Stonybrook Wiltshires

No shearing

No dagging

No crutching

No docking

No dipping

No fly strike

Our story

Stonybrook Wiltshires have been breeding high-quality Wiltshire sheep as a stud in the Waikato since 2015. The stud flock consists of over 100 pure-bred fully shedding Wiltshire ewes and all animals are SIL recorded.

We have a strong focus on breeding an easy-care and low input sheep with high lambing percentages, good survivability, and fast growth rates. This results in significant savings on labour and agrichemical costs.

Why Wiltshire sheep?

Wiltshires have a number of traits that make them an easy care sheep:

Grow a short fleece that is naturally shed in spring and early summer each year
Hair on head, belly, legs, and around the tail
Bare skin under the tail
Good growth rates as energy is not wasted on wool production
Easy lambing so ideal for hogget mating
Highly fertile with twins being the norm
Good mothers
Naturally hardy
Unlikely to get cast due to short wool
Produce a lean, heavily muscled carcase
Have a fine-grained and marbled meat with excellent taste and texture

Our breeding strategy

Low maintenance

We have been actively selecting for a low maintenance sheep with a short wool cover, early shedding, good feet, and high parasite tolerance which means our sheep do not require shearing, crutching, dagging, or docking. They also do not get fly strike and so do not need to be dipped.

Easy & effective lambing

Our Wiltshires are very fertile with twins being normal. We have a strong focus on selecting for lambing without intervention, good mothering instincts in the ewes, and survivability traits in the lambs.

Parasite tolerance

We practice minimal drenching, with most lambs only drenched once or twice, and mature ewes and rams never. This means that animals with natural tolerance for these conditions are the ones that thrive in our system and are either kept as breeding ewes or sold on as our stud animals.

Fast growing & muscular

Lamb weaning weights are used to determine genetic lines with the best growth rates for improving our flock.

Facial eczema tolerance

This is a trait that we are increasingly focussing on to ensure our ewes and rams have a high tolerance for facial eczema conditions around the country. Only tested stud rams are introduced to our flock.

Data driven decisions

We collect the data we need to ensure we can make informed decisions and improve our animals year-on-year. All lambs are tagged at birth and registered with SIL, then records kept over their life to allow us to decide which lambs should be kept as replacements, and which should be sold on as stud rams.

Wiltshire sheep for sale

Two-tooth rams

From $500 + GST

Ram lambs

From $250 + GST

Ewe lambs

From $250 + GST

Mixed age ewes

From $250 + GST

Interested in our animals?

Where are you located?

We are in Wharepuhunga, Waikato, New Zealand. Approximately 40 minutes from Te Awamutu and Otorohanga, just over 1 hour from Hamilton, Taupo and Rotorua, and 2.5 hours from Auckland.

Frequently asked questions

What bloodlines are in your flock?

All founding ewes, and all stud rams, have been purchased from high-quality Wiltshire studs to ensure only the best genetics in the flock. Bloodlines in the flock are Arvidson, Strickland, Puriri Wiltshires, McMillan, Moerangi, Ipurua, and Waterfields.

Do Wiltshires shed 100% of their wool every year?

For any sheep that is more than one year old, they should always shed 100% of their wool in spring or early summer every year. If you have sheep that are not shedding it would pay to look at the genetics of your flock as there are a lot of sheep sold as ‘100% shedding Wiltshire sheep’ that actually have other breeds mixed in and therefore have variable shedding which defeats one of the main purposes of purchasing the breed.

For lambs, in 99% of cases they should also shed all their wool in their first year. There are a number of factors that influence shedding however, and you may find that smaller, late-born lambs (e.g. late triplets) or any lambs with health issues could be the exception and will shed most, but not all, of their wool in the first year. They should shed all of their wool in subsequent years.

What impacts shedding of their wool?

Exactly when a sheep will shed its wool is very dependent on a number of factors, and it can change every year even for the same sheep. Typically any sort of stress on a sheep’s body will delay shedding, for example lactation, high parasite burden, illness, low weight or poor body condition. As such you will often find ewes will all finish shedding once lambs are weaned.

Where does the wool go?

The wool sheds off the sheep in spring and early summer each year and drops into the paddock where it quickly biodegrades back down into the pasture and is absorbed into the soil structure, returning minerals and organic matter.

Does the wool make a mess in the paddocks?

Over most of the year there will be no wool in the pasture, however for a few weeks each year when the majority of sheep are dropping their wool, there can be some wool lying around or caught up in fences. This wool quickly biodegrades back down into the pasture. The rest of the year both the pastures and sheep are very tidy.

Remember that Wiltshire sheep are usually bred to have shorter wool than other breeds, so there isn’t as much wool to drop into the paddocks in the first place.

Do you have to dock tails?

There is no need to dock tails for high-quality Wiltshire sheep that have short wool, shed early, have bare skin under the tail, and have no wool around the tail. These traits make the sheep highly resistant to fly strike.

Are they hard to handle in the yards?

Wiltshire sheep are a low maintenance breed so are handled less often in the yards than other sheep breeds, however handling is no different and the same processes and yards setup are suitable.

How big are Wiltshire sheep?

Wiltshire ewes are between 75-80kg, and rams are between 90-120kg.

Are you able to deliver?

Yes, we can organise delivery to certain areas in the North Island. Get in contact to find out if delivery is available to your location.