A mixed cropping and sheep enterprise in western NSW is finding ongoing success with their White Dorper flock.
Mount View Pastoral Company is owned and operated by the Laird family and is located 60 kilometres north-west of Hillston.
They run 8500 White Dorper breeding ewes in a self-replacing flock on 30,000 hectares.
The Laird family uses Annalara White Dorper stud rams, owned by the Cresswell family, of Dubbo.
They have been repeat buyers at their annual ram sale for the past 15 years. Earlier this year Ben paid $5200 for the top-price ram.
"We have been purchasing our rams from the Cresswells for many years because we want a good balance of traits and physical structure," he said.
"Our main focus is on breeding a well-conformed, early maturing animal that is highly fertile.
"Very sound structure is important to us because we are running a self-replacing flock. All our paddocks are at least 5000 acres, so having that good conformation to walk vast distances is essential.
"Our property comprises open floodplain country, with native grasses and winter herbages. With few tree belts, we do like the sheep to have a bit of wool down their back to protect them from the sun and frosts."
The Lairds introduced Dorper rams into their Merino breeding program in 2005 to meet market demands as well as circumvent the increasing struggle to secure shearing contractors.
"We could see there was going to be a shearer shortage and we had to try something different," Ben said.
"Sheepmeat was selling well at the time, and the wool market was nowhere near the highs that it has seen in recent times, so we tried them. We decided on Dorpers because of their hardiness, and saw the success other people were having turning off fat lambs on similar country to ours."
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The ewes lamb year-round, with a constant joining. Although very season dependent, this year's lamb marking percentages have been more than 100 per cent so far. In good seasons, they have marked up to 160pc.
"In drier years we wean our lambs early, bringing them into holding paddocks close to home. We feed them on to meet target weights depending on market trends at the time," Ben said.
Due to the high prices breeding females are commanding, the Lairds sell most of their surplus ewes online via AuctionsPlus. While the wethers are sold mainly into the sheep and lamb market at Griffith in the winter months, and over the hooks through the summer months mainly to Tallangatta.
"We sold young ewes last year online to $371, and 5.5-year-old ewes made $345," Ben said.
