The BestWool/BestLamb program celebrated 20 years at its Bendigo conference in June.
Networks Advisory Committee chair Jason Trompf recognised Agriculture Victoria and Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) for their commitment to the network.
Mr Trompf said few initiatives lasted for 20 years.
He said the current membership of the network of 3500 comprised of 1300 producers, involved with 60 groups, and 2200 associate members.
He said the program had stayed true to its mandate of individual groups being producer driven.
One of the greatest achievements over the time had been the coupling of Agriculture Victoria and private service providers to deliver the project.
“Each has contributed something different, but have worked together to deliver the best outcome,” Mr Trompf said.
He said that many of the producer-generated projects born out of the network, generated from the grassroots, had become national projects.
The annual conference, in its 11th year, consistently attracted 300 to 400 farmers.
Mr Trompf said that because of the network, there was a greater carriage of information from the conference back to groups.
This year’s conference also saw long-time co-ordinator Peter Schroder, call time on his connection with the program.
Mr Schroder said he had been involved with 11 different groups but just six of them for more than 10 years.
“The one standout is the Triple M group that has been going right from the start,” Mr Schroder said.
In the past 20 years, he conducted 122 meeting with Triple M.
He said the breakdown of subjects covered during the time was:
- Business planning and management: 25 percent
- Benchmarking and analysis of business: 14 percent
- Genetics and breeding:13 percent
- Pasture management and production: 10 per cent
- “Chewing the fat”: 11 percent
Mr Schroder said the group, whose name was based on – Merino Money Makers - currently had 12 members.
“Clearly from the subject matter we covered, and the name of the group, making money was the key,” he said.
He said not many had been with the group for the whole 20 years – “they come and go”.
“The idea of the Bestwool/Bestlamb project was that groups were grower driven and each group had the right to determine what to focus on,” he said.
Mr Schroder said he was most proud of the improvements of two members of the group.
“One increased their wool clip from 25 bales to 85 bales in 10 years,” he said.
Another went from a Return on Assets of eight percent when land was worth $2500 a hectare, and was able to maintain that figure while land values had doubled to $5000 a hectare.
He said the group was not afraid to go outside their boundaries.
The most recent trip was a five-day trip to the University of New England in Armidale, NSW, “in search of gold nuggets”.
Mr Schroder was also named the Sheepvention Wool Monarch for 2016/17.
“It was really special to be recognised in that way,” he said.
Mr Schroder retires at the end of June after 28 years in Hamilton as pasture specialist and another 20 years as a private agricultural consultant.
