THE new board of the Sheep Alliance of WA has agreed on an immediate course of action.
At their first meeting last week to progress issues tabled by its 40-plus members at its first members forum, the directors unanimously endorsed the selection panel recommendation that WAMMCO chairman and Kojonup producer Craig Heggaton be the alliance's chairman and appoint Pingelly producer and veterinarian Tim Watts as the vice-chairman.
At the meeting, the directors identified two key immediate tasks they would tackle, to drive profitability and arrest the decline in sheep numbers.
At the top of the alliance's agenda was the job of preparing a business case for investment in sheep research, extension and communication across the supply chain and responding to a strong directive from the membership base to formulate a model for effective sheep R&D in WA.
It was identified that the responsibility of preparing the business case would lie with the directors, who would add additional expertise to the task to address specific elements listed in the terms of reference.
Expertise will be co-opted to provide input from the WA Livestock Research Council's consultative process that has prioritised sheep meat R&D, input from Australian Wool Innovation and its relevant WA projects to provide wool priorities and RD&E program analysis, review and development expertise and legal expertise on best-practise governance models.
The terms of reference that sets the framework for the business case will be circulated to members to review.
The board considered the development of this document to be the launch pad for securing investment to fund activities designed to drive profitability and arrest the sheep numbers decline.
"We see it as vital that all of industry has a thorough engagement with all current sheep industry RD&E projects and the invitation is there to all alliance members to participate in the August 29 review," executive officer Esther Jones said.
The second immediate area of focus would be assisting the Department of Agriculture and Food with the review of the Sheep Industry Business Innovations (SIBI) project.
Ms Jones said six of the nine directors would attend the SIBI Review (SIBI Unplugged) on August 29.