Breeding Objective
Breeding for the Commercial Producer
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Low Maintenance Sheep that are Proven Profitable Performers

Proven, Profitable Performers
Our objective at Deep Dene is simple: to retain the most profitable sheep throughout their lifetime.
We achieve this by prioritizing the best phenotype (actual performance) and the best genotype (progeny performance).
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Guided by these principles, we focus on income traits that directly impact your bottom line:
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Fleece Weight: Maximizing the quantity of high-quality wool.
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Fibre Diameter: Selecting sheep with desirable micron ranges for premium fiber.
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Body Weight: Promoting optimal growth and market readiness.
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Staple Length: Facilitating free-growing wool and improved processing.
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Staple Strength: Enhancing the durability and value of the wool.
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4 C's Plus 1 more
At Deep Dene, we understand that unlocking the true income potential goes beyond these traits. That's why we also emphasize the following factors:
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Constitution (Doing Ability): Selecting sheep with robust health and resilience.
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Confirmation: Ensuring proper body structure and muscling for optimal performance.
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Conversion: Promoting efficient feed utilization and weight gain.
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Coverage: Offering sheep with excellent wool coverage for protection and market appeal.
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Longevity: Retaining sheep that exhibit long-term productivity and profitability.


Low Maintenance
We also prioritize traits that reduce costs and boost efficiency:
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Low Body Wrinkle: Minimizing the risk of flystrike and associated costs.
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Open Face: Reducing labor-intensive shearing around the face area.
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Poll: Safer handling for you and your staff.
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Low Breech Cover and Wrinkle: Lowering the susceptibility to flystrike and dag-related issues and the need for mulesing.
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Wool Quality: Focusing on low fleece rot and flystrike occurrences for superior wool value.
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Worm and Dag Resistance: Breeding sheep with natural resistance to reduce treatment expenses.
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Evenness: Promoting uniformity in traits to optimize selling costs.
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At Deep Dene, our strategic sheep classing ensures that every aspect of your flock contributes to profitability. Join us in embracing a new era of market success and elevated returns with our meticulously selected and bred sheep.
Deep Dene's Breeding Aims using SGA Figures: Elevating your flock to new heights!
​At Deep Dene, our breeding aims are designed to deliver exceptional results. We prioritise the following marketable trait ASBVs to enhance your flock's performance.
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Abundant Wool Production: Yearling Clean Fleece Weight (YCFW) +30
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Finer more valuable wool: Lowering Yearling Fibre Diameter (YFD) to less than -1.2.
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Bright White Wool: Enhancing visual appeal and increasing resistance to fleece rot through selection of wool colour less than -0.2.
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Consistent Fiber Quality: Minimizing the coefficient variation in Yearling Fiber Diameter Coefficient of Variation (YFDCV) below -2, ensuring uniformity and consistency in fiber.
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Staple Length: Yearling Staple Length (YSL) exceeding 8, providing free-growing wool that dries out faster but less than 14 to reduce shearing costs.
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Durability of your wool: Increasing Yearling Staple Strength (YSS) to more than 6
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Lower maintenance sheep with less late Dag (LDAG): -0.2
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Reach marketable weight faster with Weaning Weight
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Maintaining body size for user handling through keeping Yearling Weight (YWt): Between 5 and 10
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More Resilient to worm burden through breeding sheep for YWEC: Less than -20 on average
