The Coolalee is an Australian short wool,

meat Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted, farmed, and scavenged animals for meat since prehistoric times. The establishment of settlements in the Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals such as chic ...

sheep breed, developed from an eight-year breeding program commenced in 1968. The breed resulted from the crossing of the

Wiltshire Horn The Wiltshire Horn is a breed of domestic sheep originally from Wiltshire in southern England raised for meat. The breed is unusual among native British breeds, for it has the unusual feature of moulting its short wool and hair coat naturall ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

Hampshire Down The Hampshire Down or Hampshire is a British breed of sheep. It originated in about 1829 from cross-breeding of Southdowns with the Old Hampshire breed, the Wiltshire Horn and the Berkshire Nott, all horned, white-faced sheep — these were na ...

, Poll Dorset, Lincoln and

English Leicester The Leicester Longwool is an English breed of sheep. Alternative names for the breed include: Leicester, Bakewell Leicester, Dishley Leicester, English Leicester, Improved Leicester and New Leicester. It was originally developed by 18th-century ...

sheep breeds. The first Coolalee rams became commercially available in 1983. These rams are used as terminal sires for prime lamb production. Coolalee sheep have shown considerable promise in an independent central progeny testing system for prime lambs. The system is designed to identify outstanding meat sheep sires and their ability to sire elite lamb with a carcase weight of more than 22 kg and a fat score of 2–3. The testing also showed significant reductions in fat depth, which is an important consumer requirement, on first cross Coolalee lambs.

References

Sheep breeds originating in Australia Sheep breeds {{sheep-stub