Karrawarra Pastoral operates a commercial flock of over 10 000 Highlander maternal self-replacing ewes. It is our commitment to refine and develop our Highlander and FocusPrime genetics to directly answer the needs of our own commercial business.
The essential pillars for a highly productive sheep is our focus:
The 4 essential pillars of our breeding program
Adult body weight
With a moderate adult weight, our ewes are easier to handle, cost less to feed and are maximising our efficiency.
Bigger ewes are becoming a problem in the industry from an inefficiency and handling perspective, for this reason we target a 65kg adult ewe.
“It takes 20% less feed to maintain a 65kg ewe than it does to maintain a 85kg ewe.”
Survival
High mothering instinct combined with vigorous lambs has seen dramatic increase in weaning rates.
“As well as increasing scanning percentage, improving survival is equally important. Through the use of Highlanders we have been able to increase our weaning rates and reduce lamb wastage.”
Increased Fertility
A highly fertile female is one of the key profit drivers in our commercial flock.
“With a current scanning rate of nearly 190%, we’ve increased our fertility year on year since the inception of Highlander genetics, maximising the kg of lamb produced per ewe.”
Growth
We target a moderate sized animal that grows rapidly from birth to six months.
This allows us to turn off trade lambs as quickly as possible and join ewe lambs at seven months of age in order to lamb down at twelve months.
The biggest improvements our clients have achieved are in fertility and survival, while increasing their carrying capacity and returns per hectare through a moderate adult weight.
Find out more about our stud sheep breeds:
A feed efficient maternal composite, bred to consistently deliver more kgs of lamb weaned per hectare.
Terminal genetics used to maximise growth, survival, meat yield and eating quality.