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Ewe beauty
28 Nov 2003
Australia's sheep flock is losing its masculinity: new ABARE figures show that the number of ewes is increasing at the expense of rams and wethers. There are around 100 million sheep in the country, of which about 46 per cent are ewes, and a further 36 per cent are lambs or hoggets. Ten years ago, 39 per cent of all sheep were ewes.
There are now around 17 million wethers (male sheep that have been castrated), so that leaves 1.1 million rams to service about 46 million ewes.
ABARE said the flock has become increasingly feminine over the past decade. Farmers have run down their core breeding stocks due to good meat prices.
The merino is still the top breed and comprises 85.1 per cent of Australia's flock.
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