INNOVATION, and a trip to Brazil a few years ago, has led to an Oberon sheep stud’s flock being the hottest property on the international meat-sheep market.
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The Tattykeel Poll Dorset Stud is run by the Gilmore family, who are third-generation graziers.
They have produced a new breed of meat sheep that Australia and the world have never seen before – the Australian White.
The sheep are being exported to China and Costa Rica, and the only problem is the family can’t keep pace with demand.
Some of the most expensive and time-consuming factors for graziers who breed meat sheep are shearing and general maintenance of the wool.
But not any more.
During a trip to Brazil a decade ago, Tattykeel co-principal Graham Gilmore spotted sheep with hair, rather than wool, and he knew straight away he wanted to develop a similar breed at his family’s stud.
The benefits of the hair were that the sheep would not need to be shorn, and they would require less maintenance than sheep with wool.
“I’ve always wanted to start a new breed, but could never think of a reason to do it until I went to Brazil,” Mr Gilmore said.
“It was just a dream that we had.”
It took five years, and dedicated embryonic work at Tattykeel where a number of existing sheep breeds were mixed to develop the Australian White.
“It took us five or six years to come up with something we considered was stable and reproducible,” Mr Gilmore said.
“Projects like this have an amazing ability to change the industry because you can run them [sheep] like cattle [which are less work than sheep].”
Mr Gilmore is proud of the new breed he and his family developed together.
Since the 2011 release of the breed, the Gilmores have focused on exporting Australian Whites to countries that also want the benefit of a low-maintenance meat sheep.
“If you want to make money out of something you’ve got to look at what the market needs,” he said.
“The fact that so many people are saying it’s a great eating sheep is really good.
“There’s a lot of international interest ... there’s no other product quite like it in the world.”
The genetics of the Australian White’s hair mean they can withstand temperatures ranging from hot Australian summers to minus 35 degree winters in Mongolia.
