Wayne Walker brings SheepMasters to Tasmania

Sheep producer Wayne Walker is the first person in Tasmania to own a flock of the SheepMaster breed and hopes to see them thrive in the state.

The SheepMaster is a composite meat breed developed in Australia about 30 years ago with genetics from the Damara, Dorper, Van Rooy, Finn, East Friesian, Kojak, Ultrawhite, and White Suffolk foundation lines.

The breed requires no shearing, crutching or mulesing and asx it naturally sheds its wool.

Despite SheepMaster having been around for decades, Mr Walker is believed to be the first person in Tasmania to graze the breed.

“I’ll be taking four sheep to the Hobart Show so people can see what they’re about,” he said.

“People I’ve been talking to have been fascinated by them."

Mr Walker runs the Polwarth stud Riverview at Gretna on the banks of the River Derwent.

Mr Walker has dubbed his new stud Danny SheepMaster.

“John Dalla, who is a breeder in Victoria, kept wanting me to try a few in Tasmania to see how they would go in a colder climate.”

He currently has 10 SheepMaster ewes and a pair of rams.

“They are doing well so far and have quietened down.

“They hadn’t seen many people before coming over, so considering that, they are doing well.”

Mr Walker said he was treating the breed as a side project.

“They produce such beautiful meat – better than Merino or anything like that – and they fatten so quickly,” he said.

“In Victoria, five-month-old ewes were averaging 50 kilograms.”

Mr Walker said he would see how they go for 12 months before increasing the flock, first.

“They are due to lamb in December, and we are hoping to get at least 15 lambs.

“John Dalla in Victoria lambs three times in two years.”

Mr Walker said he had no immediate plans to send any livestock to the abattoir or sell his own SheepMasters.

“I’ll just breed my own for a while until I get the numbers up.

“I’ve only got a small number and don’t want to go too deep in case they don’t do well.”

But Mr Walker was confident they could do well in the cold climate.

“They put a bit of wool on in the winter, so it’s just the cold snaps they need to deal with.

“They only grow up to 30mm of wool, so you don’t see it lying around the paddock.

“It’s good because I don’t have to shear them, they don’t need drenching and they only need vaccinating when lambing.”

The SheepMasters graze on more than three hectares of land alongside some of the Riverview Stud Polwarths.

Further up the road, Mr Walker has an extra 20 hectares with 130 Polwarth ewes.

“We have 50 rams on the smaller bit of land.

All of the water used on both farms comes from the River Derwent.

“I never have to worry about water.

“We’re able to run 50 sheep across three hectares and still cut hay.

“We don’t have to use much fertiliser as the biochar we use does the job.”

Mr Walker said some people in Tasmania had another self-shedding breed, Australian White.

“They said they are infertile and you have to trim their feet every month  - but my SheepMasters haven’t needed to have their feet trimmed yet,” he said.