WA Livestock Research Council gears up for Livestock Matters in the City

The event will be headlined by Michael Craig, who was set to lead a regional series of Livestock Matters events in 2020, that were COVID-cancelled.

The Nuffield scholar is known for his early adopter approach to 'good science' across management of his sheep and beef enterprises and his brief at the event is to talk through the innovations that have really made an impact.

The program, set up to optimise interaction between farmer and researcher, also features a robust discussion led by Professor David Pethick on optimal breeding cow size; an exploration of the challenges around cessation of mulesing; as well as a look at the autumn feedbase gaps and opportunities through the eyes of CSIRO principal research scientist Dr Hayley Norman.

With a big part of WALRC's remit being the commitment to nurturing our next generation of agricultural research scientists, the program will also feature eight students and early career livestock researchers - whose brief has been to present the outcomes of their research work to their 'clients' - the livestock producers of WA.

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"We have an absolutely impressive team of young people lined up to talk at this event," said WALRC chairwoman Bronwyn Clarke.

The finale segment of the Livestock Matters event will be the official launch of the Farm-a-Friend program - that links producers up with agricultural science students across a 12-month period.

"This Farm-a-Friend program had its roots with the success of our mentoring program we established for our WALRC scholarship recipients - each of them having been paired with a producer member of WALRC," Dr Clarke said.

"Our vision is to now take this broader than just our scholarship students and do whatever we can to keep our young researchers connected with the industry they are about to work in."