About

Bellevue is a mixed agricultural enterprise operated by lifelong farmers David and Robbie Curtis, and their daughter Sophie. Along with the Bellevue Dorper and White Dorper Stud, a commercial ewe enterprise producing MSA accredited prime Dorper lamb, summer and winter grain rotations, of which some paddocks are undergoing organic certification, make up Bellevue’s enterprise mix. David is a qualified Dorper and White Dorper Judge and Inspector, successfully completing his final Judges exam in Britstown South Africa in 2010. David was one of two Australians who passed that judges exam in South Africa, making them the first two fully qualified Australian Dorper Inspectors. David was elected to the board of the Dorper Sheep Society of Australia Inc (DSSA) for the period 2010-2014, serving as President and Vice President during that time.

We are committed to, not only producing the best that we possibly can from our land, but improving the overall health of our land and soils by using regenerative farming practices.

The prime lamb enterprise gives us the opportunity, as stud breeders, to ‘ground truth’ the Bellevue stud rams.

We understand what the prime lamb market requires and sell our Bellevue prime Dorper lambs from 43+ kg live weight seasonally, from five months of age. One of the important advantages of the Bellevue prime lamb enterprise is that it gives us the opportunity as stud breeders to ‘ground truth’ our stud rams; we get to see how our rams are breeding and performing. We can confidently say, from our own observations, as well as feedback from butchers and prime lamb producers, that the Bellevue rams, Dorper and White Dorper, are performing and breeding very well. Prime lambs need to ‘hit the ground running’. They need to be born with ease, mothered well, and grow quickly to finish, reaching a saleable age as early as possible. Visual selection is the first tool we use when assessing animals to remain in our stud. Bellevue rams are selected for structural correctness, growth, muscle and good fat coverage. Fat coverage not only means good eating quality of the meat, but excellent maternal traits in the ewes retained for breeding. A ewe with good fat coverage will get in lamb sooner, have a greater chance of multiple births and will feed her lamb and ‘hang in’ longer when the weather is tough. She will then get back in lamb again, sooner, because her body condition is good, and do it all over again. This adds up to more dollars in our commercial prime lamb producers pockets.

Lambplan data and breeding history is then used to help select the best breeding animals for our seed stock production. Lambplan data enables us to know what animals will deliver and takes the guess work out of selection. All of our stud animals are weighed at birth, weaning and post weaning and are muscle scanned to gather the raw data for Lambplan. Ewes are selected for fertility and mothering. We expect a lambing percentage in the 150% range from a six week joining with the non performers being removed.

With prime lamb prices remaining strong, and with both domestic and multiple export markets wanting Australian lamb, the future looks bright for the prime lamb industry. It is a very exciting time to be producing lamb, and to be producing quality prime Dorper lamb, acknowledged for its eating quality, high yielding and early finishing carcases.

The Bellevue Dorper and White Dorper stud is one of the leading Australian studs and has made a big contribution to the Australian Dorper industry. The stud was founded in 2007 with a new and unique genetic pool from Namibian Dorper and White Dorper breeders Pieter van Schalkwyk and Floors Nell. Over the years the Bellevue genetics have won many National Championships, and have become very popular amongst stud and commercial breeders who like Bellevue’s productive, functional, balanced sheep. Paddock sale enquiries for rams are welcome, however the top of the draft rams are offered at the annual Bellevue on-property ram sale, held every September.

The appearance and performance of an animal is a combination of its genes and the environment in which it is raised (e.g. the amount and quality of feed, single or multiple birth type). Sheep Genetics ‘Lambplan’ breeding values (ASBV’s) account for these environmental effects, allowing the comparison of sheep based on the genes they will pass on to their progeny. It is important to remember when selecting for breeding, you are choosing the genes, not the environment.