From the Stud
Billandri is a family Poll Merino stud at Kendenup, in the Great Southern of Western Australia. Our sheep run commercially for wool and meat across four farms, alongside wheat, barley, canola, lupins and beans.
Our goal is to maximise genetic gain using the best available information while keeping selection firmly focused on sheep that perform in commercial conditions.
The tools are changing quickly: lifetime research, MERINOSELECT, repeated liveweights and better parasite data. The objective stays the same. Productive, sound Merinos for our clients.
Measure more accurately, make decisions earlier, and judge the result where it matters: in the paddock.
Why We Moved the Ram Sale
- 1 Better hogget data
Later measurement gives more mature information before final selection and sale. The Merino Lifetime Productivity project shows why this matters.
- 2 Weaning at the right time
Lambs can be weaned in early October to suit the flock, rather than sale preparation dictating management. By eight weeks a lamb is already taking most of its energy from pasture.
- 3 A meaningful WEC challenge
Running rams tighter gives us time to target a worm egg count around 400 epg, enough challenge for genetic differences to show, while still preparing them toward about 80 kg at sale.
- 4 Brucellosis accreditation
The revised timetable gives us the time needed to complete testing requirements and maintain accreditation.
Billandri in the WP Index
The WP index ranks sires on wool production across every flock recording with MERINOSELECT, so it compares our sheep with the rest of the country rather than with each other.
| Rank | Sire | WP index | Accuracy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 230524 | 217.61 | 59% |
| 72 | 210979 | 190.62 | 84% |
| 98 | 160972 | 185.85 | 84% |
| 150 | 220408 | 180.22 | 74% |
| 157 | 130087 | 179.67 | 91% |
| 170 | 200210 | 178.19 | 78% |
MERINOSELECT WP index ranking. Accuracy rises as more progeny are recorded, so a young sire can rank high on fewer records than an older one.
Billandri Sires in the MLP
The Merino Lifetime Productivity project ran from 2015 to 2025. Across five sites, 134 sires from 95 ram breeding flocks filled 167 sire places, and their daughters were shorn, classed and joined through life. Billandri had three sires in it: one at Balmoral in Victoria and two at Pingelly in WA.
- Entered in the first MLP drop, one of 24 sires at the Victorian site.
- Mature daughters recorded 4.6 kg clean fleece at A3 against a 4.0 kg trial sire average, about 15% higher.
- A trait leader for clean fleece weight while staying finer than average in fibre diameter.
- As maidens in 2019 his daughters weaned 30.9 kg of lamb per ewe joined, the highest at the site against a 26.5 kg average, and were trait leading on that measure again in 2020.
- Chosen by the site committee to represent diversity as a finer sire.
- Trait leading MP+, FP+ and WP+ indexes, and a trait leader for fineness and clean fleece weight at the same time.
More clean wool without giving up fineness, and daughters that wean more lamb, measured by other people, in other environments, over the whole life of the ewe rather than at one weighing.
How closely young measurements match lifetime performance.
Balmoral 2015-drop sire MP index correlation with eventual lifetime MP index. This is a progeny-test correlation, not an individual ram accuracy percentage. Project figures: AMSEA and AWI Merino Lifetime Productivity. Pingelly results as reported in Countryman, August 2021. Balmoral fleece figure from Billandri records.
How We Select
- STEP 1Rank on index
Every ram in the drop is ranked on breeding values and index, increasingly on hogget data.
- STEP 2Groups of 20
The top rams are split into groups of twenty, in rank order.
- STEP 3Select by eye
We take the most from the top group and fewer further down, so feet, frame and wool meet our standard.
Grp 150%Grp 240%Grp 325%Grp 415% - STEP 4DNA verified
Every potential sire is DNA tested for pedigree, and visual traits are scored 1 (best) to 5 using the Sheep Genetics Visual Sheep Scores.
Optiweigh at Billandri
Optiweigh sits in the paddock and weighs sheep as they walk over it for a lick of supplement. No yarding, no mustering, no handling, just a running weight on the mob, day after day. It has turned out to be one of the more valuable pieces of information in the business, and there is now a machine on each of our four farms.
The response to drenching. Through most of August the team sat flat at about 61 kg while the feed improved. A worm egg count came back at 250 epg. We drenched anyway, and the line lifted about 230 grams a head a day for five weeks, from 61 kg to nearly 70 kg.
Selection, showing up by accident. When the sale team was drafted off, the 100 rams that didn't make the grade averaged 66.3 kg. The full team came back at about 69.5 kg. The rams our clients bought were the heavier end of the drop.
In September the 2026 sale rams were averaging 75.2 kg, on their way to about 80 kg at sale.
2026 Ram Sale
Purchased rams can also stay at Billandri and be prepared ready to join ewes on 1 February 2027 or 14 February 2027.
Around 230 rams will be offered on StockLive, so you can bid from anywhere. Register with StockLive before sale day.
Every ram is filmed, so buyers who can't make the inspection day can still see them move.
ASBVs, indexes and visual scores for every ram are in the catalogue.
For Our Clients
We pay for Sheep Genetics Flock Profile testing for prospective clients, so you can see how your ewes compare with the industry and with Billandri genetics.
Clients receive three years of their own flock averages, to track the genetic gain coming through.
Set the traits that matter to your operation and the app re-ranks the sale rams to suit, with videos of each ram.
