Their love for the breed and a drive to continue a family legacy and protect biodiversity sees Margaret and Colin Chapman continue the oldest ongoing Dorset Down sheep stud in Australia.
The stud, Woodhall, is named after Margaret’s family farm at Richmond Plains where the stud was founded.
Her grandfather Walter Turnbull had tried different prime lamb sires over his Corriedales but wasn’t satisfied, so he ordered ewes directly from the Torey family in the UK in 1939. But, the sheep were not delivered until 1945 after the end of World War II.
The five in-lamb ewes came by ship and spent time in quarantine at Coode Island near Melbourne, before being released for transport to Richmond Plains, between Wedderburn and Charlton.
The ewes all had twins, and they established the second recorded flock of Dorset Downs in Australia: the first was established in 1937 by L.J. McMaster, Binnia Downs, Coolah, NSW, but it has since been dispersed.
Margaret said the family stuck with the Dorset Down because they delivered what her grandfather had hoped: the rams produce low-birth weight, fast-growing and quality, lean prime lambs. They sell lambs through the Bendigo Livestock Exchange.
The Chapmans said Dorset Down sheep were also hardy and adapted well to Australia’s varied and often harsh climatic conditions – doing well in both high-rainfall and dry areas.
They are resistant to footrot, fleece rot and blowfly strike.
Margaret took over running the sheep at the 450-hectare Woodhall in 1985, following the death of her father.
“He said to me that he hoped I’d keep the blackfaces going,” Margaret said.
She and her husband have done just that, continuing the Dorset Down stud and using Dorset Down rams over their commercial Corriedale ewes. They balance farming activities with work – both are pharmacists and Mr Chapman is also a veterinary surgeon.
“Dorset Down sheep are calm, beautiful and adaptable,” Margaret said.
“The ewes are amazing mothers – if the Dorset Down ewe loses a lamb, it will stand by it for days and we don’t lose many to foxes because they are very protective.”
They joined about 90 Dorset Down ewes this year. Mr Chapman said the rams were put out after Christmas and into the New Year because it worked best for the breed. It also means lambs are born in July to take full advantage of spring pastures, as usually everything dries off in the area’s hot summer.
They use LambPlan and carefully record birth weights, growth rates and weaning weights, and scanning data of muscle and fat depths of all young Dorset Down sheep on the property. They said using Lambplan made it possible to continually improve the breeding and production characteristics.
They use artificial insemination to rejuvenate the stud’s genetics, with much of the genetic material coming from New Zealand, where the breed is more popular. There are only four Dorset Down studs listed in the 2016 Australian Stud Sheep Breeders Association flock book. The Chapmans’ four adult children have all helped showing sheep.
This year, the family will bring eight sheep to the Australian Sheep and Wool Show. Margaret and Mr Chapman are excited to take part in the heritage breed feature show and see it as a great opportunity to benchmark their sheep and celebrate the breeds.
Mr Chapman is the president of Heritage Sheep Australia, which was established by a group of breeders in 2002 to help preserve the unique genetic qualities of the old breeds of sheep.
Their aim is to protect, promote and secure the future of the breeds that played an important role in the foundation of the sheep and wool industry in Australia.
“My view is that it is important to preserve the heritage sheep breeds in Australia because it provides bloodlines and genetics which can be used now and into the future to develop sheep and sheep products which could differ from what is fashionable at the moment,” Mr Chapman said.
The Chapmans said Dorset Down had a fine downs type wool that people bought to use for arts and craft. He said given Australia’s strict quarantine regime, it was near impossible to import any of the heritage breeds in the future from places other than New Zealand.
