About Us

Welcome to Winrae Dorpers, we’d love for you to get to know more about why we breed Dorpers the way we do.

It comes from our Experience, Knowledge, Love for the Land and Livestock

What we do and how we do it. At Winrae Dorpers we breed for Fertility, Hardiness, Survivability and Sheep that are Structurally Sound. We do this by using natures tough selection process and then combine it with our extensive experience to breed Dorpers that can perform and survive.

Winrae Dorpers are naturally joined and we often use syndicate mating’s to let the rams perform as they would in the wild. We DNA test all progeny to ensure our genetic lines. We breed with a commercial focus for profitable success for our clients.

With over 60 years combined hands-on experience between us, as graziers, we are in touch with the land and our livestock needs and how stock perform in varied environments. Having owned Country in Outback NSW, Northern NSW and Central NSW, our management hasn’t changed from each property and we still operate the same at Bundarra as we did in the Outback.

Our grazing principles of a low cost, low input, rotational grazing system work in Semi-Arid environments to High Rainfall Climates and our Dorpers are bred to survive in any of these environments.

We are focused on Sustainable, Regenerative Agriculture and Low Stress Stock Handling and have been applying these principles since 2001.

History and Qualifications

Winrae Dorpers was Established in 1999 at ‘Winrae’ Bourke, Western NSW.

Originally the stud was run as a combined Family Partnership with Nick and Mel Pagett and Nick’s Parents, Brian and Kris Pagett.

The need for a sheep that could survive and fatten in the Semi-Arid region of Bourke was what drove the change to Dorpers from Merinos in 1998 and after purchasing 5 embryos of Tien Jordann bloodlines (as there were not enough live animals to purchase in Australia), Winrae Dorpers was created.

Breeding quickly increased from there and within 6 years we had a Stud of 600 ewes and we also bred our Commercial Dorper Enterprise up to 5000 ewes which we marketed as Organic Lamb.

Due to the drought our Stud and Commercial numbers have reduced, and we have retained only our Core Breeding Base of Elite Stud ewes which have 22 years of breeding behind them.

We are heavily involved in breeding for the Commercial and Stud Stock Industry in Australia as well as Live export of Stud Stock to other Countries including China, Russia, Japan and Brazil. We were invited to talk in Inner Mongolia to educate Farmers and Importers there on Breeding and Selecting Dorpers.

Nick and Mel are now the Sole Owners of Winrae Dorpers.

Qualifications- Nick and Mel are both qualified Dorper Judges and Inspectors and passionate Breeders. When the first Dorper Courses, run by South African Inspectors, came to Australia in 2001, Nick and Mel were keen to get educated as soon as they could to know exactly what they should be looking for when breeding Dorpers. They then passed their 2 Judges courses each and were invited to become Inspectors through the older and tougher judging system.

They have both been to South Africa on trips to do Dorper Courses and gain knowledge from Respected Breeders. Nick and Mel (along with their 4 children) used to show Dorpers, and have had a long, successful career in the show ring and now continue to do that through Judging and educating Dorper breeders in Australia and Overseas. They are passionate for the Dorper Breed and helping other breeders and clients to learn and grow.