Rural
31 August, 2026
Reports of lambing season success
Dadswells Bridge stud farmer Ellie McDonald reports an outstanding lambing season, amidst discussions of stud production and the future of sheep farming.
Ms McDonald’s passion for livestock started when she was young with some crossbred Suffolks.
When she was 11, she told of seeing a small mob of ewes for sale on Trading Post, and after buying ten ewes and a ram, the seller asked if they wanted the stock’s pedigrees, to which her dad said: “No, we’re not going to be a stud.”
Ms McDonald’s passion for breeding studs was fostered from there, and she has since founded her own stud, Hopea Suffolk Stud in 2011, and Hopea White Suffolk Stud in 2013.
On average, she sells about 90 rams a year; roughly 60 White Suffolks and 30 Suffolks.
“The Suffolks, in probably the last five years, the rams were really hard to sell; you might sell one to a hobby farmer who wanted some cute Suffolk lambs, but now I'm actually selling a lot more to terminal breeders who want to put them over maiden ewes because of their low birth weight,” Ms McDonald said.
During lambing season, she focuses on the adequate growth in lambs from birth to weaning, and on the ease of lambing and survivability rates in ewes and rams.
“We do all my birth weights and post weights and mothering scores and stuff, so it takes up a fair bit of time, but I love it,” Ms McDonald said.
“Everyone I’ve talked to has had one of their best years for lambing just because of the early start and the good mild weather.
“Our merinos were the best they’ve lambed ever; it was about 113% over the lot, which is pretty good.
“I usually order enough tags for the commercial lambs, and usually we have a heap left over, and we nearly ran out of tags, so that was a good thing.
“The studs seem to be on par with the last couple of years, but they probably didn't scan as many triplets.
“In other years, I've had up to 50 sets of triplets in like 250 ewes, but I only had about 15 or so this year scanned, which we think was from the hot days at joining.”
Ms McDonald highlighted key concerns threatening productivity in the livestock industry.
“If the government eventually goes to no mulesing, that's probably the biggest (concern) for the Merinos,” she said.
“Wool sustainability too, trying to make money out of the last couple of years, that's been pretty ordinary.
“People have probably gone more so for shedding ewes because the wool hasn't been worth it.”
Contract shearing expenses in the current market fluctuations produce a net loss for farmers selling wool, deterring farmers from buying into sheep.
“Last year with all the contracting fees and everything, it cost us about $8 a sheep to get shorn, and my sheep, you might make $2 off their fleece, so I’ve bought my own shearing machine to do my own sheep.”
Ms McDonald also pointed out that shearing expenses double for rams, further hindering farmers from buying and working sheep.
“Cropping probably is to the livestock industry one of the biggest factors that's dwindling flocks,” she said.
“Our stock agent said there's (farmers) who have been in sheep all their lives and have all just gone out of sheep, completely out of sheep.”
“I’ve talked to a few people who’ve been looking for workers, and they’ve got a few sheep but mostly crop, but as soon as they mention sheep, (people) don't want to work for them, which is hard for the industry.”