THE Sheep’s Back (TSB) Autumn Optimiser Workshops have been and gone for another year and thanks to plenty of buoyancy in the sheep meat and wool industries farmers sat up and took notice.
The sessions held at Badgingarra, New Norcia and Wagin earlier in the month were all well-attended thanks to the lure of a handful of industry speakers well-versed in the ins and outs of making the most of modern-day sheep enterprises.
What’s happening in wool?
At Wagin Primaries wool representative Mark Screaigh kicked-off the program.
He told producers a combination of things were driving demand and high prices including WA’s continually falling sheep numbers.
Mr Screaigh said WA production was at a stable level and Chinese buyers were back to buying 18 micron fleeces due to the fact they have whittled away their stockpile over the past few years and were experiencing more demand for wool fabrics from Europe.
“Current prices are in the top 10 per cent of the past 20 years so historically these times are providing some fantastic opportunities for wool growers,” he said.
p Management decisions to drive profitability in a typical Australian sheep enterprise
Icon Agriculture farm management consultant Mark Allington looked at some of the opportunities to make more money from less work.
He looked at State production results and what might be possible to achieve in terms of production in different parts of the State.
Some of these opportunities include running ewes at an optimal condition score of three, timing the feeding sheep to impart the most amount of energy possible in an efficient manner, using long-acting products and utilising worm eggs counts rather than a “drench anyway” mentality.
“Breeding plain-bodied sheep and calculating time of shearing to reduce flystrike, manipulating the environment and genetics to better manage weaner survival including the use of ASBVs to ensure appropriate genetic fat scores and benchmarking operations for better outcomes are also opportunities to drive profitability,” Mr Allington said.
How to prepare a shipper for market
Murdoch University College of Veterinary Science Associate Professor Anne Barnes presented results from LiveCorp funded research about how to best prepare shippers for market and decrease mortality rates.
To date the survey has recorded the data of more than 12,000 shippers.
Ms Barnes said shy feeding and salmonella caused some deaths and were intrinsically linked.
She also said it took five days for 95pc of the test group to spend more than 30 minutes a day at the feeder, demonstrating that holding sheep in a registered export premises is crucial for intensive environment adaptation before boarding an export vessel.
“On-farm preparation of sheep is also key for survival and vaccinations for diseases like pulpy kidney and scabby mouth, pink eye control, internal parasite control, limiting dust and yarding in summer to curb pneumonia, keeping sheep eating consistently and vitamin E supplements are also highly beneficial,” Ms Barnes said.
Sheep industry social license and AWI marketing
Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) corporate communications manager Marius Cuming talked about how AWI worked to defend the wool industry’s social license.
He said the ultimate way to defend the wool industry’s reputation was with the sale of wool merchandise.
Education also plays a big role including AWI’s Wool4School program, Learn About Wool kits for schools and the role-out of the annual National Merino Challenge.
Mr Cuming said AWI’s research development and extension also continued to do positive things for the industry including initiatives like the Lifetime Ewe Management courses and app, wild dog control programs, shearing and wool handling training courses and product development initiatives like the inclusion of wool in sportswear by brands like Nike, New Balance, Adidas and Jaggad.
“AWI also continues to work closely with retailers to promote and sell Australian wool products,” he said.
“Platforms such as the upcoming Westfield campaign for Wool Week and last year’s Jeans West campaign have proven very successful.”
Newborn lamb deaths and ewe abortions
Department of Agriculture and Food (DAFWA) field veterinary officer Anna Erickson spoke about a program that is designed to identify the cause of newborn lamb deaths and ewe abortions.
The program allows farmers to collect and freeze samples to be tested by DAFWA to diagnose a range of diseases including toxoplasmosis, Q Fever, campylobacteriosis and listeriosis.
Sample kits are available from DAFWA field and private veterinarians.
“Samples should be submitted once they have been collected from at least three lamb abortions or newborn lamb deaths,” Dr Erickson said.
“Samples are then returned to either a DAFWA field or private vet, with DAFWA covering the cost of laboratory testing.”
How can the use of technology assist in a modern day sheep business?
TSB co-ordinator Ed Riggall looked at the use of technology in sheep enterprises and the move away from “sub, super and stocking rate” into profit-driving technologies like Twitter, sheep handling equipment, chaff carts as a feed source, management apps, remote water monitoring and drones to take the fight out of sheep work and keep occupational health and safety issues at bay.
Mr Riggall said buoyant sheep meat and wool prices and plenty of confidence in the industry made for a very successful round of workshops.
“It’s hard not to be excited about the future of sheep in WA when you can see prices and seasons aligning like it has done so far this year,” Mr Riggall said.
TSB is an initiative of AWI and is funded by WA woolgrower levies.
The Autumn Optimiser workshops are funded by TSB.