucrative".
He said while it is possible to flush a sheep every six weeks, a flushing three times per year is very acceptable.
He said the most embryos he has ever heard of coming from one flushing is 55 from a white sheep owned by a friend in Brazil.
Dell said that although there are large populations of Dorpers in Brazil and Australia, "the top stuff still comes from South Africa".
