Palatable shrubs are necessary to ensure continuity of wool production during drought conditions at high stocking rates. Measurements were made of herbage mass, foliage mass of shrubs, bodyweight and annual wool production of Merino wethers grazing a chenopod /Acacia sandplain pasture near Carnarvon W.A. The experiment ran for five years (1983- 198.8), with a design of five stocking rates each of 30 sheep by two pasture types, one in a degraded state with low densities of palatable shrubs and one in a non degraded state with high densities of palatable shrubs. Average clean fleece weights ranged from 2.9 kg to 4.5 kg and total wool production from each paddock ranged from 363 kg to 630 kg. Total wool production from the non degraded site was higher than that from the degraded site only for the paddocks stocked at higher than recommended rates. This as due to their inability to continuously support the grazing pressure applied. At moderate to low stocking rates there was no production advantage vident from the pasture in a non degraded state.
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