BUOYANT lamb prices are dictating the composition of the Australian flock, according to Meat and Livestock Australia's latest lamb survey.

The survey, conducted last October, found 50 per cent of respondents intended to increase their lamb output this year, at the expense of wool and other enterprises.

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Despite the concern about dwindling Merino numbers, the survey found 7 per cent more farmers would join more Merino ewes to terminal sires this year.

Overall, 59 per cent of respondents said they would not change the number of Merino ewes they joined to terminal sires, 17 per cent said they would use fewer terminals over Merinos and 24 per cent said they would use more.

The national survey results were derived from voluntary responses from 900 sheep producers via the internet and another 500 from telephone interviews.

MLA sheep analyst Kara Tighe said the survey result would provide vital data for MLA's 2010 projections for beef and sheep due for release next month.

Ms Tighe said although the survey attempted to canvass a fully representative sample of specialist wool producers, dual-purpose and specialist prime lamb producers, the latter were overstated in the survey making up 32 per cent of the respondents.

Wool and dual-purpose sheep enterprises comprised 68 per cent of the respondents.

"We had invited Australian Wool Innovation to participate in the joint survey, but they declined," Ms Tighe said.

"But we are still hopeful they will join us in future surveys."

To help establish a truly national sheep survey, MLA had contracted West Australian sheep analyst Kimbal Curtis to analyse the survey results.

In recent years Mr Curtis has conducted AWI's flock surveys.

AWI said any participation in the October survey would have been unbudgeted, but they would consider future joint surveys.

The survey also found 57 per cent of respondents had increased their returns from prime lambs, while 16 per cent reported a drop and 27 per cent reported no change.

However, only 14 per cent reported increased returns from wool, while 55 per cent reported a drop in returns.

The latest survey results are at odds with claims made by AWI board member Chick Olsson in December that there was now renewed confidence in the Merino and wool, which he claimed was partly due to a change in the mulesing policy.