IT is fair to say Amelia Gooding is not the black sheep of her family.
Growing up on a mixed farming enterprise at Darkan, she developed a love for the land early on.
Despite her upbringing, she decided to study architecture - not agriculture - after finishing high school.
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That was until a gap year trip to Europe surprisingly drew the 21-year-old back to her rural roots.
"I realised I wasn't overly interested in old, fancy buildings," Ms Gooding said.
"Instead I loved the countryside and rural communities a lot more."
With a particular interest in the problem solving aspect of agriculture, she went on to study agricultural science at Murdoch University, adding, "farmers are trying to manage these biological systems in a way that is sustainable - both economically and environmentally - while facing extreme variation and limited resources and information".
"There are always going to be challenges in farming and you're never going to know it all," she said.
Keeping that in mind, the WA Livestock Research Council (WALRC) scholarship wil help Ms Gooding's research project, which will look at improving the survival of young sheep up to 12 months of age.
It is something she labelled a priority for Australia's sheep industry, as sub-optimal post weaning nutrition and management lead to higher mortality rates.
"I really wanted to choose a project that would give me insight on whole farm systems, and potentially help me to understand farmer decision making," she said.
"I also wanted to choose a project that could be useful for our own farm and help fill a gap in the research."
Ms Gooding said economic analysis of alternative legume fodder crops to finish weaners in a Mediterranean environment represented a challenge for WA sheep enterprises, with hot dry weather conditions leading to a shortage of high quality feed over summer and autumn.
She said weaners required a high energy and protein diet to grow, however on most mixed farms they grazed on annual pastures and stubbles over this time.
They also rely on supplementary feed to achieve target growth rates.
"Alternative legume-based standing fodder crops are a novel feed source that could be used to reduce weaner mortality," Ms Gooding said.
"Enhanced weaner finishing time would increase a producer's ability to reach prime lamb production requirements for domestic processing and reduce the current reliance on the live export industry."
Ms Gooding said the use of a legume forage crop could reduce labour resources at harvest, as it didn't require any additional feed supplementation for weaner finishing.
Besides potentially weight gain, she said there was opportunity to value-add WA's mixed farming systems through fixing nitrogen.
Nitrogen in the legume-based fodder crops could be used by the following crops, and improve overall farm management, flexibility and resilience.
Ms Gooding's project aims to utilise the modelling of whole-farm systems to better understand the economic costs versus benefits of legume fodder crops, which increase weaner lamb weight gain, reduce turn-off time and weaner mortality, and subsequently improve production and management efficiencies.
Admittedly, there are existing models for this representative of systems in WA.
Ms Gooding said these models accounted for the cost and benefits of land use change, earlier turn-off of weaners and the competing demands for feed at different times of the year by different classes of stock onfarm, however they only provided a broad picture and were in essence a generalisation.
"Majority of this project will involve applying the current Australian Farm Optimisation (AFO) model built upon these earlier models," she said.
"It will fine tune incorporated elements to represent a more reliable picture of the proposed farm system change.
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"Further, the project will adapt the AFO to include relevant information about a number of alternative forage crops, including their nutritional value, ability to finish weaners to the requirements for domestic processing and any nitrogen fixing benefits for later crops."
By adapting the model, Ms Gooding said whole-farm system analysis could be carried out regarding the optimal nutritional management of weaners.
A variety of farmer and grower groups are set to be interviewed to ensure all aspects of different production systems across WA's agricultural areas are compared, and correctly accounted for and assessed in the modelling.
Existing trial data would also be compiled.
"Hopefully by the end of my research project I'll be able to put some numbers on the value of lupin crops to finish weaner," Ms Gooding said.
"I also hope to help farmers compare different weaning finishing systems and choose which one works best for them."
She added, it was an honour to be awarded the WALRC scholarship.
"I'm really excited about the opportunity it brings in being able to consult a wide range of producers in conducting my honours project," Ms Gooding said.
