One of Australia's oldest sheep breeds and one of its newest are adopting programs that identify and seek to protect superior genes from their members for commercial lamb production.
Members of the Australian Border Leicester Association (ABLA) started its highly successful $uperBorder$ system more than two decades ago.
It was the first time a national sheep society had developed a breed-specific integrity initiative for its members, and it continues to attract new participants.
The ABLA represents about 25 breeders across Australia and has more than 50 rams in national evaluation trials that feed data into a national benchmarking program for the breed.
Its rams are identified by yellow tags and have become very sought after in the market.
The Australian White Sheep Breeders Association (AWSBA) has also recently introduced a tagging system for commercial sheep produced by its stud members, who are among the first breeders in the country to run this new breed.
It uses blue ear tags to denote ewes and flock rams that are bred only from studs registered on its AWSBA flock book.
AWSBA president Ross Gilmore said this verified for livestock agents and buyers that these were pure Australian White sheep, and provided confidence they were not crossbreds.
He said the huge prices being received by Australian Whites in the sheep market added extra incentive to protect the integrity of bloodlines.
"We want to maintain the strong reputation of Australian White sheep for quality and consistency - and a verification system achieves that," he said.
"This will only become more important as more sheep breeders and producers develop their own direct supply and meat brand initiatives that depend on quality assurance and traceability."
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Mr Gilmore has experience in this area, as his family's Australian White stud "Tattykeel" has established its own red tag verification system to ensure the integrity of its bloodlines.
Known as Tattykeel Certified, it means clients that exclusively use the stud's genetics receive red tags for their commercial ewes.
This means the ewes instantly identifiable in the market - whether that is the saleyards, AuctionsPlus or private transactions.
"The ewes have to be sired by a Tattykeel ram and meet our quality specifications, which we assess visually via video systems," Mr Gilmore said.
"Flock ram and ewe buyers can be assured they are getting stud quality, purebred Australian White stock."
In the first six weeks of introducing its red tags, the stud had about seven clients join the program and it aims to have about 30 producers in the system in the short to medium-term.
They will also be able to sell into its supply chain for Tattykeel's premium "Margra Lamb" brand.
ABLA and $uperBorder$ member and Border Leicester breeder Neil Johnson said his breed had the same goal of ensuring the integrity of purebred stock, especially ewes.
He said this had become more important in recent years because of the increasing popularity of Border Leicester females as maternal breeders for crossing with a wide range of terminal breeds and Merinos.
"The $uperBorder$ verification system has helped the breed become a real force in maternal genetics by providing confidence in bloodlines," he said.
"It has also contributed towards the continual genetic improvement of the breed.
"Our program has a strong reputation in the market and continues to go from strength to strength."
ABLA members wanting to use $uperBorder$ need to solely use sires bred by association members and that are registered on its flock book.
Other sheep breeds to have introduced verification systems include Poll Dorsets, with Meat Elite Australia, and the Australian White Suffolk Association, with Superwhites.
The Makeham family, of Walcha and Young, in New South Wales, started breeding Border Leicesters in the 1950s and - like many other studs - has set up their own bloodline verification system called the North South Progeny Assurance Standard.
This is only for livestock that are sired by North South Border Leicester rams and approved by a representative of the North South stud.
