SmartShepherd, Lambpro and Mobble selected as 2022 Boehringer Ingelheim Industry Innovator award finalists

The three finalists include Jock Lawrence, Mobble, David Rubie, SmartShepherd, and Tom and Phoebe Bull, Lambpro.

Mr Lawrence grew up on his family's sheep and cattle farm at Avenel, which his family have farmed for four generations.

Along with his father, Mr Lawrence commenced digitisation of their on-farm records but found it difficult to identify a user-based system not focused on intensive farming alone.

He identified the need for simplified farm and livestock management software and started Mobble, a cloud-based software which he said simplified record keeping, management and communication.

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He said Mobble was born out of significant consultation and feedback from farmers and was designed for farmers.

"Mobble is built to make farmers lives easier and more successful... with the aim of replacing the notebook that often ends up in the washing machine," he said.

Since its 2019 release, more than 1200 farms now use Mobble and the majority of these are sheep producers.

Mr Lawrence said Mobble had significant growth plans and aimed to help more than 30,000 farmers by 2025.

"Mobble is made by farmers for farmers and it is built off farmer feedback," he said.

Mr Rubie is the driving force behind SmartShepherd, a small battery-powered collar that is worn by ewes and lambs to accurately and clearly determine maternal and offspring relationships.

"It is a tool for improving the genetics of your sheep," he said.

Extensive research was conducted to design and implement this technology which is now in use across sheep operations in Australia, New Zealand, Chile and the US.

Mr Rubie said the individual collars on ewes and lambs were very light, similar to a nylon dog collar, and usually only needed to be worn for 48 hours or two nights to be effective.

He said the size and lightweight attributes of the collars ensured no alteration to the behaviour of the animals and resulted in accurate data collection that enabled long-term flock gains.

Prior to the development of SmartShepherd, Mr Rubie worked for Sheep Genetics Australia where he was aware of the genetic impacts of reproduction, the limitations of widespread flock genomic testing and the opportunities for maternal parentage testing.

"A lot of lamb mortality is genetic from animals that mother poorly," he said.

He said while nutrition also played an important role, there was no reason that some sheep breeds such as Merinos could not perform as well as others with the right genetics.

So he started SmartShepherd to enable producers access to mothering and reproduction data in quick time on their herd.

Going forward, he said he had big plans for growth after the COVID-induced hinderances of the past two years and he looked forward to expansion and development in Australia and overseas.

"I am looking forward to being able to really invest in the business," he said.

The Bulls have run their Lambpro sheep studs for decades, with the aim of creating Australia's best-tasting lamb by focusing on meat and eating quality traits.

Based in Holbrook, NSW, the pair operate a significant genetics operation which focuses on the end result of the sheepmeat industry - the eating quality of the lamb produced.

Mr Bull began his life with sheep in 1991 at Holbrook, breeding Suffolk sheep while he was still attending school.

He incorporated White Suffolk genetics into his program through the 1990s before adding Poll Dorset and Hampshire Downs genetics to improve performance further.