Sheep station
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A sheep station is a large farm (station, the equivalent of a ranch) in Australia or New Zealand whose main activity is the raising of sheep for their wool and meat. In Australia, sheep stations are usually in the outback, but south of the dog fence. In New Zealand they are usually in the high country. These properties may be thousands of square kilometres in size and run low stocking rates to be able to sustainably provide enough feed and water for the stock.
In Australia, the owner of a sheep station is called a grazier.
In the Australian context, getting wool from sheep involves annual musters of sheep to be shorn, and the shearing shed is an important part of the station. A station usually also includes a homestead and adjacent sheds, windmills, dams and in many cases a landing strip available for use by the Royal Flying Doctor Service and other light aircraft. Some of these items have regional variants, usually to deal with climate extremes.
Similarly, where the climate and vegetation allow, especially north of the dog fence, cattle stations are similar but run cattle rather than sheep. Some properties are not exclusively sheep or cattle stations but may have a mix of cattle, sheep and even goats which makes the owner less vulnerable to changes in wool or beef prices.
[edit] Language use
The term generally used by agricultural and environmental professionals for sheep station forms of landholding is rangeland, but is not in general use by Australians. The term ranch is rarely, if ever, used.
For administrative purposes, most stations exist on pastoral leases, but in state government jurisdictions they are increasingly known as stations.
The word station is also a traditional Australian English term to denote a large and/or important landholding for any agricultural purpose.
