Commercial demo farms to foster faster adoption of best practice

Demo farms will be used to grow the nation’s flock and lift lambs’ chances.

Sheep Producers Australia chief executive Stephen Crisp says lamb survival had been identified as a long-term top priority, and while the sheep flock is at a record low, there is no better time to focus on lamb survivability. Picture: Dannika Bonser

The sheep industry is set to take a new approach to how it tackles one of its toughest issues - lamb survivability - with a series of commercial, best-practice demonstration farms to be established in sheep regions throughout southern Australia.

The demo farms, it is hoped, will help deliver more change and lift industry-average lambing percentages that have failed to lift substantially, despite earlier investment in the area.

Sheep Producers Australia chief executive officer Stephen Crisp said lamb survival had been identified as a long-term top priority, and while the sheep flock was at a record low, there was no better time to focus on lamb survivability as the rebuild got underway.

The Sheep Reproduction Strategic Partnership - comprised of the peak industry bodies and R&D corporations - was signed last year and set out goals for the long-term adoption on best practice management to lift lamb survivability, region by region.

He said $1 million was committed for extension and a “considerable” part of Meat & Livestock Australia’s research budget was also dedicated to the task.

A review into the industry’s research and extension as part of this found there was a perceived lack of economic evaluation of reproduction improvements, and an urgent need to provide clearer messaging and tools for producers to make changes.

It also found there were also many barriers deterring producers from adopting industry best practice, including a lack of confidence in implementation.

Mr Crisp said now Merino flocks achieved marking rates of about 90 per cent, while crossbred were about 105 per cent - but the numbers varied greatly by region and year.

This was part of the reason why regional demonstration sites would be set up on commercial farms would be set up to show how better lamb survival rates could be achieved locally.

Mr Crisp said the partnership had followed a recent stocktake of ongoing projects and the industry was developing new strategies and initiatives to further improve lamb survivability outcomes.

A previous five year plan set an annual sheep reproduction rate gain of two per cent per annum, but Mr Crisp said this was not achieved, with the average annual rate of gain being between 0.6 and 1.5 per cent, mostly due to droughts.

The new partnership would focus more on adoption, he said.

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