Dairy Sheep Symposium - the Department of Animal Sciences ...

The lack of productive dairy sheep
Australia does not have specialised breeds of dairy sheep. The pioneering sheep dairy farmers
of the 60s, 70s and 80s were milking local breeds of sheep that produce less than 100 litres of
milk per lactation, and this level of production is not profitable (Bencini and Dawe, 1998).
Farmers may have been mislead, in part, by results produced at Leeton Research Station were
some sheep produced 150 litres per lactation (Dawe, 1990). Many farmers converted to sheep
milking based on yields of one litre per head per day, which are in fact rarely achieved when
starting a sheep dairy with unselected sheep. With time and heavy culling, the yield of the local
breeds can be lifted to one litre per day and above. These are for instance the yields recorded on
local crossbred sheep at Cloverdene sheep dairy. Cloverdene has been selecting for milk production
since 1992, when they started their operation. How much of this gain is due to genetic
improvement and how much to environmental factors is not known.
Because milk production is only expressed by ewes, genetic improvement for milk production
can only be achieved through a progeny-testing scheme similar to those used in dairy cattle
and overseas dairy sheep. Although this idea has been contemplated by ‘Lambplan’ (R. Banks,
Pers. comm.) and by the Rural Industries Research & Development Corporation (RIRDC), the
sheep milking industry at present does not have the resources to undertake such a program.
A solution to the problem of low productivity of the local breeds could be the importation of
specialised dairy breeds of sheep from overseas. Recently two breeds of sheep that have the
highest production of milk in the world, the Awassi and the East Friesian (Epstein, 1985;
Anifantakis, 1986) have been imported into Australia. These two breeds have the potential to
increase yields and make sheep milking economically viable. However, in both cases, only small
numbers of animals were actually imported, and their dairy potential under Australian conditions
had not been measured before. As sheep from these new breeds are expensive, farmers are likely
to milk the crosses of these breeds with local sheep.
The Awassi fat tail sheep has been milked for thousands of years in the Middle East and has
recently been improved for milk production, with reported productions of 1000 litres of milk per
lactation (Epstein, 1982). The Awassi sheep were imported into Western Australia as frozen
embryos in 1986 and came from a flock that had been highly selected for milk production in
Israel and was subsequently imported to Cyprus (Lightfoot, 1987). A different importation of
Awassi sheep occurred in New South Wales. These Awassi sheep came directly from a high
producing flock in Israel to Flock House Agricultural Centre in New Zealand, from where they
were transferred in Australia within four years.
The company Silverstream imported East Friesian sheep to New Zealand in 1991. After a
period of quarantine they were made available for sale in Australia. The East Friesian is the
highest milk producing dairy sheep in Europe, with yields of over 600 litres per lactation
(Kervina et al, 1981; Casu and Sanna, 1990). It has been imported in many countries to produce
crosses with local breeds, thereby originating the Assaf in Israel, the Frisonarta in Greece, the
FLS in France, and the Friserra in Portugal (Flamant and Barillet, 1982). However, crosses with
the Awassi have shown no adaptation to the harsh environment of Israel (Eyal and Goot, 1969;
Mills, 1989) and Sardinian farmers complain about similar adaptation problems with the East
Friesian x Sarda crosses (personal observation). Other attempts to introduce the East Friesian
sheep in the Mediterranean region have failed, as the breed is not adaptable to harsh conditions
and to flock management (Flamant and Morand-Fehr, 1982). The genetic improvement of the
local breeds is attracting more attention since they appear to be better suited to their environments
(Treacher, 1987).