MORE than 90 per cent of Australian sheep producers said they would either increase or maintain their existing flock sizes in 2021, according to the October 2020 results of the Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) and Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) Wool and Sheepmeat Survey.
The survey which was conducted by Kynetec is run three times a year.
A total of 1678 participants from across Australia participated, representing 2495 different properties.
The 257 Western Australian participants made up just 15pc of the total respondents.
MLA said the results provided valuable insights into the sheep and wool industry for ewe and lamb numbers, producer intentions, lamb sales and marking rates.
The October results estimated there were 40.7 million breeding ewes in Australia, with 30.4m (75pc) of these being Merinos.
WA had one of the highest Merino flocks still in the country.
They also estimate that as of October 2020, there were 25.9m lambs on hand, with purebred Merino lambs accounting for 56pc of these at 14.5m.
The survey results found that 42pc of sheep producers were looking to increase the size of their ewe flock in the next 12 months, while 34pc of producers intending to increase ewe numbers were also planning to purchase more ewes than normal.
The rest would maintain their existing flock sizes, except for a small percentage that were expecting a decline in numbers.
In WA, just 6pc of producers expected to see a decline in their flocks, mainly due to water issues.
From October to the end of January, WA expected to see 2.03m head of lambs sold.
One million head would be Merino lambs - the highest number of Merinos in the country and the third highest total.
The Australian Wool Production Forecasting Committee (AWPFC) met in December to update its wool production projections for the 2020/21 financial year and have forecast that Australia's wool production for the 2020-21 financial year will total 287 million greasy kilograms, up 1.1pc on the 2019-20 financial year.
The basis for increasing Australia's predicted wool production was the improved seasonal conditions in many wool growing regions.
The AWPFC also predicted that only 64.8 million sheep would be shorn in 2020-21, a 5.5pc decline on 2019-20 numbers.
However, it is predicted that wool shorn per animal would increase this financial year to 4.43kg/head, up 7.3pc of 2019-20 levels.
- The total research sample of 1678 will give the results of this study a margin of error of +/- at a 95pc confidence level based on 37,121 breeding ewe producers in Australia (ABS 2018-19 Survey).