Merinos Benchmarked Side-by-side in National Trial

For the first time, recently, teams of Merinos from across Australia were benchmarked side-by-side in a single commercial setting as part of the recent Australian Merino Production Trial 2025-2027.

This longstanding event recently benchmarked 2024 drop wether lambs processed at Fletchers International Exports in Dubbo, NSW, after four months of identical management.

It is the largest commercial evaluation of Merino genetics in the country.

Craig Wilson - NSW Stud Breeder, Commercial sheep producer, genetics consultant, Lambition Awards Boehringer Ingelheim Industry Innovator and convener of the trial - shared his insights on Australian Merino genetics and what the results mean for the future of the flock.

Q: What’s the Australian Merino Production Trial?

A: It’s a national initiative designed to objectively evaluate the genetic potential of commercially bred Merino sheep for wool and meat production. Running for the past two decades, it's Australia’s largest commercial assessment of sheep genetics. This recent trial was the first time the trial included teams from all states across the country.

Q: Why is a trial like this important for the Merino industry?

A: There’s a lot of critical learnings out of what we are seeing with that trial. The reality is so many people don’t have that data, so they have no way of comparing their sheep with the performance of someone else's sheep side-by-side. In this situation, these sheep are run together for four months, all treated the same and fed the same through the whole process and because of that you can really look at differences in net profitability in a real way. The trial is split between Wool and Meat components with all teams having 15 wether lambs allocated to both trials. There is a total of 2300 lambs, including extra lambs to act as links.

Q: What do entrants do with their data when they return to their businesses?

They talk to their advisors or stud breeders or people where they source their sheep genetics. It is not about winning or losing, it is about understanding the opportunities available to you. People don’t deliberately run poor quality sheep, they often think they have got good quality sheep. The reason people get into these trials is to give them some clarity around their genetics. You know someone said the other day ‘who won your trial?’ I said the person that had their team rank 50^th from 50 teams. They have the most to gain.  I run these trials for the people who are trying to pay their farms off, often are servicing debt and are staying up at night and can’t sleep because they owe a lot of money and need to make really good decisions. History shows the massive impact that quality genetics has on sheep businesses.

Q: What have recent trials shown?

A: Some bloodlines, not deliberately selected for carcase performance still perform well when fed appropriately. In 2024 the fleece value averaged $68 but ranged from $43 to $86 in the teams. If you take $40 of cost off - costs don’t change based on what you run - in terms of net profitability, one is making $5 and one making $45 per DSE

Q: Will producers actually get paid for carcase quality based on feedback data?

A: Yes - most definitely. We’re heading towards a system where you’re paid for what you have, not discounted because someone else’s lambs underperform. If two plants offer the same grid but only one gives detailed feedback, that’s where switched-on producers will send stock. Feedback becomes a loyalty driver. The rewards for quality in terms of red meat yield and eating quality must flow back to the producers to encourage those breeders to source their genetics at studs that provide LambPlan benchmarked data.

Q: Why is carcase feedback so important?

A: Without it, the industry averages everything out. High-yield, high-muscle sheep carry the average, while inefficiencies - like excess fat - get hidden. Fat is expensive to put on and expensive to trim off. Good feedback helps producers identify the point where lambs stop laying down muscle and start laying down fat so they can market the lambs at the sweet spot.

Q: What do you think would advance the Merino?

A: What we really need is a National Variety Trial for Merino genetics, like what the GRDC does with grain genetics. That way we can say ‘here’s how this bloodline has performed across three sites across the country’. It’s properly collated and published two or three times a year. We are also looking to do something in Western Australia - a production trial.

Q: Can Merinos be genuinely dual purpose - strong for both wool and meat?

A: Absolutely. Trials show plenty of teams with high meat value and high fleece value at the same time. High-performance Merinos that grow, carry muscle and cut quality wool do exist; the key is identifying and using them. These genetics in my experience also have excellent fertility.

Q: Tell us about Redgum River Pastoral Co and Kentish Downs Poll Dorset Stud, you run up to 16,000 sheep across eight different farms, what’s the management philosophy behind scaling a large flock?

A: To me, you must have trust in the people you work with, you can’t micromanage. Give them jobs and ask them to report back to you. We try to be as proactive as possible, use quality contractors and our staff have good dogs and a strong work ethic.

Q: What’s your favourite part of the farm business?

A: My ‘buzz’ is in breeding, breeding good quality animals and taking the challenge around ‘can you breed the next big thing - Winx of the sheep industry, an animal that can run the Melbourne Cup and be ten lengths in front’.

Q: How does your commercial and stud operation work together?

A: We use mainly 7-month-old ram lambs in our Poll Dorset Stud, only the very best get used more than one year. Elite rams bred in the stud go out to commercial operation. This has had a massive effect on the quality of our commercial operation. Placing the best of genetics into our commercial operation generates the profitability around that commercial operation. The real win is these two things complementing each other. Our Dorset stud has gone from 300 ewes to 1200 ewes in five years. When we bought it, it was an average quality stud, it was average on the industry LAMBPLAN. This year we will have 1400 lambs that average in the top 10 percent of industry. We spend a lot of money on making sure the data is as good as possible, our studs hold the highest level of data quality. Every lamb is birth weighed, and we have genomics on everything. Once we’ve got that data we use it aggressively. We identify those superior sheep and multiply them out as quickly as we can. Also, we mate most of our ewe lambs to ram lambs, we find most of our best genetics are coming out of ewe lambs.

Q: You worked for other people and started your own farming enterprise, why choose sheep?

A: Because of the flexibility. You have the capacity to make decisions that make a difference. If you are 100 per cent cropping you really have no control of input costs and zero control of how much rain falls out of the sky. You get to a certain level of genetics and varieties of grain and there’s good operators getting excited by an extra 2 per cent potential. Then overlay that with the cost of machinery. We can grow crops and put sheep on those crops, we can pay for those crops with the grazing. The harvest and hay from those crops is a bonus. For the areas where we can’t grow crops, why wouldn’t we just concentrate on running the best possible animals? There is no way cattle can beat sheep, in areas that they can both be run. An old fella once said Cattle for show and Sheep for doe, I have always remembered that.

Q: How can young people get involved and learn faster?

A: Programs like the Peter Westblade Scholarship (PWS) provide mentoring. Peter was a wonderful man and after he passed away, we set up the PWS as a way to mentor young people and give them opportunities. It has been incredibly successful, and it is extremely pleasing to see the people that have won the scholarship thrive in life and business. We should never underestimate the impact that showing confidence and belief in a young person can have on their courage to strive for success.