Times changing for WA sheep industry

Held at the DPIRD Katanning Research Facility, the event saw a mixture of producers, industry representatives, researchers, consultants and DPIRD staff in attendance.

Animal science students from Murdoch University and the University of Western Australia numbered about 50 or more, as lecturers took advantage of the hands-on day to get a feel for where the industry is, in terms of the latest research and innovation.

DPIRD Sheep Industry Development director Dr Bruce Mullan welcomed all to the 2000 hectare facility and stated in his forward remarks that the event was focussed on the latest technology, emerging research and management techniques for sheep, to help producers run their sheep enterprise more efficiently and profitably.

“DPIRD is committed to research as an essential part of growing the WA sheep industry, and recognises the potential to drive innovation and advance productivity along the supply chain,” Dr Mullan said.

“By investing in commercially-relevant research and development, collaborating and partnering with industry and universities, we boost the productivity, profitability and international competitiveness of our industry.”

Dr Mullan said “the sheep industry contributed $1.4 billion per year to the WA economy, and forms a cornerstone of the State economy”.

Attendees were divided into three groups and rotated through a series of workshops and presentations that covered a range of topics from benchmarking using DNA flock profiling, sheep parasites, sheep energy stores and the importance of fat, the AskBill app, the importance of meat colouring to consumers, lean meat yield, forward contracts and more.

DPIRD research officer Beth Paganoni presented the findings of research done using Bluetooth sensors to match ewes with their lambs.

Ms Paganoni said due to the new technology labour efficiency on-farm was improving.

She said the results of the research from 10,000 ewes and lambs across 30 different flocks revealed a 96 per cent to 100pc accuracy in mothering up ewes with lambs.

“Results so far have blown us away,” Ms Paganoni said.

“We were hoping for 90pc and we got better than that.

“The real benefit is that it’s potentially cheaper and easier – with 30 hours of wear time we have got that result.

“In a very short time period we can accurately assess dam pedigree with the new technology.”

Ms Paganoni said one of the defects of the system was that “you don’t get day of birth yet”, although as the technology improved that data could be available in the future.

It also didn’t help with information about the sire – “you would have to know the sire” that was used at joining.

Ms Paganoni said they were currently assessing the cost of the Bluetooth sensors as opposed to blood sampling.

A final Sheep Industry Business Innovation report will contain the details at the end of the financial year.

Achieve Ag Solutions consultant Nathan Scott discussed how there was a perception that “farmers won’t change”, but that the sheep industry needed to change if it was to continue to be profitable and attractive to new comers.

Mr Scott focused on the use of new technology to improve on-farm efficiency and profitability, to make work life more enjoyable for producers who “want a life”.

“EID (electronic identification) tags are more accurate, faster and easier,” Mr Scott said.

“Those three things make it more likely to happen across the whole industry – which will make life easier and more productive.”

He said “if you are not excited about the sheep industry now – what will excite you?”

“There’s so much new technology out in the market now and we’ll see more changes in the next 10 years,” Mr Scott said.

“What people need to remember is that data doesn’t make money, decisions do.”

Kojonup sheep producer Tamesha Gardner shared her business’s use of EIDs and how after 10 years the results were “magnificent”.

“There were teething problems when they first started in 2009 but tags were now cheaper and better and producers were able to pinpoint where they wanted to start and even hire gear to try before getting started.

“Knowing what we are doing and what is not working is really important,” Ms Gardner said.

She said generally what they had was working well for them but they would update their technology when they thought they needed something in particular.

“2017 was the first year we found that we had really been making good decisions about our ewes – and it was a tough year,” Ms Gardner said.

In regards to worms, DPIRD’s Danny Roberts said 42 flocks were studied over two years across 14 farms in the southern agricultural region from Kulin to Pingelly, Darkan, Esperance and Kojonup.

Mr Roberts said worms were a “very individual thing” that people could get a good control over one year and not so good another year.

“It is one aspect of prime lamb production that you can control,” Mr Roberts said.

He said those with poor control lost $5 a head at slaughter due to lost weight.

“Worm control starts now,” he said

“That 1-2kg difference in carcase weight makes a difference in price return for producers.”

Mr Roberts said lambs worth a slow rate of worm pick up had a low contamination, with not much difference at the end result.

He encouraged a combination drench, at weaning, with an aim to be 98pc effective.

Mr Roberts said worm control was better with prime lambs, but Merinos also had a greater survival rate over summer.

Sheep CRC representative Mary Goodacre said “what if you could predict problems before they happened?” as she highlighted the work being done to bring Bureau of Meteorology data into the AskBill app.

“We have forecasts up to three months, and will soon be six to seven months,” Ms Goodacre said.

She said the app was developed to work with genetics data as well as others and was a useful tool for producers.

The Sheep CRC will have AskBill on display at the LambEx conference in August, at Perth.

The Farmer Wants A Life – sheep industry research open day was sponsored by DPIRD’s Sheep Industry Business Innovation project in partnership with the Sheep Alliance of WA.