Just to be clear – we are discussing sheep. What you choose to do in your own time and place is for you – but this is about sheep.

Meridian Agriculture and Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) put together an information day at the Hamilton Showgrounds, discussing the pros and cons of switching to shedding sheep.

Firstly, there has been increasing demand for shedding sheep – brought on largely by issues surrounding the non-mulesing, shearer shortages and lower maintenance than other breeds.

The day started with ‘Economics and Transitioning from Maternal to Shedding Sheep’ – discussing the various ways – from accelerated (buying in shedding ewes) to breeding with maternals and adding shedding rams. Then there is the selection of shedding traits in the offspring and selective breeding options thereafter.

John Keiller of Cashmore Park and Cashmore Oaklea, a seedstock and prime lamb enterprise based near Portland, which supplies maternal, terminal and Nudie rams to eastern Australia. Johns interest in sheep genetics spans over 30 years, when he began recording with Lambplan. John focused his research on processor and consumer demand, and has applied this data to breed terminal, self-replacing maternal and shedding sheep. Further selection has been made for ease of care, fast growth and high fertility and lambing rates.

John also addressed shedding scoring and time of shedding. Introducing shedding sheep – the options and the time frames.

Cashmore Park genetic data collected by the Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit were displayed and analysed. This genetic information has been invaluable in its findings – which are quite remarkable when analysing the data.

John explained that “what you see is not always what you get” – to qualify that further, John said that, “as the days get longer the sheep shed more wool – so the same animal can look different at different times of the year. Young sheep are different to older sheep and about 10 per cent of lambs don’t shed their wool in the first year, but they will shed in later years.”

When talking genetics – John wanted to see if the EBV’s were really representative of what you were getting and looking at. So, they took sheep and divided them into groups based on their EBV’s – the results were that a few of the animals had more wool that you would have been expected for the EBV’s but there are external factors that influence how a sheep develops – and this must be remembered.

“You can with the help of the genetic data more accurately predict how adding rams with these particular traits, are going to get you the result with your ewes that you are after – but that will be different for different environments and different flocks.”

There are four ways to get into nudie sheep – the first way is to introduce them to breeds that already shed wool. The second way is to buy nudie ewes and to start a flock from there. The third way is to grade up from existing woolly or composite sheep. Choosing bared legged and bare headed ewes to breed your nudies from - is certainly a good start. The fourth way is to take maternal  ewes – and select the sheep with the lightest fleeces to start your nudies breeding program. Shedding is independent to skin or wool type.

“When breeding sheep, there is always compromise and trade-offs. We have performance and we have shedding. There has been strengthening demand for shedding ewes with approximately 4000 traded over the 2022/2023 season.

Cashmore Park shedding sheep were on display in the ram shed for a ‘question and answer’ session. Questions around the toughness of feet, to the long tails, remaining wool and acceptability in the markets, were all raised.

John Keillor said that many farmers had tried Dorpers in this area and they had failed to live up to expectation, and that had damaged the whole shedding sheep image. The issues – mostly feet problems and market acceptance – had been overcome.

The day continued with presentations by Peta Bradley – Manager of sheep genetics MLA. Peta is based in Armidale and grew up in a commercial and stud sheep operation, and cropping enterprise. While completing a Bachelor of Rural Science her honours project involved estimating genetic parameters for reproduction traits in sheep.

Peta spoke on how careful trait selection can accelerate an optimal sheep reproduction outcome – while also acknowledging that dominant traits from earlier genetic inclusion (grandparents) can still be both physically and/or genetically obvious.

David Packer – Meat Standards Australia (MSA) Program Manager MLA has a background the livestock animal health sector in research, development and commercial roles. David holds a Bachelor in Rural Science and spoke on supply chain implementation, meat science, targeting preferred  meat  and tasting qualities.

The day finished with a ‘question and answer’ session with all the speakers. Those attending were given lots of information to take in and ponder – and I am left thinking that this market is going to be in growing demand.