The Kirkby family have been involved in rural agriculture all their lives. Justin was raised in the New England district while Lorroi grew up out the back of Bourke.

They now own their own property east of Moree. They started with 700 acres and have just purchased 1500 acres of a neighbouring property.  They also have a young family, Sam who is nearly three and Flynn who is 8 months.

Dorpers are Their passion in life and they have been breeding them for the last 7 years. 

"We breed dorpers as they are environmentally sustainable as well as economically viable meat sheep, bred to survive and adapted to thrive in the ever increasing dry times. The added benefits include no shearing, no mulesing, no crutching, chemical free, easycare and tasty. They fit easily into an organic farming system due to all these factors".

In grazing and farming their goal is to sustain the environment by perennial pasture regeneration and retaining a healthy soil structure. Healthy soils mean healthy plants mean healthy stock and therefore the healthiest lamb product.

"Rotational grazing is important in our management so pastures have a chance to regenerate and rejuvenate. Pasture cropping by direct drilling our fodder crops straight into perennial pasture is effective as it allows us to graze summer pasture and fill the winter feed gap by oats or wheat fodder crops. This in turn will allow us to turn off lambs year round as our Dorper can breed at any time of the year. Because the Dorper ewe can become pregnant again about 6 weeks after she lambs we are lambing at least every eight months. This allows us to carry fewer ewes but turn off the same amount of lambs or more without overstocking and destroying the biodiversity of our farm" said Justin.

"Farmer Direct Lamb is providing an excellent service that in turn benefits everyone. Consumers get the benefit of healthy, juicy prime Dorper lamb finished on naturally occurring pasture with no added chemicals and in turn the producer benefits with the knowledge of a secure market". See Kirkby Farm Website