Our breeding program focuses on producing sheep that thrive in our high rainfall zone conditions. Abrupt Plains sheep must demonstrate the following traits:

for Productivity & Resilience

BREEDING

Many of these traits play an important role in producing healthy, productive sheep. They help us maintain strong flock health, improve growth and performance, and deliver better outcomes for lamb and surplus sheep sales.

One trait we are particularly focused on is resistance to footrot. Footrot is one of the most significant health challenges affecting Merino sheep, particularly in high-rainfall regions. While management practices remain important, recent advances in genetics have made it possible to breed sheep with increased resistance to the disease. Developing animals with this trait has been one of our most rewarding breeding achievements to date. To guide our breeding decisions, we use Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs) through Sheep Genetics Australia.

These measurements help us identify animals with the strongest genetic potential. We combine this information into a customised breeding index that ranks sheep against the traits most important to our enterprise, allowing us to make informed selection decisions and continually improve the genetic performance of our flock.