Welcome to Glen Devon Poll Dorsets

Five generations of our Hart family have been farming at Glen Devon on the Adelaide Plains, Two Wells for over 100 years, including over 90 years of Dorset breeding in our enterprise mix. The Glen Devon Poll Dorset flock has been a strong contributor to the prime lamb industry for over 5 decades, being founded in 1959.

We have great pride in the product we have been able to consistently produce. To simplify our breeding objectives, we are aiming to produce rams that will enable our commercial clients to breed lambs for most market weights. That flexibility is important as seasons and markets constantly fluctuate. Producers need to constantly adjust their management and target markets to suit for the best economic outcome. Rams that only allow efficient production for one market weight range do not give lamb producers that ability to adapt their management and marketing.

We seek balance in our breeding objectives, for both phenotype and genotype. Some breeders are obsessed with performance figures only. For us, performance selection (genotype) is not a competition or race; it is extra information to assist buyers in their selections. We want our figures to be very good, but to have greater accuracy, consistency and repeatability on a sound and fertile animal that has longevity. The consumers of lamb are the ultimate judges; eating quality is so important. Excessive emphasis on lean meat yield is negatively correlated to intra muscular fat and thus eating quality (taste). Balance in selection is so important.

We will continue to make breeding decisions on client and industry feedback. We are certainly always working on fine tuning and improvement, but believe the proven Glen Devon product does not need radical change. The number of repeat clients is testimony to that.

Lachlan, Mileah, Eliza, Isobel, Rob & Helen Hart