Sheep

The key products of the Western Australian sheep industry are wool, sheepmeat (lamb and mutton) and live sheep. At around 12.4 million sheep, the WA flock turns off between 4.5 and 6 million sheep and lambs for meat and live export as well as 65 million kilograms of greasy wool (primarily for export markets) annually.

The Merino is the most common breed of sheep in WA, making up 80% of the state's flock. The remainder are ‘British breeds’ or so-called maternal breeds, meat specific breeds such as Dorpers and some breeds for specialty meat and fibre markets.

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development's current focus is on increasing lamb supply, improving the productivity, welfare and sustainability of sheep production and developing and extending targeted information products and services to generate practice change. In an effort to increase the marking rate of lambs, the department, in collaboration with industry, has developed the More Sheep initiative.

Articles

  • Brucellosis is an economically important bacterial disease of animals that can also affect people.

  • Feel like you’re dealing with your flock around the clock? Maybe it’s time to get yourself a better deal.

  • The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) partnered with the Sheep Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), Murdoch University and Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) in a shee

  • Wool is called ‘tender’ when it is discounted for low staple strength. The point at which price discounts start depends on the market and the fibre diameter.

  • The health and nutrition of the pregnant ewe largely determines how successful lambing is in any given year.

  • The liver fluke, Fasciola hepatica, is a serious parasite of ruminants, which can cause severe damage to the liver and consequently disease, production loss and even death.

  • Thiamine, also known as vitamin B1, is normally produced by bacteria in the rumen of cattle and sheep on well-balanced roughage diets.

  • The department consults with agribusiness to improve understanding of and service delivery to the industry.

  • Established in 2003, EverGraze was designed to develop, test and implement new farming systems based on perennials in a range of environments across the high rainfall zone of southern Australia.

  • This research investigates improving the conversion of available feed into kilograms of lamb weaned per kilogram of ewe joined, an increased understanding of the efficient conversion of feed into w

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