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.

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Articles

  • Young Merino rams ready for selection prior to mating.

    Sheep genetic resource flock

    17 January 2014

    The Genetic Resource Flock of Western Australia, previously called the Information Nucleus Flock, was established by the Sheep Cooperative Research Centre (Sheep CRC) in 2007 and is now funded by M

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    SheepLinks Program

    3 August 2021

    The SheepLinks Program is a partnership between the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) and the Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), to underpin the future prosperity

  • 2018 WA Lambing Survey

    12 December 2018

    The 2018 season brought challenging times for sheep producers in Western Australia (WA) and there were wide reports of low lambing rates.

  • Flystrike Assist home screen

    Flystrike management tools

    18 November 2013

    To make sure that any chemical application doesn’t leave you short on protection or break your withholding periods,  the Flystrike Assist application (mobile app for iOS and Android) has been devel

  • weaner sheep

    Alternatives for sheep planned for the live export market during the Northern summer

    18 July 2018

    The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development reminds producers that from June to 23 September inclusive, there is a pause in the live export of sheep to the Middle East.

  • Merino ewes grazing

    Optimising sheep flock structure

    19 September 2019

    Selling or changing breeding numbers can have a profound impact on the on-going structure of the flock.  It is important to determine the changes to the flock over many years to understand the impa

  • Sheep flock composition calculator

    3 October 2019

    Use this tool to determine the impact on flock structure over six years of changes made to retaining or selling classes of sheep or changing the weaning ratio.

  • Young Merino lambs waiting to be marked.

    Setting up your sheep enterprise

    25 November 2013

    The way the sheep enterprise is managed, including infrastructure and the pasture system, will influence the profitability of the enterprise and be reflected in the cost of production and the labou

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    Climate change and broadacre livestock production in Western Australia

    31 March 2016

    Climate change will affect livestock production in the agricultural areas of Western Australia (South West WA) in different ways, with some regions and enterprises benefiting and some not.

  • Kneeling sheep. Advanced footrot is a painful, crippling condition.

    Managing virulent footrot in sheep and goats in Western Australia

    17 February 2015

    There are two forms of footrot in sheep and goats: virulent and benign. They are caused by infection with different strains of the bacterium, Dichelobacter nodosus.

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