The challenge
How to breed the perfect Merino?
Trying to find the sheep that are the most appropriate for their production system and environment over time with all the best wool, meat and reproductive traits can be difficult.
Whether they're good lambers, grow fine wool and are disease resistant, for example, are the sorts of things producers would like to know with some certainty as part of their breeding programs.
Information on such quality traits, especially across diverse regions and Merino types, is difficult and costly to gather and takes a long-term coordinated effort.
Our response
The Merino Lifetime Productivity Project
Our livestock research site at Armidale in the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales was a host site for the Merino Lifetime Productivity Project. The project was headed by Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) and the Australian Merino Sire Evaluation Association (AMSEA) and was conducted over eight years, finishing in 2024. Flocks were also based at four other sites around Australia.
The results
Answering important questions about Merino breeding
The project has created a huge amount of information on genetic and visual traits on diverse Merino types across a range of environments to help better understand and deliver Merino ewe performance outcomes for the Australian Merino industry.
It will allow the industry to answer important questions about breeding for a long time to come.