Poll Dorsets have the opportunity to be a designer terminal breed should they choose.

And offering specific traits that address challenges or offer extras could be a tipping point to encourage prime lamb breeders to select Poll Dorsets.

Dr Mark Ferguson from NextGen Agri said the prime lamb industry was changing, and there were opportunities for Poll Dorset breeders.

This included the prime lamb dam base, which traditionally focused on first cross ewes.

“The message is you don’t have to decide on the one direction or to target one ewe base (Merinos, first cross, composites, shedding) and you can have different directions,” Dr Ferguson said.

“It might be sensible to say you are a specialist that is going to provide for one of these ewe markets and be really good at that and tell your story clearly and then potentially you are able to nail that segment of market.”

The other major change to the prime lamb industry was the increase in lot feeding of lambs.

“We have all heard of the increase in feedlotting, and with grain prices at pretty low levels and lamb prices very good, feedlots range from small to big specialist operations,” Dr Ferguson said.

“Infrastructure is being built and I am sure we will see more of it.”

While lamb feedlotting is a new industry, it’s de regueur for the beef industry, and the newness could offer something for Poll Dorset breeders.

“There is an opportunity for Poll Dorsets, not only to compete on traditional traits like growth but to go hard on whether we can have the healthiest lamb into the market,” he said.

“Aa lot of traits are not thought about but because lambs could be going into a feedlot, we want to have a lamb that will thrive and not cause grief.

“They may be bred to be finished on grass but a feedlot can be a dusty environment with different feed and with different diseases.”

Dr Ferguson said one of the biggest diseases affecting lambs in a feedlot was pneumonia, which he said did have a genetic component. Pleurisy and pneumonia were both heritable traits which were correlated with the immune system of the animal.

“Should these be in our breeding strategies now because industry has more and more feedlots so lambs are more and more prone to disorders?,” he said.

“Some cohorts of lambs have up to 60 per cent trimming due to lung issues going on.

“Things like this are not terminal traits that a breeder would think of immediately but I think these could be part of a future breeding direction, to set up for an industry that does not exist yet.”

Another issue in feedlots is pink eye due to the dusty environments, but a lamb with a better immune system stays healthier in general.

“Many of the issues have a genetic component,” Dr Ferguson said.

“A whole raft of things in a breeding objective will become increasingly important.”

And dag score was one where the Poll Dorset breed could take a lead.

Dr Ferguson said breeding for low dag scores was the “closest thing to magic that I have ever seen in genetics”

“When you have a superior ram for dags and put it over ewes where they tend to have dags, there are none in the lambs,” he said.

“In your own enterprises, how lovely would it be to not have to crutch those sheep.

“But equally for your clients who are trying to finish lambs and don’t have to crutch those lambs, has to be one of the most marketable things you could have.

“This is the kind of trait you can lean into.

“It’s free to measure, ridiculously repeatable and quite heritable and has to be one of my more favourite traits.

“There is massive potential and it will be exhibited in the terminal lambs.”

Working on a breed value for footrot or scald and selecting for sheep with good feet would also be a boon for clients.

“I encourage Poll Dorset breeders to think outside the box on what they can do with genetics,” he said.