Australian White Sheep at Highveld Stud International

About Us

History

Highveld Stud International was formed in 1996 by Alan Baron & Pierre Bouwer as a seed stock breeding operation in Australia, specialising in South African breeds of small livestock.

In 1996 Highveld Stud began importing White Dorper and Van Rooy sheep as well as Boer Goats, into Australia, in the form of frozen embryos. In later years, the Black Head Dorper breed & the Savanna goat breed was also imported. These importations involved large numbers of embryos brought in each year, until 2007, when the importation of embryos ceased. By this time, Highveld Stud, as one of the original importers of these breeds, had become a well-known and established stud operation in Australia.

Highveld Stud Exports


To date, Highveld Stud has exported the above breeds to numerous countries around the world, both as live animals as well as frozen embryos. These countries include, the USA, PR China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan, New Zealand, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Pakistan.

Highveld Stud Show Awards

In our breeding history, Highveld Stud has won numerous industry and stud show awards, having achieved both Supreme Exhibitor and Most Successful Exhibitor, numerous times, at most of the prominent Royal Agricultural Shows (RAS) in Australia. We have been awarded Supreme Exhibit and Grand Champion (both sexes), in both the White Dorper sheep breed and Boer Goats on many occasions. In 2012, we were very pleased to became the first Dorper stud in Australia to ever win “Most Successful Exhibitor of the Show – all breeds;” at the ‘All Sheep Breed Landmark NSW Sheep Show. One of the largest all-breed sheep shows in Australia.

By 2005, we had gone into a joint partnership with Allambie stud of Mendooran, NSW. This successful partnership persists to this day.

Time for a change

However, by the year 2000 we had begun to realize that something more had to be done in our sheep seed stock business, if we were to be a really relevant business to the huge Australian sheep industry, over the long term.

Our cross breeding programme had started to reveal a new and valuable possibility; but at the time, it did not yet reveal to us that we would be involved in the creation of the one of the words most exciting sheep breeds…

The Beginnings of the Australian White Sheep Breed

Today

Today, Highveld Stud is fully dedicated to The Australian White Sheep Breed. We are most satisfied with the way this new and exciting breed is changing the possibilities, opportunities and fortunes of those Australian & international sheep producers that are now using the Australian White to boost production. We are convinced that the Australian White will become one of the world’s most valuable, modern, self-replacing meat sheep breeds.

The Highveld Team

Our Highveld management team consists of four dedicated people, each responsible for important & vital components of the business;

Alan Baron, the original founding principal of Highveld Stud, acts as managing Director of our business, with specific responsibility for Breeding Direction, Exports, Industry Engagement as well as Client Development & Education.

Pierre Bouwer, our “stock expert,” is responsible for implementation of our breeding philosophy; specifically, stud animal selection, our line breeding mating program, stock recording and animal registrations. He is very well regarded for his ability to select specific animals to neatly match our clients’ actual needs (for both stud as well as commercial sheep producers). An equestrian of international reputation, Pierre has the “the gift of the eye” for stock of many types, combined with the innate ability to “know the best nick” when mating animals, one to the other.

Adrian Bell is responsible for managing the farm and the end production of our sale animals. A merino wool shearer by trade, he is a practical farmer with good knowledge of both cropping and livestock management. Adrian is our client “go to man” & does much of our client liaison work.

Sandy Spence, is our front office manager, and is also responsible for our events planning and implementation.