Last week more than 90 producers, livestock agents and industry professionals gathered at the Boree Park White Suffolk stud, Dinninup, for an educational open day organised by the Boree stud staff, Rhodes Pastoral general manager Michael Wright and Boree Park stud manager Micheal Potter.
The event aimed to educate growers on the importance of sheep genetics, farm biosecurity and electronic identification (eID) tags.
Guest speakers included Shearwell Australia industry liaison manager Brad McCormick, Meat & Livestock Australia, Sheep Genetics manager Peta Bradley and Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development Sheep (DPIRD) and Goat eID program project officer Andrew Longbottom.
"All of the guest speakers were just brilliant, and covered some great topics that are currently relevant to the sheep industry," Mr Wright said.
"There was a really great atmosphere in the shed."
Mr Wright said the guests were very engaged in each presentation.
"You would've heard a pin drop in that shed while they were delivering their speeches," he said.
"They all discussed the topics on farmers' levels, they didn't make it too technical and made everything easy to understand."
All guests received a bag with a Boree Park ram booklet inside, including a raffle ticket for a draw in various door prizes from Shearwell Australia, Zoetis and Virbac Australia Animal Health.
"Virbac and Zoetis supplied various injectables, and Shearwell had each guest speaker draw a raffle ticket, and supplied an electronic tag reader, and two eID taggers," Mr Wright said.
As well as educating farmers, the event gave the Boree Park stud an opportunity to showcase some of its stock in the lead up to its inaugural sale this year.
"We had some rams from the sale team on display, ewes with lambs at foot and some maidens that we plan to naturally mate," Mr Wright said.
Boree Park stud is currently doing genomic testing on its flock and has culled two-thirds of its lamb-drop to maximise the quality of the genetics it has to offer.
"We want to produce an easy care sheep, with good meat quality and muscle growth that is tailored to the Merino and the first-cross market," Mr Wright said.
"Ewe survival, low birthweights, good constitution, muscle and fat mixed with fertility and rams with good feet, neck extension, shoulder sets and meaty backends are what we are aiming to produce."
Mr Wright said he aimed for the stud team to be at the top of White Suffolk quality and production in WA.
Following the presentation, guests were able to get a taste of the Boree Park hospitality and a spread of its lamb in the form of marinated skewers, rosemary, red wine and gravy pies, and lamb sliders, crafted by Perth chef and business owner, Tim Greaves, Foraged Fire Foods.
Mr McCormick highlighted what the future of the sheep industry would look like given that eID tags will be made mandatory from January 1, 2025.
"The eID tags have been set in place as a biosecurity imperative," Mr McCormick said.
With the implementation process of the tags becoming more evident, and stud breeders using them for quite some time, he said now was a good opportunity for commercial producers to benefit from them too.
Going forward, in terms of the eID tags in both a commercial and stud setting, Mr McCormick said there was plenty of opportunity to invest in the tags.
"The ease of collecting individual data using digital methods, and then turning that data that has been collected, into information, can really help to make effective management decisions on the farm," he said.
"It is a very efficient and accurate way of doing things, which is positive.
"We understand that the eID systems aren't for everyone, and can be expensive, but each individual producer knows their scale and what they could do to assist themselves."
Mr McCormick said any cost efficiencies were good and the eID tags and infrastructure would help farmers process large amounts of data about individual animals quickly.
"This will allow farmers to record sheep weights, fleece weights, ewe condition and ewe pregnancy status to make better management decisions based on sound data if they wish to too," he said.
"There are really good gains to be made in weaning percentages if you can monitor an individual ewe's body condition to reach optimum levels, which the tags can help with."
Mr McCormick assured producers there were plenty of people to turn to for help.
"There is a transition program set in place by the government to help farmers get started," he said.
"Personally, I think the best way is to start with putting tags in your sheep's ears, to get a feel for what they are like and to consider their objectives going forward.
"Growers need to remember they can do as little or as much as they like, you don't have to go from zero to hero."
Mr McCormick said producers needed to ease themselves into the process and be comfortable with the equipment, as well as what they wanted to achieve.
Various businesses are available to help with digital management systems, meaning not every farmer needs to be an expert on data management and analysis.
"It's not as expensive as you might think," he said.
"You will find that this assistance is often available locally.
"Every farmer knows how their stock operate very well, but we are now talking about managing individual ewes with more accuracy.
"Utilising tags and infrastructure to their maximum capability can improve lambing percentages quite significantly too."
Mr McCormick said for people who hadn't previously used any rams that had Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs) or LAMBPLAN data, they might consider using them, as well as eID tags if they haven't already.
Sheep Genetics manager Ms Bradley covered the importance of ASBVs and current and future genetic trends that can drive both seedstock and commercial sheep producers flocks to success.
"ASBVs are essentially like a can label for sheep, they explain what is going to be inside, and what will be passed onto an animal's offspring," Ms Bradley said.
"Without ASBVs, it's hard to know what's inside."
Ms Bradley said ASBVs were the best way to make targeted genetic progress, as you can select on different traits that drive both current and future profit in sheep businesses.
She spoke on future traits and why it was important for seedstock breeders like Boree Park to be considering these traits in their future objective.
"We know genetic progress takes time," Ms Bradley said.
She focused on eating quality in lamb and why it is important, and what ASBV traits were available that producers could select for.
Ms Bradley also touched on intramuscular fat and shear force, as well as going over industry trends and showcasing new technology that is being implemented by processors.
"Tracking ram teams is also really important," she said."You can do this by knowing the rams you have at home, and knowing their average ASBVs, and then buying rams that have better ASBVs.
"This is a really easily applied way to use breeding values in making ram selection decisions this sale season."
Ms Bradley's final point was looking over the genetic trends of the Boree Park White Suffolk stud, and comparing them to all the other White Suffolks in Sheep Genetics and all the other animals in the terminal database.
"The rate of progress the stud is making and where it sits for key traits like post-weaning weight and lean meat yield are above average," she said.
"The eating quality traits for Boree Park also show they are above average for intramuscular fat and shear force as well, so they are making great progress.
"This means they will be able to make simultaneous progress towards current profit traits like lean meat yield, and eating quality traits which we might see become more important in WA in future years."
Ms Bradley said breeders needed to be considering future traits of importance, and that Boree Park was making good progress towards doing so for eating quality.
"Overall I think the crowd responded really positively, post-presentation," Ms Bradley said.
"There were good conversations after the presentation about how both seedstock producers and commercial farmers could utilise breeding values in their own flocks."
DPIRD's Mr Longbottom spoke on the mandatory implementation of eIDs, farm biosecurity and footrot treatment and prevention.
"Following the mandatory date, every sheep leaving any property needs to have an eID tag in its ear," Mr Longbottom said.
"Lambs born after that date will have their birth year colour eID tag and the ones born prior if they are homebred will have a yellow tag, and the non-homebreds will have a pink one, but they will only have one tag each."
Mr Longbottom said the tag incentive program would offer a discount for sky blue tags through to the end of this year.
"There also might be an incentive next year for yellow, pink and black tags," he said.
Mr Longbottom said farmers needed to closely monitor who went onto their properties.
"Knowing what's entering your property, as well as where it has come from is crucial," he said.
"It all comes down to traceability, movement of stock, vehicles and people, with people being the hardest to control."
Mr Longbottom will be spreading the message at the upcoming field days in Mingenew, Dowerin and Newdegate.
Elders, Kojonup agent Jamie Hart said the event was a positive one.
"There were sires on display, which rank in the top five per cent for the breed," Mr Hart said.
"It gave prospective buyers an insight into what the stud will be doing going forward and a chance to see the new sale complex too."
Mr Hart said the speakers were topical and relevant.
"It was a very successful field day for an emerging stud coming onto their first sale, and a great turn out," he said.
"The Boree Park stud was also able to showcase their lamb through lamb sliders, pies and skewers."
