Ongoing shearer shortages and pressures to resolve animal welfare issues has seen one lifetime Merino breeder take a leap of faith with a shedding sheep breed.
John Dalla is the stud principal of the well-known Orrie Cowie Merino, Poll Merino and White Suffolk Stud in South Australia.
Merinos have been the focus of the Orrie Cowie stud since 1965, but the name change to Orrie Cowie Genetics, combined with the purchase of their first SheepMaster genetics last year, indicates the future direction Mr Dalla plans to take.
The SheepMaster breed will eventually replace the White Suffolk side of Orrie Cowie's breeding program.
"We will have our last drop of White Suffolk lambs this year while also crossing White Suffolks with SheepMasters," Mr Dalla said.
"Labour issues with shearing and poor prices for crossbred fleece has led us to diversify."
Mr Dalla believes shedding sheep are the future of the meat sheep industry but can also complement Merino operations.
"Merinos have always been my first passion but SheepMasters are genuinely the easiest sheep I have ever run," he said.
"They are nice-natured, intelligent and super low maintenance.
"I believe the Merino side of our operation will also benefit with us running SheepMasters because we can still run the same amount of sheep, but will have more time to concentrate on the Merinos as the others are so easy care."
Mr Dalla said he explored different options before settling on SheepMasters, but they were the breed that "had it all."
"Some breeds are good mothers but have low weight, some don't shed cleanly - there is always an upside and a downside," he said.
"Since we have had the SheepMasters I can say they are really balanced, have a clean shedding ability and carry more weight than other breeds we have had experience with.
"Being a young breed, I like that it gives me the opportunity to experiment with what we have now."
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Mr Dalla said that with Orrie Cowie running across multiple properties, SheepMasters fit in perfectly and can be run in paddocks that Merinos struggle on.
"They aren't tough on fences either," he said.
"Currently we keep them nowhere near the shearing shed and it's not an issue because we don't have to worry about transporting them back to shear."
The grazing land on lower Yorke Peninsula land is renowned for producing cobalt deficiencies in sheep, but at this stage, the SheepMaster flock have not shown any issues, according to Mr Dalla.
Mr Dalla's confidence in SheepMasters was shown when purchasing the first lot of the day for a record price of $110,000 at Neil Garnett's SheepMaster National Ram Sale in Western Australia last year.
Mr Dalla also purchased another five rams and 300 ewe lambs from the Garnett family and has since become the first registered SheepMaster stud in SA.
Orrie Cowie Genetics will have their first lot of SheepMaster ram lambs for sale by the end of 2023.
"We are looking forward to our first sale which will be run separately to our annual Merino sale," Mr Dalla said.
WA breeder, Neil Garnett said he was thrilled that Mr Dalla was getting involved with SheepMasters and that they were ideal for South Australian conditions.
"The reason SheepMasters are so resilient, hardy and self-reliant is their African heritage," Mr Garnett said.
"They have been bred over hundreds of years by African tribesmen, being selected only for the ability to survive without mineral supplements and in harsh conditions."
