No matter how fast-paced and full her life sometimes becomes, Chloe Iiams is never far from tranquility.
It lives just a few steps outside her door and graces the hillsides that dip and rise over the almost 280 acres of her Barry County farm near Cassville, Mo.
She need only wander among the placid flock of Dorper and white Dorper sheep, so accepting and so content with their world, to find it.
“To be at home, to walk among them – it’s just a good, peaceful feeling,” Chloe said. “They’re a pleasure to work with; they love you, and you love them.”
Chloe has been raising sheep for 27 years, an enterprise that grew out of her children’s livestock projects.
“We lived on a small acreage, and my kids needed 4-H projects,” Chloe said.
Sheep were a natural choice because several can be raised on a few acres, they are easy for women and children to handle, and they don’t take a lot of fancy equipment, Chloe said.
And, she added, “I feel animals are a good way for kids to develop values and responsibilities.”
The children’s projects consisted of raising and showing wool sheep. Having developed a love for the animals, as well as for spinning and weaving their wool, Chloe continued to maintain a flock after her children moved out of 4-H. She acquired property from her parents, and now lives on part of the farm where she grew up. The larger acreage has allowed her to increase her flock.
In 2000, she changed breeds, buying her first full-blood Dorper ram, a meat and hair breed, which she started crossing with Katahdin, another hair breed, and a wool breed.
“I liked the result so much that in 2010, I bought an entire flock of full-blood White Dorpers,” Chloe said.
“I went to Dorpers to get away from the need to shear and to get lambs that can go to market in a hurry,” Chloe said. “I thought that was a big factor because of predator problems and parasites.”
With good care, Dorpers reach weights of 70 to 100 pounds by three months of age.
“I feel that for a producer who has any light-muscled hair sheep, white Dorpers are a good breed to cross with to put a lot of weight and muscle on in a hurry.” Chloe said. “If one presently has black-headed wool sheep, one could use a Dorper ram to keep the color, get rid of wool and get muscling.”
The breed also has the advantage of being “very easy keepers,” Chloe said, that take less care than many other breeds. The sheep are docile, easy to manage and experience virtually no problems with birthing. In her experience, Chloe said Dorpers appear more parasite tolerant and tolerate severe weather better than other breeds she has raised.
“They are a healthy, hardy breed,” Chloe said. “If you take care of them, they take care of you.”
Dorpers are easy to keep on a small acreage with reasonable fencing, and despite common belief, it is great to run the sheep with cattle, she added.
“It helps keep down weeds, brush and parasites for both species,” she said.
Chloe’s flock is pasture fed and receives only a minimum amount of grain, and that only in severe weather conditions, such as drought. Predators can be a problem, but not an insurmountable one.
“Coyotes and dumped dogs are a problem that can be handled by using guardian animals,” Chloe said.
“At present, I use five Great Pyrenees and Akbash guard dogs. This number seems just right for my 200-plus sheep, large acreage and rough terrain.”
Overall, Chloe said, the Dorper is a hardy, fat-tailed, desert breed that is fast to market and meets the needs of a new generation of sheep growers and new meat market.
Chloe’s primary market is selling registered full-blood and purebred breeding stock, which she has shipped to several states, including Texas, California and Mississippi.
“Anything not meeting my strict criteria is sold into the meat market,” she said.
Chloe prefers a spring lambing season, but to keep a steady supply of breeding stock for her customers, the Dorpers are bred to lamb in spring and fall, while the Whites lamb year-round. Babies are weighed, ear tagged and have their tails docked within a day of birth, and rams are subsequently weighed every two weeks or so to see how they are gaining. Lambs receive creep feed for a short time while nursing, but have free access to pasture with their mothers.
Management practices include a vigorous vaccination program, gene checks for scrapies and regular fecal counts. Chloe does much of her own vet work and even spent two days in Oklahoma to learn how to do fecal counts.
“That allows me to selectively deworm, which is a lot less expensive than doing the whole flock,” she said.
To ensure the continued health and improvement of her flock, Chloe keeps detailed records on each animal’s genetics and history and studies extensively to keep abreast of new information about the industry. She has been a member of the National Dorper Association since 2000 and currently serves as secretary of the Mid-America Dorper Association, which serves seven states.
“I’m proud of what I’ve developed,” Chloe said of her 27 years as a sheep producer.
And she is proud to share it with others, a fact evident in the name of her farm, C-Mi-Dorpers. Pronounced “See My Dorpers,” it’s an invitation for visitors to drop by, look and learn.
