MAGGIE BRICE SNELL
BROKER / OWNER / REALTOR®
Turning Houses into Homes!
www.thegeorgiaproperties.net
912-537-8382 | 912-245-8288
1807 East First Street, Vidalia, GA 30474
with more sheep.” Dorothy’s mama,
Ariel, sat under a shed across the field.
“This breed is more aggressive and not
as friendly as the Great Pyrenees, which
are often used to guard sheep,” she
noted. “They’re easy to train and very
submissive to their owner. We use our
older Great Pyrenees, Juno, to train
young guard dogs.”
“You can’t insure sheep, so guard
dogs are especially important. They keep
the coyotes and other predators away.
Your neighbor’s dogs could get in your
pens and will literally run your sheep
to death. And a pack of wild dogs can
kill an entire herd. At $1,000 a head,
that can be a big loss, so dogs are pretty
cheap insurance. I always tell people, if
you’re going to buy sheep, you better
buy a dog, too.”
Jen is the other invaluable working
dog at Rockin C Farms. The collie was
purchased about four years ago from
Hubert Bailey in Dawsonville. “And
that’s where she was trained,” said
Sunshine. “We use Jen to work the
sheep, and she’ll bring them to us
when we give the instruction to do so.
We recently bred her to a blue merle
winning trial dog named Neal. Some of
the litter were sold to buyers as far away
as Canada.”
Genetics and breeding are a key
part of the work at Rockin C Farms.
“Our main focus is on producing
breeding stock full-blood Dorpers,” said
Sunshine. Her full-blood Dorpers are
registered with the American Dorper
Sheep Breeders Society. In addition,
she and her husband are enrolled in
the Mandatory Scrapie Program. The
program’s goals are to eradicate classical
scrapie a transmissible spongiform
encephalopathy (TSE) affecting sheep
and goats from the United States and
to meet World Organization for Animal
Health criteria for disease freedom.
(www.aphis.usda.gov)
The Conners have taken a Dorper
Breeder's Junior and Senior Judges
Course and attended the Famacha
Certification workshop in order to
perform fecal egg counts at Rockin C
Farms. Ultrasounds are also performed
on their ewes to confirm pregnancy.
Other memberships include: The
American Dorper Sheep Breeders'
Society, the Mid-South Regional Dorper
Association, the American Border
Collie Association, and the Georgia
Sheep and Wool Growers Association.
Sunshine currently serves as Secretary/
Treasurer of the Mid-South Regional
Dorper Association and a board member
of Farm Service Agency for Toombs
County.
Sunshine’s idea of a hobby, and
my idea of a hobby are obviously two
different things. Collecting old books
and breeding sheep that can survive
in the South are not even comparable.
Working with sheep is her stress relief.
“Sometimes you make money,” said
Sunshine. “Sometimes you don’t. But I
love them.” And letting our hearts love
what we do is what makes what we do
enjoyable after all. No matter if it’s a
hobby or an occupation, loving what you
do makes what you do invaluable to the
rest of the world.
maggiebsnell@gmail.com
Did You Know?
“The sight of sheep grazing on
the south lawn of the White
House may seem unusual, but
during World War I, it was a
highly visible symbol of home
front support of the troops
overseas. The flock, which
numbered 48 at its peak,
saved manpower by cutting
the grass and earned $52,823
for the Red Cross through an
auction of their wool.” (whitehousehistory.
org)
86 TOOMBS COUNTY MAGAZINE
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/(www.aphis.usda.gov)
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