ADRA Mongolia

Fine Wool Sheep Breeding Project

Project Summary

Donors: Australian Embassy in Mongolia, Rotary Club of Mildura Deakin, Australia

Budget: 90,000 AUD

Duration: 1 July 2025 – 31 June 2026

Focus Area: Tsagaannuur, Orkhon, Saikhan, and Eruu soums of Selenge Province

Beneficiary Partners: Specialists from the National Livestock Gene Bank, 29 herder households, and 3 local companies breeding fine and semi-fine wool sheep

Mongolia’s fine and semi-fine wool sheep population has declined to a critical level of just 12,000 animals out of 23.9 million total sheep. These valuable breeds, which trace their genetic origins back to Australian Merino sheep introduced in 1943, face extinction without systematic intervention. Since 2022, the Fine Wool Sheep Breeding Project has been working to restore these genetic resources by importing 5,230 frozen semen doses and 150 embryos from Australia. Through artificial insemination and embryo transfer, we have already achieved measurable results: 279 lambs were born in 2025, wool fiber quality has improved significantly, and in 2026, approximately 1,200 ewes are currently lambing.

Key Achievements

In 2025, from the 680 ewes inseminated across three soums, 23 herder households successfully raised lambs, achieving an average 45% conception rate using Australian semen.
Wool samples were collected from the inseminated ewes, and micron and yield analyses are being conducted under laboratory conditions.
Breeders of the Eruu fine wool and Steppe White sheep breeds formally requested to join the project. Consequently, frozen semen imported from Australia will also be applied to these two Mongolian fine wool breeds. As a result, the project coverage has expanded to include Eruu breed sheep in Eruu soum of Selenge Province and 100 Steppe White breed sheep in Kherlen soum of Khentii Province. This milestone allows the use of Australian semen as an improver across all four officially recognized fine and semi-fine wool sheep breeds in Mongolia.
A participant who attended the sheep shearing training under the project won second place in the National Sheep Shearing Competition and achieved a record of shearing 274 sheep in one day. This participant has since been recruited to work as a professional shearer in New Zealand.
The interest of herders and breeding entities in participating in artificial insemination has significantly increased—from 23 to 29 households, and from 680 to 1,052 ewes—demonstrating growing local engagement and demand.