Our Kelso Story

David Alexander and Kelso genetics have a shared history since 1994. While managing Gilgal south of Cootamundra, David was introduced to the Kelso family via Roger Marshall, of Kelso New Zealand.  The initial importation of genetics was some Finn semen from Marshall's rams from Marten in the North Island.  This was inseminated into Border Leicester ewes at Cootamundra. Roger Marshall had commenced a cross breeding program involving Border Leicester's/Finn/Texal/Romney in the Early 90's and this was to become known as The Kelso. The Ward family and David started breeding and selling Kelso type rams from 1998.

Coota Kelso was established in 2015 in a partnership between David Alexander and Doug Caldwell of Pevensey, Cootamundra. Doug had been purchasing Kelso rams from Gilgal for a number of years and had breed up a pure Kelso group of ewes. The partnership was designed to breed Kelso sheep at Pevensey over five years, with David then purchasing Doug's half share of ewes bred together. These sheep were moved to David and Susie Alexander's property Nunyara in 2020.

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David began with 1600 first-cross ewes on Nunyara in 2018, and have infused Kelso genetics through those original ewes. Lambing in late winter 2023 will see only 300 of the original ewes plus 2000 Kelso cross ewes and ewe lambs. The pure Kelso ram breeding group has plenty of scale to allow for increased selection pressure. This selection will focus on high lambing, high lamb survival, good growth and improved wool. We aim to improve the quality of the cross-bred shearing equation back in favour of the sheep breeder as the wool component needs to be profitable for producers.