Global gathering enthuses the next generation of sheep farmers
Two progressive young sheep farmers joined forces with peers from across the world last month thanks to support from NSA Next Generation and the Global Sheep Producers Forum. Selected from an exceptionally high calibre of applicants for the opportunity, Ed Brant from Lincolnshire and Katie Evans from Norfolk travelled to Adelaide, Australia, in August. Here Katie and Ed report on their insightful trip.
In August, the two of us were lucky enough to travel to Australia to represent the UK as Global Sheep Forum Next Generation Ambassadors.
The Global Sheep Forum is a collaboration between sheep producing nations to work together, share knowledge and build a network to help progress the sheep industry and build on the sector’s sustainable reputation. Sheep producers, no matter where, share similar challenges and opportunities. The global Next Generation Ambassador programme brought together a great group of people from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and USA.
For the first three days of the programme we travelled across South Australia visiting a range of sheep
farms. In this part of the country the majority of the sheep are Merinos providing two main income streams; prime lamb and high value wool, production of which is suited to the country’s dry climate.
On our first day we took a trip to Kangaroo Island. The island is still recovering from bush fires, which devastated 50% of the land and killed more than 60,0000 livestock in 2019/20. We visited Ella Matta Pastoral where farmer Jamie Heinrich showed us around his White Suffolk maternal flock and stud, and Poll Merino stud. Ella Matta was the first registered White Suffolk Stud in the world and its dedication to innovation and genetic improvement was very impressive.
Also impressive was the commitment to biosecurity. Jamie explained the farm had suffered a footrot outbreak last year, which placed the farm under movement restrictions for nine months as footrot is a notifiable disease in Australia. This had a drastic impact on his business because he would normally sell up to 500 rams a year. The outbreak was caused by a simple thing such as contaminated boots, which highlights the importance of understanding biosecurity.
We soon realised how many acres you farm is much less important than how much rainfall you get in Australia. Jamie has put almost a third of the farm into Kikuyu grass, which protects his soils and allows him to increase his stocking rates while providing a green pick through the summer, which would otherwise not be there. Unlike in the UK, a wether can be kept for up to four years to help manage grazing and there is an important income from the wool.
While on Kangaroo Island we also visited another commercial Merino property, hosted by the Kelly family who had been badly affected by the fires. An interesting part of the day was learning about a project currently underway to release millions of sterile male blowflies on the island to see whether it will suppress the blowfly reproduction rate and population, and hopefully the incidence of flystrike.
On day two we headed to Australia’s largest lamb feed lot, Thornby Feedlot. The Thornbys finish around 108,000 lambs a year. Lambs are fed for around 70 days on a cereal based diet. The next stop was Inverbrackie Border Leicester Stud, which is focusing on performance recording and breeding values and even beginning to use artificial intelligence to assess the structure of sheep.
On day three we visited a very different stud, Collinsville, renowned for adding value to the sheep through selecting on type and using the show ring to compare and compete with other top producers.
Our farm visits concluded with a trip to Australia’s oldest Merino station, Albany, and a tour of Michell Wool scouring plant, the largest wool processor and exporter in Australia.
Following the interesting farm visits the trip continued at Australia’s biggest sheep conference, LambEx, held in Adelaide. Speakers attending from around the world covered topics on understanding markets, technical and technology updates, mental health, and building and defending agriculture’s reputation.
We attended the launch of Australia’s Sheep Sustainability Framework and got the opportunity to represent the UK on a discussion panel alongside other global representatives, comparing our different systems and current challenges. We even took part in the Fat Farmers river run, an initiative set up to get rural communities active and boost mental health.
One of our biggest take-homes from the whole trip was the importance of quality meat to the Australian market, and how much work is going into defining, measuring, breeding and feeding to improve it.
Another interesting feature was the feedlot carcase competition, which takes lambs from different producers and runs them through a feedlot for 70 days. The competition looks at each aspect of lamb finishing and scores each producer, which are combined using economic weightings to find the best lamb breeder.
We have both already learned so much from being part of the programme. We visited some fantastic farms and heard lots of cutting edge thinking from the Australian industry, but the most value from the whole trip was being part of the network hearing the different perspectives and views of individuals from the global sheep industry. Although back on UK soil, the journey is not over yet.
We are now enjoying working with the other country ambassadors on an online programme to identify challenges and opportunities facing the global sheep industry and suggest opportunities for future cooperation. Topics being covered include anthelmintic resistance, animal welfare, the wool industry and encouraging the next generation. A great way to learn more about the Global Sheep Forum and young sheep farmers around the world is to listen to the Next Generation podcasts.
We would like to say a massive thank you to our sponsors, in particular the forum itself, British Wool and NSA for allowing this trip to happen; your contributions are greatly appreciated.
Thanks also go to Anglian Quality Meat, Brown & Co, Pharmweigh, Sugarloaf Clothing and Westover Veterinary Centre for sponsoring Katie. And to Dunbia, GFP Agriculture, Norfolk Farm Vets, NUAS, Phillips Animal Health, Ripon Farm Services and Woldmarsh for sponsoring Ed. More information and podcast links at www.globalsheepforum.com.
