Best Sheep Breeds of Australia

Poll Dorset

The Poll Dorset is a short-wool, meat producing sheep. Most commonly used as a terminal sire, the Poll Dorset contributes high quality carcase traits to the prime lamb industry.

Developed in Australia in 1937 from the Dorset Horn, a small group of skilled sheep breeders worked to eliminate the horns whilst maintaining the desired carcase attributes.

High Growth Rates and Early Maturity

Key in any lamb production system is the amount of time required to produce a saleable product. Poll Dorsets have very high growth rates that enable lambs to reach targeted market weights quickly. Most Poll Dorset sired lambs are trade ready (18 – 22kg CWT) from 12 weeks of age.

The breed’s entrenched background is one of early maturity, meaning lambs are sale ready and ‘finished’ for market at an earlier age. This is a major advantage to the prime lamb producer, with reduced management costs and decreased stress on the ewe.

Poll Dorsets have the added advantage of continuing their growth through to heavy export weight lambs (28+kg CWT). This gives lamb producers marketing options for their business.

Outstanding Carcass Attributes

Lean meat yield (LMY) is the key measure of carcase value. Poll Dorset genetics lead the way in LMY, resulting in higher value carcases.

Carcase evaluations have also shown an ideal fat to muscle ratio. This, along with an attractive meat colour, is highly important in maintaining consumer appeal and taste acceptance.

Poll Dorsets also exhibit ideal muscle patterns. A large loin and shapely hindquarter result in a higher proportion of quality cuts of meat.

Poll Dorset sired lambs are renowned for their superior taste and tenderness, and are sought after by butchers in all market levels.

Easy Management

Poll Dorsets lead the way in producing market relevant sires. Breed development has resulted in a body shape that minimises birth difficulties, whilst maintaining carcase shape. Open, wool-free faces reduce wool blindness and minimises the problems of grass seeds in eyes.

Skins and Wool

Poll Dorset sheep have a ‘downs’ type of wool. Downs wool is known for its density and springiness, making it ideal for doona and quilt production. In commercial lamb production system, the density of the downs wool contributes to a higher quality skin. These are more valuable in the trade and are used for high wear items such as ugg boots and car seat covers.

Fertility

Fertility is the greatest single parameter for profitability in a commercial sheep flock.

Poll Dorset sheep have no restrictive breeding period, meaning they have the ability to breed all year round. In a purebred flock normal lamb weaning percentages would be 120% to 150%. Multiple births of twins and triplets are common.

While the majority of Poll Dorset rams are used as terminal sires, their long recognised high fertility, virility and functionality also makes the ewes a productive maternal breed.

Maternal Attributes

Poll Dorsets are well known for being excellent mothers. Their protective instincts and strong bonding ability mean that most of the lambs born will thrive. Milk production is good in both quantity and quality, enabling the lambs to receive optimal early nutrition.

Adaptability

The lamb production area of Australia covers huge range of environment conditions. The Poll Dorset breed has stood the test of time for its outstanding consistent and high levels of performance in all climates, over all maternal breeds, across all market weight ranges. The large gene pool within the Poll Dorset breed has enabled it to fulfil all market and management needs.

Whiltshire Horn

Wiltshire Horn sheep represent an exceptional breed combining practical utility with historical significance. Their most distinctive feature is their natural wool-shedding ability, eliminating the need for shearing and associated management practices like crutching, mulesing, and treatments for parasites.

Beyond this “easy care” advantage, they boast impressive characteristics including high fertility, strong maternal instincts, good muscling, lean meat production, and adaptability to challenging conditions. Their versatility makes them ideal for both small family farms and commercial operations, where they excel as terminal sires producing prime lambs with significant hybrid vigor when crossed with other breeds.

With a history potentially dating back to Roman times and at least 250 years in Britain, Wiltshire Horns have developed remarkable resilience and distinctive personalities. Recent selective breeding in Australia has further enhanced their multi-purpose value, making them an increasingly popular choice for farmers seeking to reduce management costs while maintaining productive, healthy flocks.

Distinctive Characteristics

• High fertility and good mothering instincts
• Large frames with long bodies and good muscling capability
•  Lean meat production
• Intelligence and distinct individual personalities
•  Natural adaptation to poor environmental conditions
•  Distinctive horns present in both rams and ewes

Suffolk

Adaptability
Suffolk Sheep are adaptable to all environments. The breed thrive in wet conditions with their hard black feet having immunity to foot diseases. They are also outstanding in dry areas where high fertility rams work well in hot summer conditions.

Resistance to Parasites
Their clean face, crutch and points minimise fly strike and hardy constitution gives high resistance to internal parasites.

Fertility
Owing to tremendous libido and greater activity, ram to ewe percentage can be reduced. More lambs can be dropped in a shorter period. Less rams are needed, thus less management time. Rams are active workers and are renowned for their longevity.

Ease of Lambing
Lambs are born with narrow heads and smooth shoulders and are very strong at birth minimising lambing problems, loss of life and husbandry supervision.

Ideal Crossbreeder
Suffolk sires are ideal for maiden ewes, Merinos and first cross ewes alike. They produce the ideal lamb for today’s market.

Early Maturity
Under favourable conditions Suffolk lambs mature for market as early as 9 to 12 weeks, or can be carried on to heavy weights.

Quality Carcass
Full of fine grain, choice lean meat. Superb flavour with high proportion of lean meat to fat. The Suffolk breed has a great record worldwide, including England, Europe, Canada and USA for comparison trials and carcase competitions.

Skins
Skins are generally sold in mixed lots, the buyers not discriminating against the breed from which they originate.

Suffolk Wool
When mated with Merino or first cross ewes, suffolk cross wool is comparable to the best cross bred wools. It is readily used in the woollen trade and is renowned for durability. Ideal for home spinners. White, fine and moderately short and dense (24 micron).

White Suffolk

The White Suffolk is an Australian sheep breed developed for Australian conditions. As leading prime lamb sires, White Suffolks are versatile performers and are well noted for their functional shape, mobility, fertility and libido. The breed’s performance and productivity is also backed confidently by objective selection and science.

White Suffolks adaptability make them ideal for use in wide-ranging environments. The breed continually produces outstanding results in dry, arid and pastoral zones, all types of agricultural and mixed farming areas and also in higher rainfall districts. With the tough seasonal conditions across the country this makes them an excellent choice to maintain consistency and good returns in prime lamb production systems.

White Suffolk’s offer:

• High fertility and libido
• Ease of lambing
• Good temperament and longevity
• Excellent mothering ability
• Superior meat eating quality – backed by science
• Early maturing
• Market flexibility – ideal for trade or export weight carcasses
• Adaptability to wide-ranging environments and finishing systems
• Clean points resulting in minimal grass seed problems
• Terminal and maternal lines
• High quality downs-type wool and skins

White Suffolks provide superior all-round performance – consistent and measured rams producing high yielding carcasses able to hit the industry specifications. This means a better bottom line for the prime lamb producer and the best eating quality lamb creating product demand from the consumer

Dorper

The Dorper sheep is well known for its ability to adapt and survive in a variety of climatic and grazing conditions. The Dorper was originally bred from the more arid regions of South Africa in the 1930’s. Initially imported into Australia in the mid 1990’s, its suitability to a range of climatic conditions and low maintenance has seen the Dorper develop into one of the largest meat sheep breeds in Australia.

• Adaptability to and hardiness for a variety of climatic and grazing conditions.
• High fertility and reproduction rates.
• High growth rates with the ability to achieve maximum growth from little feed.
• Good muscling and low fat scores – excellent for the domestic and export trade.
• Thick quality skin for protection in harsh climate conditions.
• Shedding of wool and hair according to seasonal conditions.
• Excellent mothering qualities and milk production.
• Low maintenance – minimal shearing required if any, flystrike resistant, no mulesing required at all

Economic
The Dorper are an economical breed because of their excellent feed utilisation and conversion. They do not need shearing, crutching and mulesing, and they are very disease resistant.

Meat Production

Pure-bred Dorper rams reach a liveweight of 90 to 120 kg and ewes 50 to 80kg. The Dorper carcass has good meat and fat distribution.

Fertile

The Dorper is one of the most fertile of all sheep breeds, with lambing intervals of only 8 months. Lambing percentages in excess of 150% (2.25 lambs per annum) are possible and well over 100% is readily achievable in most areas.

Meat production

Pure-bred Dorper rams reach a liveweight of 90 to 120 kg and ewes 50 to 80kg. The Dorper carcass has good meat and fat distribution.

Fertile

The Dorper is one of the most fertile of all sheep breeds, with lambing intervals of only 8 months. Lambing percentages in excess of 150% (2.25 lambs per annum) are possible and well over 100% is readily achievable in most areas.

Good mothering qualities

The Dorper ewe is a very good mother and protective of her young. Multiple births are common. Lambs are extremely mobile at birth and survival rates are high. The Dorper ewe produces a large quantity of milk, aiding lamb survival and early growth.

Good grazing habits

Dorpers can adapt to most grazing conditions. Lambs will start to graze in the first few days after birth. The Dorper can be advantageously incorporated into under-utilized pastures of lesser quality, thus converting a poor asset into profit.

Continuous breeding season

The Dorper is polyoestrus (can breed continually, with no defined season). Their breeding intervals can be as short as 8 months or 3 times in 2 years.

Fast Growing

Dorper lambs have an inherent growth potential and ability to graze from an early age. They grow rapidly and can attain a high weaning weight. Dorpers respond well to high protein feed sources and balanced nutrition, giving growers the potential to increase weights rapidly in response to market demand.

Given their polyoestrus characteristics, short breeding intervals and fast growing potential, the flock size of the Dorpers lamb increases more quickly than most other sheep breeds. Below is a comparison of flock growth comparing Dorpers and Merino lambs from Year 0 to Year 3, with a beginning flock size of 5,000 head. The lambing rates assumed are 120% for dorpers and 100% for merinos and the lambing intervals assumed are 8 months for Dorpers and 12 months for Merinos. For both breeds, a reduction rate for flock size is also assumed to account for culling and natural deaths.

Katahdin

Katahdin sheep are popular among farmers hobby farmers due to their unique combination of low maintenance, adaptability, and productive qualities. Unlike traditional wool breeds, Katahdins naturally shed their winter coats and do not require shearing, which significantly reduces labour costs.

They are hardy and thrive in a variety of climates, demonstrating resistance to both heat and humidity as well as internal and external parasites, making them especially suitable for pasture-based and low-input management systems.

• The breed is renowned for its superior meat production, offering lean, mild-flavored, and high-quality carcasses without the strong flavor often associated with wool sheep due to lanolin.
• Katahdins are also known for their excellent reproductive traits, including high fertility, prolific lambing rates, and strong mothering abilities, which contribute to efficient flock growth and high lamb survivability

Merino

The backbone of Australia’s wool industry, Merinos remain the most numerous and are prized for their high-quality wool. The primary reason for their popularity is the unique characteristics of Merino wool: it is extremely fine, soft, and comfortable against the skin, making it highly desirable for clothing and textiles.

Merino wool fibers typically range from 11.5 to 22 microns in diameter, with the finest grades used in high-end garments. This fineness, combined with a dense fleece, results in a high yield of clean, valuable wool that is sought after worldwide.

The breed’s long productive life and ability to produce large quantities of high-quality wool over many years add to its economic appeal for farmers.