The Illoura Poll Dorset Stud was founded in 1964 with the purchase of a ram  which was mated to 55 Dorset Horn ewes. By 1970, 230 Poll Dorset Ewes were being mated and this number grew to 300 by 1988.

The Poll Dorset is a short wooled, meat producing sheep. It has a long, well-fleshed body, dense 'Down' type wool and a white wool-free face.

The Poll Dorset's main features are:
                    - quick maturity
                    - high fertility
                    - saleable as light or heavy carcase lambs
                    - adapts itself to great variations of climate
                    - ewes are excellent mothers, able to raise twins

The Poll Dorset, when mated to a Merino, produces an excellent prime lamb. Poll Dorset wool is purchased and used for its blending qualities to add the sponginess of its fibre to the product eg quilts and carpets.

Illoura has always aimed to produce easy-care flock rams with a strong constitution and good dense wool. The demands of the commercial market are always kept in mind in our breeding program.

Visual appraisal of the stud stock was supplemented with objective measurements in 1985.   Fat depth and growth rates were measured using the Lambplan testing service.   This allowed us to be even more selective in our breeding program, to produce a high standard ram for commercial purposes.

Currently we are mating 80 Poll Dorset ewes.

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