IT has been a busy 12 months for The Livestock Collective - after the resounding success of The Sheep Collective and The Cattle Collective last year, in March 2020 the two brands were merged to be encompassed under one umbrella - The Livestock Collective.
It is led by Dr Holly Ludeman as managing director and Steven Bolt and John Cunnington as directors.
Each has years of livestock industry experience and different skills and talents to bring to the organisation.
It's vision, mission and values continue to remain "as steadfast as ever".
The Livestock Collective aims for "every person to have a connection and shared understanding of agriculture" while it promotes "a collaborative, united livestock sector that provides visibility, communication, and engagement to the wider community".
Through its mission it hopes to ensure an increased understanding of and connection to the livestock industry and agriculture more broadly.
"We will continue to empower supply chain participants, provide first-hand information from the salt of the earth people working around Australia, and the world, in the live export industry to help provide a balanced view to the wider community," said The Livestock Collective's mission statement.
As it has evolved, the team has grown, with each member having "a wealth of diversified agricultural industry knowledge".
"This ranges from veterinary expertise to on-farm experience in both the cattle and sheep industry sectors," said project co-ordinator Grayson Webster.
"All members of the board also hold a number of other board and industry committee positions.
"Our team are strong believers in collaboration with the wider industry."
Apart from its brand merger, other major achievements in the past 12 months has been the launch of its new website and the advocacy workshops - Livestock Leaders.
The website features a FAQ page where people can learn more about the inside workings of the live export supply chains for both sheep and cattle.
"We have seen remarkable traffic to our website with over 5000 site visitors in May," Ms Webster said.
"This is an excellent achievement for us and reinforces the need to continue to share our industry's story with the wider community."
In February The Livestock Collective held its pilot Livestock Leader's workshop in partnership with Meat and Livestock Australia in Perth.
The professional development workshop was aimed at "building the capacity of current supply chain champions involved in the livestock production sector, to be future leaders, influencers, and advocates of the Australian red meat industry".
The two-day event saw 16 participates learning about values-based communication, interview and presentation skills, how to engage and speak to the media, building a brand on social media, and how to have difficult conversations.
"Many of the leaders have gone on to produce content of their own and be interviewed by the media," Ms Webster said.
Due to the impacts of COVID-19, The Livestock Collective has been working to pivot aspects of the organisation to an online platform.
"We are working to host the next Livestock Leaders workshop later in 2020 online," she said.
"We are actively taking expressions of interest for our next Livestock Leaders course and would love any interested future Livestock Leaders to register on our website."
Before the disruption of COVID-19 the organisation had been successful in providing tours aboard live export vessels at Fremantle, attracting more than 400 participants including producers, industry stakeholders, media, politicians and university students.
The vessel tours have been designed to provide a first-hand look into the intricate workings of a live export ship and build a first-hand understanding of the process.
Ms Webster said The Livestock Collective hoped to "continue our vessel tours as soon as we are able to" to continue giving people the opportunity to understand the workings of the supply chain and the realities of what happens on a vessel.
The Livestock Collective has also been active on social media where everyone can follow them on Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin and Twitter for regular updates on various projects and industry stories.
"We love interacting with you, so please tag us in your agricultural adventures via the socials," Ms Webster said.
