MODERN day shepherd and acclaimed author from the Lake District in Northern England, James Rebanks, will be the keynote speaker at LambEx 2018 in Perth from Sunday, August 5 to Tuesday, August 7.
Shepherds are disappearing from the UK countryside but Mr Rebanks, who has 100,000 Twitter followers and an acclaimed memoir to his name, said he would never give up on the life that has sustained his family for more than 600 years.
Under the Twitter handle @herdyshepherd1 he tweets daily about his farm and his flock of Herdwick and Swaledale sheep.
Mr Rebanks said while farming in the Lakes District was very different to Australia, there were still parallels between the two.
“We have many challenges, the hardest being the weather and the seasons,” Mr Rebanks said.
“While many parts of Australia are still waiting for the autumn break, in the UK we have just had a truly terrible winter with many weeks of snow, wind and rain.
“My flock is worn down and holding on for spring.
“Our system has always focused on producing meat and wool from some of the hardest and poorest mountain land in Britain, as part of this I have to keep my sheep healthy from a range of conditions, problems and diseases.”
Mr Rebanks said they had just suffered an outbreak of liver fluke and pneumonia and had to work hard to get through that with minimal losses.
He said another challenge was to make a living in an old-fashioned, small-farm landscape in an age of globalised food commodities.
“We need to try to tap into the love of this landscape by millions of people to generate new income streams,” he said.
“The fourth challenge is to try to breed great sheep of high value.
“The fifth challenge is to farm in a way that is sustainable in an age when the ecological impact of farming is in the public eye.
“I care greatly about this and am trying to adapt the farm to make is as biodiverse as possible.
“My final challenge is to be a writer when I already have a full-time job and four kids.”
Mr Rebanks said it was vital for producers to reconnect with the non-farming societies they were situated in, to increase the understanding of what they did and the trust they had in it.
It was also important to listen to what non-farming consumers and citizens wanted from farmers.
“I believe passionately that there is a place for many different, diverse, farming systems around the world, including some very old ones like ours, if we can adapt and add value to our produce and landscape,” he said.
LambEx 2018 is the flagship event for the sheep and lamb industry and returns to Perth for the first time since the inaugural event almost a decade ago.
Early bird registrations are open.
More information: lambex.com.au