“The White Suffolk is Australia’s fastest growing meat breed – in just 30 years it has grown to represent a third of all terminal sires in Australia.” *
Last century Dr Euan Roberts, at the University of New South Wales, recognised that the Suffolk breed commanded less than 10% of the Australian prime lamb market despite being the leading prime lamb sire in Britain and America. His own research showed Suffolk-sired lambs reached killing weights two to three weeks ahead of lambs sired by Poll Dorsets, at that time the most popular white terminal sire in Australia. The main reason for the low use of Suffolks was attributed to its black points and devalued wool clip.
In the mid 1970s Dr Roberts established a breeding programme to develop a new white prime lamb sire based on the Suffolk breed and retaining the exceptional Suffolk meat and growth qualities. Over several years Dr Roberts bred successively against black points using mostly Dorset and Border Leicester crossed with Suffolks.
By 1986 Dr Roberts concluded the project successful and proposed that further work should be undertaken commercially – after 10 years of breeding research Dr Roberts passed development to the farming industry. The Australian White Suffolk Association (AWSA) was founded around the same time in 1985.
The UNSW sold its White Suffolk flock to Prime Lamb Genetics, a company formed by 40 forward-thinking farmers to promote further progress of the breed. PLG operated this flock as a breeding nucleus supplying its members with top genetics and in turn sourcing top genetics from members’ flocks. Karioi White Suffolk was one of these 40 foundation members and retained membership until PLG was wound up in 2005.