HOMETOWN LIVING AT I TS BEST 85
“Some Dorper ewes are used as
surrogates for embryos that have been
frozen and dry-shipped from Australia to
Indiana. They ship them to me, and I put
them in a tank in my storage building. A
fertilized embryo comes from a full-blooded
male and female Dorper in Australia.
Australia has better genetics than we have
in the States.”
“Why don’t you get everything
straight from South Africa where the breed
originated?” I asked.
“You can’t get them from South Africa
because the United States will not allow any
genetic material from South Africa due to
foot and-mouth-disease,” said Sunshine.
Every October, three veterinarians
from Southern Veterinary Services come
to Rockin C Farms with a truck and trailer.
“They are set up as a mobile vet lab and
will do AI (artificial insemination), embryo
transfers, or collect the rams.” Regardless of
which method is used, Sunshine said, “You
will only get about 50% success rate. And of
those that take, only about 50% are going to
be stud quality.”
Pointing to a beautiful Dorper ewe, she
said, “That one is a product of AI. Her mom
was one of my best ewes, and her dad is ‘Dell
Freddie.’ There’s a YouTube video of him. I
think he sold for about $7,000.” After one
natural pregnancy, the ewe can be artificially
inseminated. Ewes carry their young for five
months, and lambs are weaned when they
are three months old. They can breed about
every eight months. A ram in another pen
was her next stud ram, she explained. “He’s
not quite five months old and already well
over one hundred pounds.”
In addition, “We also raise a commercial
flock of Katahdins, another hair sheep,”
said Sunshine. According to katahdins.org,
they are “hardy, adaptable, low maintenance
sheep that produce superior lamb crops and
lean, meaty carcasses.”
Sheep are rotated between twelve
“paddocks” or fields. Using sunn hemp as
a summer cover crop, the sheep get a high
protein diet. “It grows great here,” said
Sunshine. “It’s really high in protein, and
they love it. You just plant it, and it puts
nitrogen into the ground.”
Three Central Asian Shepherds guard
the sheep twenty-four hours a day. “This is
Dorothy,” said Sunshine. “She’s five months
old. She’ll get to be about 150 pounds.
When she gets a little older, she’ll go out
Sunshine and Drew
Conner once raised Angus
cattle on their thirty acre
farm near Mount Vernon,
but they have had more
success with sheep.
/katahdins.org