Mason Road Ranch Dorper’s

06/16/2026

06/05/2026

We may not have a trained dog for round up, but we have these two!! 😍

The grass is holding up in pasture 1, while pasture 2 is getting a head start. Still hoping the rain in tonight’s forecast falls. 🤞🏻

Everyone out here is happy & healthy.

05/05/2026

2 questions & 1 story.

Does she look like a Nikki?
Would you keep a brown Dorper ewe?

A lot can change in a year hey?!

Nikki (names don’t stick to this ewe, ) had the biggest most beautiful.. wether. :/Looking forward to her future here. Her mom is #2, whom had 2 girls this year. Her gma was Margret, the matriarch of our flock. She sadly passed of natural causes 2yrs ago. Panda, our sons Ewe (who’s this years girl, he’s keeping) is Nikki’s aunt. Pandas twin is also here. (Margret only had the 3 ewes her whole time here!)

We love this line. They are big, no nonsenses ewes. Great mothers, even first year.

Why is Nikki brown?! Very rare double recessive gene. Cool hey!? Man Beau & I were suprised to find her last year. Stunned even. I had no idea this was possible, Kyle had seen it once online. Her twin was regular. 🤣

05/03/2026

Welcome to the farm little miss! Her brother is pretty cute too, but she was bee-boppin around & stole the show. These two were found dry & fed, in the pasture at 4am.

She’s on our potential list for a keeper. 😍

05/02/2026

Millie, is our eldest Ewe (*9yo) & she had two cute little yoda lambs. These 2 are now almost 24hrs old & we’ve had 4 others since. Down to our last 4 pregos now, but night shift must go on as 3/4 are ewe lambs (first time mothers).

Aren’t those ears just the best?! 😍

04/29/2026

People assume coyotes are the top predator of newborn livestock, but did you know where most losses are from.. ravens & neighbor dogs (yes, even calves, yes maybe your own yard dog).

The birds go for the eyes first, gross hey.
We did also have a sow & cub (I seen them with my own eyes a couple years ago) in our sheep pen. Scroll back for that post. Coyotes? Yes they are around, but they’ve not been successful here so far, thanks in large part to these dogs. The summer pastures are 10 & 20 acres, Mary Jane the pack mule also boarders the largest/farthest pasture on one side. Shes a force.. ask our three legged yard dog, Zeus, about her.

Bears style is to stay with the sheep, Simmy is a digger, she has holes & runs after coyotes. Ideal? Probably not. If we catch her out, she gets reprimanded. I think it’s getting better. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Livestock guardian dogs are an undertaking, do a lot of research before you buy one. The two we have lived with their parents out in the sheep pen, never in the house. Why 2? Honestly, insurance policy. It takes 2years before they can truly do the job. This year they are 2&4 and we trust them fully with new lambs. Last year they both got reprimanded, Simmy was tied up at night (Bear was too his first 2yrs. He actually ate the first lamb we ever had here. It may have been a stillborn, we don’t know.)

Bear tried to separate a ewe from its newborn lamb last year. Not sure what he was thinking.. perhaps protecting the crying newborn, he’d have grabbed the lamb if he wanted to eat it, right?! We thought he’d lost his mind, he got tied up for a few days over that.
Simmy (shown here, napping off her nightshift) was licking newborn lambs clean. Definitely not her job. I put both on a leash for the next birth & we went near but not close. They wouldn’t look at the ewe, they knew they were in trouble. (Learned that drill off a LGD forum).

My point? I don’t really have one. Just that if you think you need dogs, plan ahead. Be prepared for hiccups. Seek out the free advice of the pros on the internet. Tie them up the first year you lamb, maybe even the second. Research LGD puppies, you treat them differently from day 1. Think about your threats, including the ones in the sky.

Things you learn along the way, that people might not tell you.
Clearly I’m chatty today. Any questions? -Lanessa

04/29/2026

Records & flock uniformity.

Solid black heads are common. This is why newborn lambs get a numbered tag, linking them to their moms. This eliminates lamb chaos as they age, because most lambs are VERY HARD to place when away from their moms in the big summer pasture. This is also why earlier on I mentioned appreciating the lower black shoulder variation of one lamb, or Sniffers flashy white wethers.

Early on, with less ewes & lambs, we had no problem identifying. A couple years ago we tried the livestock paint which worked well for 2 months. 😵‍💫

Now we tag & it’s recorded before they leave the barn. I have a book, hubs has an app. We know the lineage of everyone here.

Sheep friends, where do you keep your records? 📚 💻

04/29/2026

Yes, you’re seeing that correctly, a third set of triplets! That’s a record. We’ve also truthfully had an unusual amount of singles from the ‘should have twins’ group. Weird year!

The splashy 2 are wethers (will be anyway) the cutie up top is a ewe.
10 prego mamas left.

04/27/2026

Busy night. Two twin rams around 430/5am, then two monster rams 4hrs later. The second set I had to weigh, because wow! So while I had the scale out I weighed all the recents to show you some common weights.

Single ewe 5.7kg (2yo ewe)
Twins 7.5kg combined (2yo ewe)
Big twins 6kg & 6.3kg! (4yo ewe)

Ewes are serious gold once they hit 4yrs old, big lambs & tons of milk. (We see better milk at 3, but lambs are often still a common size.)

Lucy at age 5, had 3x 5kg

Of course theirs exceptions to every rule, but here’s a good example.

04/24/2026

If you want dorpers, you better be able to handle a whole lotta cute! 💁🏼‍♀️😍