Australian White is a large, white breed of Australian meat sheep which was originally developed for Australian conditions. The Australian White sheep are a stabilised composite haired meat breed comprising White Dorper, Van Rooy, Poll Dorset and Texel genetics.
The original key objectives in developing the breed were:
- A meat sheep that did not need shearing or crutching
- Was resistant to pests (lice and flies)
- A polyestrous ewe that could be joined year-round
- An animal with good carcass shape and eating quality
The end goal was to produce lamb in a more economical and viable way, reducing costs, labour and increasing yield whilst still retaining good eating quality.
The lamb was designed to better meet the needs of large scale meat lamb producing systems without the complications that come with producing wool.
The Australian White is now recognized for its excellent eating qualities. It is a fine-textured (fine-grained), very soft and clean tasting meat. It is high in omega-3 fatty acid, which is its single most distinguishing factor from other sheep breeds.
The Australian White (AW) was developed on the Tattykeel properties in Black Springs, NSW, Australia by two brothers, Graham and Martin Gilmore, over several years and was launched in 2011. Utilizing embryo transfer, artificial insemination, and selective line breeding, the “best” characteristics of the four source breeds were used to develop the AW. The original design was to be a self-replacing meat sheep that sheds its hair, can survive in extreme weather conditions (from cold and wet to hot and arid environments), early maturing, and breed year-round. During the development of the breed, its unique eating qualities were evident; however, it was not until later (November 2016) that the scientific reasons for its excellent eating qualities were discovered by Associate Professor Aduli E.O. Malau-Aduli, PhD. The AW breed can now be found all over the world in countries such as New Zealand, China, Inner Mongolia, and the United States.
The first AW embryo transfer program was done in 2010 at Tattykeel properties. Since then many programs have been conducted each year at the farm with animals going through rigorous selection to continually improve the desired traits, conformation and eating quality.
A flock of Australian White Sheep in Mudgegonga, Victoria, Australia
Tattykeel continues to research meat eating qualities of their Australian White sheep with Associate Professor Malau-Aduli. To ensure the animals are not harmed during the testing, biopsies of the meat are taken from live animals under clinical conditions. Current testing is being used to identify the best lines of animals for eating quality and is proving that the eating quality in these animals is highly heritable.
Development of a proprietary DNA signature, correlations with omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, key sensory eating quality characteristics in Tattykeel Australian White sheep have been branded as a lamb product that is genetically different to other lamb breeds marketed based on sensory eating quality characteristics. This project can see lamb as a protein cross over from the food industry to the health sector due to its high content of long-chain omega-3.