Anden White Suffolk

The Anden Stud 

Anden Stud commenced in 1989, originally founded by Andrew and John Donnan.

The stud was formed using a high-quality Suffolk ewe base, and cross breeding with Poll Dorset sires to produce White Suffolk Stud rams. With much success, winning many Champion ribbons in the show ring, to greater success in the sale ring. Still today Anden Stud continues to produce high performing, industry leading White Suffolk’s with over 30 years’ experience with the breed.

The stud has also bred Suffolk’s under the prefix “Kerangie” with great success. The Suffolk’s originated in 1971 and then a final dispersal in 2021 was decided upon, to allow greater expansion for the ever-increasing demand of the UltraWhite breed.

Viewdale Poll Dorset’s had a large part in the beginning of the UltraWhite Breeding program at Anden Stud. Viewdale was founded in 1960 by Andrew’s father Stanley and grandfather George, the stud then went into recess in the early 80’s. In 2006 Andrew reactivated the stud and recommenced the Poll Dorset breeding program.

In 2010 with 120 Poll Dorset ewes, we made the decision to introduce elite White Dorper genetics into the Poll Dorset flock. At first just testing the waters, we joined 30 of the best Poll Dorsets to elite Dorper semen. This proved very interesting and at this point we knew we were moving in the right direction. 2011 found us keeping 40 of our best Poll Dorset ewes and moving on the rest. We had a new mission, the “easy care” composite animal was a new exciting concept.

Towards the end of 2011 we made a trip over to WA, interested to see what Hillcroft Farms had been working on with a similar breed mindset and vision for the future. This trip was very promising, revealing Dawson was very like minded and had a clear vision on what the UltraWhite would become. On this trip we purchased a ram from Hillcroft Farms in what would be a real springboard heading forward.

The years to follow we continued to show a great deal of interest in the breeding and production of the Easy-Care breed.  We continued to purchase semen each year from Hillcroft Farms, along with using our own top preforming young sires. Each year moving forward we conducted extensive AI and ET programs to fast track our progress.

In 2017 and again in 2021 we purchased a number of embryos from Hillcroft Farms, looking to enhance the attributed of the UltraWhite breed within our flock.

We have classed and assessed our sheep with tough scrutiny right from the beginning and still continue to today. We believe scrutinizing them from the beginning has led us in an excellent direction when it comes to the quality of animal we present today. It is very important to us that the breed has exceptional structure, especially through the shoulders, feet and legs. At times the UltraWhites are run on tough conditions and must survive, giving us another avenue to observe and class on what is, the breeds outstanding do ability.

12 years on since the beginning of the “experiment” and we are still excited to continue improving the following objectives within our stud ewe base.

These include greater fertility, especially in tougher conditions where feed is scarcer, milking ability, fat cover, improved growth rates, increased muscle yield, small to moderate birth weights for lambing, vigorous lambs at birth for increased lamb survival, shedding ability to drastically decrease the need for manual labor including shearing, crutching and monitoring stock in humid months for flystrike.

Other important attributes when selecting stud sires are looking for a strong, clean head, outstanding structure through the shoulders, legs and feet. A stud ram must have large, firm testicals, fantastic muscling ability and fat cover. In most recent years we have endeavored to use rams carrying the short tail gene. We see an opportunity of the short tail gene being a great advantage to shedding sheep, this aim is to further reduce the need for manual labor, and increase sheep health and welfare standards, also allowing lambs to not get a check at tail docking time from stress related to this method.

We continue aiming to produce a shedding sheep with tremendous carcass attributes, sound shoulders, feet and legs. Along with correct structure, these animals also need to boast well balanced, accurate ASBV’s that our clients can count on. The UltraWhite breed is renowned for its ease of lambing over maiden ewes with survival rates that are hard to match. With improved survival rates of both lambs and ewes, this comes down to years of accurate data recording from birth and accurate ASBV’s to assist in selecting stud sires that improve the overall flock and UltraWhite breed. We continue to strive to produce lambs with good early growth, hitting medium-heavy weights quickly, providing exceptional fat cover and muscling ability, with a quicker turn around in the paddock.

At this stage we are running around 250 mature ewes and retain around 100 ewe lambs each year, this being a mixture of pure bred and our composite ewe portion, these have all be joined for season 2022. We will have approximately 120 rams in our sale this year.

In the future we are looking to expand as increased popularity in shedding breeds continue and the demand for UltraWhite sheep increases. We will still be classing and assessing with tough scrutiny on visual and ASBV attributes, only the best will be kept going forward.

Our on-property Sale is held every year on the first Thursday in October.

This year’s sale will be held on October 5th selling approximately 120 UltraWhite and UltraWhite rams.

With the UltraWhite Sheep Breeders Association of Australia now established, we now have definitive guidelines, rules and regulations to adhere to. We have found ourselves with a number our top breeding ewes still recognised as composite F1, F2, F3, F4 and F5. Therefore, moving forward these ewes will continue the grading up phase before their progeny can be classed as pure UltraWhite. This is not from a lack of us aiming to breed what we believe is the best Easy-Care animal on the market. This composite portion have been in the breeding program equally as long as the pure UltraWhite ewes we run, and possess the attributes the UltraWhite breed aspires to consistently produce. We have put years of work and breeding into them and will continue to keep them as we progress and move towards a pure flock in the future.

White Suffolk

The Anden White Suffolk Stud, Flock No. 91 was founded in 1989, by Andrew & John Donnan, using Suffolk ewes from Kerangie & Stone Haven Studs. Sires have been introduced from top White Suffolk stud to build a sire base.

Anden was built on a passion to provide the best genetics to breeders. With 5 star data collection, clients know they can purchase with confidence, taking out the guess work and be able to produce elite animals time and time again.

Anden White Suffolks have exceptional phenotype and genotype, giving the client the best of both worlds, with data and structure. Making Anden the performance genetics you can count on.

Results at market reflect the enhancement that Anden rams have given to previous buyers.

We have had much success at the Royal Adelaide Show over the years and acknowledge the Studs’ achievements. To view our highlights please visit our News page.

In 2016 John (91) sold his share of the Stud to Joel Donnan. Joel grew up on the farm and has worked full time since 2011. Joel’s sheep knowledge and insight will be instrumental to the Anden Stud’s future. His dedication and his passion to the Stud is second to none.