The South Australian merinos' wool quality still world class and their genes are key to lamb meat market

The South Australian merino is adaptable for all conditions with exceptional wool quality and meat.

The South Australian stud merino and poll merino ram sale, in the historic stud sheep pavilion during the Royal Adelaide Show, remains one of the world’s highest-quality sheep sales.

In 2016, several hundred sheep breeders were attracted to the World Merino Insight in Adelaide.

This reflects the change to fine, particularly super fine, wool in the world market.

But the revival of the industry has come from the global demand for sheep meat. This has put the focus back on the size of the Australian flock.

Throughout the 1930s to the 1950s, wool was about 30% of Australia's exports. But by 1970-71, wool was only 15% of total gross value of agricultural production.
In the 1980s, the Australian sheep flock was 172 million. Difficult economic conditions, drought and competing synthetic fibres caused a fall to 98 million head in 2004. It was 70 million in 2016.

The merino is key to Australia producing more than a quarter of the world's wool. The superior genetics of the South Australian merino make it adaptable for all conditions with exceptional wool quality and meat.

Growing more wool than other strains in Australia, merinos need minimum care and survive in dry zones and can adapt to higher rainfall districts up to 900mm.
High-fertility South Australian merino ewes are nucleus of the prime lamb industry when mated with meat-breed sires such as the Suffolk, White Suffolk and Poll Dorset.

With semen insemination and embryo transfer now routine, these techniques include sexed semen and invitro-fertilised embryos developed from eggs taken from young lambs.

South Australia’s sheep, wool and lamb industry is growing year on year and generates $1.48 billion in revenue annually. In 2014-15, it produced about 55 million kilos of wool worth $365 million.