Dorper Lamb Whole Share

A whole Dorper lamb, approximately 60 pounds of takeaway meat, custom-cut to your specification, flat $16.67 per pound including processing. Pickup August 15, 2026 from Colorado City, Arizona, or freezer-pack LTL delivery available. The best per-pound price on US-raised lamb you will find from a brand that actually sells lamb at all, which most direct-to-consumer brands do not.

What You Get

A whole share is one entire Dorper lamb, butchered to your cut sheet. A typical whole share yields roughly:

• 12 to 16 lb of chops (rib and loin combined)
• 2 legs (5 to 7 lb each, bone-in or boneless, your call on each)
• 2 shoulders (3 to 4 lb each, roast or chunked for stew)
• 4 shanks
• 16 to 20 lb of ground
• Optional: 2 racks frenched, neck for braising, organs (liver, heart, kidney) if you want them

You build the cut sheet on a 20-minute phone call after order placement. Want one leg bone-in and one boneless? Done. Want the shoulders chunked and the racks frenched? Done. Want every bone saved for stock and every organ packed for charcuterie? Done.

The Cut Story

A whole-animal share is the cheapest per-pound way to fill a freezer with a single species. You commit to the animal in advance, the processor handles cut and pack, and you take delivery of the entire lamb. The cost-per-pound drops because you are buying everything, including the cuts that retail for more individually (shanks, rack, frenched chops) and the cuts retail customers rarely buy (neck, organs, trim).

Dorper genetics are why a whole-share is approachable instead of intimidating. Dorpers are hair sheep, developed in South Africa in the 1930s and brought into the United States in the 1990s. They shed their coat instead of growing wool, which means they produce almost no lanolin. Lanolin is the source of the strong gamey or muttony smell that turns people off imported lamb. No lanolin, no funk. Every cut in the share, from the chops to the ground to the organs, tastes mild and clean.

Our lambs are born on Circle 7 ranch ground in the Utah-Arizona strip, raised on native range forage, and harvested under 12 months. The whole share gives you a year of dinners, several holidays, and enough ground to build a weeknight habit around.

Why Circle 7 Has Lamb When Other DTC Brands Do Not

Most online meat brands run beef, pork, chicken and stop. They do not sell whole-animal lamb shares because they do not sell lamb at all. We sell whole shares because we raise lambs on our own ranch and because the per-pound math is the best value in our catalog. The category gap is the opportunity.

Marbling and Quality

Every cut in the share comes from the same animal: a Dorper lamb under 12 months, range-raised, fine intramuscular marbling, clean white fat, rose to deep pink meat color. The animal eats the same diet from birth to harvest. Consistency across cuts is the whole point.

How It Ships (or Gets Picked Up)

Pickup option (default): August 15, 2026 from Colorado City, Arizona. We will email you a 30-minute pickup window the week before. Bring three coolers or a chest freezer in the truck bed.

Delivery option: Freezer-pack LTL from Colorado City. Add $145 to $225 depending on zone. Insulated carton, gel packs, transit 1 to 3 days, hard-frozen on arrival. Multiple cartons.

Suggested Use

A whole share fills a 7 cubic-foot chest freezer with room for sides. Plan menus across 10 to 14 months. Chops for date nights, legs for holidays (one in spring, one in fall), shanks for winter Sundays, ground for weekly tacos and Bolognese, shoulders for stew season, racks for the two times a year you want to show off. Many customers split a whole share with one or two other families.

Cut Specs

What Is Different About Circle 7 Lamb

1. Dorper breed, not wool sheep, so no lanolin and no gamey smell.
2. US ranch-raised in Utah and Arizona, not imported.
3. Range-finished on native forage, not penned.
4. Custom cut sheet on a phone call, not a generic box.
5. Whole-animal pricing means $16.67/lb across the board, the best per-pound rate we offer.

Customer FAQs

Can I customize the cut sheet? Yes. After you order, we schedule a 20-minute phone call to walk through your preferences for both halves of the animal: chop thickness, ground packaging size, leg style (one bone-in, one boneless is common), shoulder roast or stew, organs, neck, trim use.

How much freezer space do I need? A 7 cubic-foot chest freezer holds a whole share with room. A 5 cubic-foot freezer is tight but possible if you take pickup and start cooking from it immediately.

Will it taste gamey? No. Dorper hair sheep produce almost no lanolin, which is the gamey-flavor culprit. Across every cut in the share, the flavor is mild and clean.

Can I split with another family? Yes. Many customers do. You order, we cut, you split the cuts at pickup. The order ships as one share to one address. Some customers split with two other families to make it a year of lamb dinners for three households.

What is the actual savings vs ordering cuts individually? At individual retail, the same animal of cuts runs $1,150 to $1,350 depending on the mix. Whole share at $1,000 saves $150 to $350 plus locks in the rack and shank cuts that often sell out.

What if I can not pick up August 15? Contact us 7 days before pickup. We can arrange freezer-pack LTL delivery, or hold in our walk-in freezer for up to 2 weeks.

Can I order another share later in the year? Yes, subject to availability. Whole-animal customers get first-priority on the next harvest cycle.

Pairing Recommendations

Stock a pantry for a year of lamb: rosemary, thyme, oregano, cumin, coriander, sumac. Garlic in volume. A case of dry red for braises. Polenta, couscous, fingerling potatoes, crushed tomatoes, feta, plain Greek yogurt, lemons. The cuts work across Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, North African, and classic American techniques.

Storage Instructions

Hard-freeze at 0F or below immediately on arrival. Whole-muscle cuts keep 12 months. Ground keeps 9 months. Use ground first, then chops, then roasts. Label and date everything. Do not refreeze thawed cuts.

Related Reading

• Lamb 101 for Beef Eaters
• How to Cook Lamb Chops
• Roasting a Whole Lamb Leg
• Braised Lamb Shanks Recipe
• How to Plan a Whole-Animal Share

Image Specs

• Hero: full cut sheet of whole share laid out, butcher paper, top-down, 1600x1200
• Detail: stack of vacuum-sealed packs labeled by cut, 1200x1200
• Cooked: composite plate (chop, taco, shank, leg slice), 1600x1200
• Lifestyle: chest freezer fully loaded with share, lid open, 1600x1200

Product Schema