Poll Merino Ewe
The poll merino sheep is a breed of domestic sheep from australia.
Poll merino ewe. Kerin poll merino sale clears 500 rams for 155m gross sheep central september 7 2020 ram buyers brett murray and alan wykes euchareena nsw left with nigel kerin holding the 10000 ram and auctioneer paul dooley with agent todd clements bowyer and livermore bathurst nsw. The poll merino is a subtype of the australian merino breed of domestic sheep without horns that was developed in australia. This rapid growth was driven by client demand for a contemporary merino that was fertile had fast early growth created the opportunity to join ewe lambs at 7 months of age and increase the speed at which wether lambs achieved saleable weights.
As the name suggests these animals are polled that means they have no horns. Merino sheep are medium sized animals with very beautiful appearance. The poll merino sheep are large sized with white fleece.
They can be either polled or horned. Kerin poll over the past 11 years has gone from selling 125 rams to 500 rams at auction. These were selected and mated to merino ewes with selection continuing for the quality of pollness.
Recessive poll genes are believed to have existed in the breed for many years and the infusions of hornless sheep during the development of the merino breed in australia also left some poll genes within normal merino flocks. The poll merino has no horns. It was developed in australia in 1825 and alexander riley was the first breeder to obtain a poll ram with a view to establishing a poll merino sheep flock.
The adult poll merino ram weighs 115 kg 250 lb and ewe weighs 90 kg 200 lb. The top price was paid for a line of 2 6 year old barooga and performance blood ewes scanned in lamb to poll dorset rams weighing 64kg and with 57mm fleeces from mylora past. Recessive poll genes are believed to have existed in the merino breed for many years and during the development of the merino breed in australia hornless male lambs were commonly referred to as sports.
The polled version has no horns or has a very small stubs known as scurs. The development of the australian poll merino is relatively new. Co at binalong nsw.