South Australia’s Corriedales were showcased to the world last week with four studs displaying their sheep on the Fleurieu Peninsula.
It is the first time in 28 years the World Corriedale Congress has come to Australia.
The five day pre-congress tour started in Adelaide and ended at Bendigo, Vic, where the event was held in conjunction with the Australian Sheep & Wool Show.
A highlight was the visit to Brenton and Jo Lush’s property Corriedale Hills at Inman Valley and sheep displayed from fellow SA studs, Wattle Glen, Strathalbyn; Lushford, Echunga; and the Lush children’s Y-Not stud.
The program also included Thornby lamb feedlot at Sanderston, PGG Wrightson’s Keith seed processing facility, Donovan’s Dairy at Donovans and the Jenkin family’s Corriedale stud, Nayook South, at Allendale East.
Mr Lush says nearly 30 delegates from the United States, Peru, Argentina and New Zealand were on the tour.
He says the visitors were impressed with the sheep, although each country has a different target market.
“The North American sheep are tall and leggy so they thought our sheep were quite small and thick, but the South America sheep were similar to ours, although they start turning off lambs at 12 kilograms carcase weight,” he said.
Corriedale Hills has exported more than 2000 sheep to 16 overseas countries in the past 92 years and hopes this overseas interest may translate into futher sales.
Mr Lush says the breed still has a strong place in Australian flocks in high rainfall areas. “As a purebred we are not getting a lot of traction but they are being used around the country for crossbreeding,” he said.
“The composite maternal types are producing 32 to 34 micron wool not worth much but those people who are putting Corriedales over their ewes are producing 28 to 30M wool which is significantly more valuable with better wool cut and lamb production is staying the same or improving a bit.”
“They are also being put through fine wool Merino flocks to handle the high rainfall areas and the 23-25M wool is making a premium because there is not much around.”
