Published in

MDPI, Animals, 11(10), p. 2066, 2020

DOI: 10.3390/ani10112066

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Modelling a Transition from Purebred Romney to Fully Shedding Wiltshire–Romney Crossbred

Journal article published in 2020 by Lydia Jane Farrell, Stephen Todd Morris ORCID, Paul R. Kenyon, Peter R. Tozer
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Considering the current low prices for coarse wool (fibre diameter > 30 µm), a grading up transition to a shedding flock may eliminate wool harvesting costs and increase sheep farm profit. This transition could be achieved by breeding non-shedding ewes with Wiltshire rams. A bio-economic system-dynamics model of a pastoral sheep farming enterprise was used to simulate this grading up transition from 2580 Romney ewes to a similarly-sized flock of fully shedding third or fourth cross Wiltshire–Romney ewes. The total annual sheep feed demand was constrained within a ±5% range to minimise disruption to the on-farm beef cattle enterprise. Wool harvesting expenses were eliminated after seven years of transition, and with reduced feed demand for wool growth, the post-transition shedding flocks had more ewes producing more lambs and achieving greater annual profit compared with the base Romney flock. The net present values of transition were 7% higher than the maintenance of the base Romney flock with a farmgate wool price of $2.15/kg. Results suggest that coarse wool-producing farmers should consider a grading up transition to a shedding flock, and the collection of data on the production of Wiltshire–Romney sheep in New Zealand would improve the accuracy of model predictions.