We found the Sheep

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By Dwain Duxson

We found the Sheep - So we didn't actually lose any Sheep. I was just joking. But we are adding to the story we wrote last week about how we processed 180 million Animals back when we had "peak Sheep" back in the late 80s. Read the article here. With the help of lots of replies, we worked out how we managed such numbers. We discovered there were so many more Merino Wethers, and Farmers would keep them up to 7 years old and use them exclusively for Wool Production. So, the whole dynamics of the Flock was different. 

One former meat buyer and market reporter said there were alot more localised processors around 30-40 years ago when numbers were higher. So, the killing capacity was probably higher than it is now.

Mutton was more of a thing back then, but it's completely different these days, where Lamb dominates. Lambing rates were much lower back then, so Farmers had to keep Sheep to an older age to keep numbers up.

A Victoria Sheep breeder explained the changes here, "Our surplus Sheep went on Ships at Portland, Adelaide and Fremantle. Also, we kept our Wethers for Wool production until they were 5 or 6 years of age, which pushed our Sheep numbers up dramatically compared with what we are doing now. My point is that Sheep numbers don't relate to the turn-off rate. When my parents ran our Farm, they had approximately 3000 Wethers and turned off about 700 a year, which were replaced by about 700 Wether Weaners or Hoggetts from the Riverina. Now I have similar acreage as what they had and run about 3000 to 3500 modern Merinos and turn off between 1500 and 2000 Lambs/Sheep a year. Lambs are now turned off within months as opposed to years in the day when Wool was king". Reply to dwaind@farmtender.com.au 

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