The Coolalee is an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n short wool

Wool

Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....

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

Wiltshire Horn

The Wiltshire Horn is a breed of domestic sheep originally from Wiltshire in southern England raised for meat. The breed is unusual amongst native British breeds, for it has the unusual feature of moulting its short wool and hair coat naturally in spring, alleviating the need for shearing. They...

, Suffolk

Suffolk (sheep)

Suffolk are a black-faced, open-faced breed of domestic sheep raised primarily for meat.-Ewes:They are mainly raised for wool and meat production especially when crossed with the progeny of a mountain ewe. For example, a purebred upland ewe such as a Welsh Mountain ewe might be bred with a breeding...

, Hampshire Down

Hampshire sheep

The Hampshire or Hampshire Down is a breed of sheep which originated around 1829 from a cross of Southdowns with the Old Hampshire breed, the Wiltshire Horn, and the Berkshire Nott, all horned, white-faced sheep — these were native to the open, untilled, hilly stretch of land known as the Hampshire...

, Poll Dorset

Dorset (sheep)

The Dorset or Dorset Horned breed of sheep is known mostly for its prolific lambing. It has been known to produce two lambing seasons per year: bred in May for lambs finished by the holidays, and bred again immediately after the first lambing to produce again in March or April...

, Lincoln

Lincoln (sheep)

The Lincoln, sometimes called the Lincoln Longwool, is a breed of sheep from England. The Lincoln is the largest British sheep, developed specifically to produce the heaviest, longest and most lustrous fleece of any breed in the world. Great numbers were exported to many countries to improve the...

 and English Leicester

English Leicester

English Leicester are an English breed of sheep. Alternate names for the breed include: Leicester, Bakewell Leicester, Dishley Leicester, Improved Leicester, Leicester Longwool, and New Leicester...

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.