Things that make you money, save you money, save you time and delight your customers were the primary focus of two recent workshops in Gippsland hosted by neXtgen Agri chief executive Mark Ferguson.
The workshops took place at the woolsheds of the Paulet family, Toongabbie, and the Alexander family, Walpa, and attracted many sheep farmers from across Gippsland who breed anything from Merinos to first-cross and composite sheep.
The days were important for sheep producers, given the dry seasons predicted, with Dr Ferguson covering other topics like Australian Sheep Breeding Values, referring to genetics as "a slow burn" for production, ram buying and being the most informed buyer at the sale.
He also covered preventative animal health and nutrition, plus planning to have "decision rules", not rules of thumb.
"Hope is not a course of action," Dr Ferguson told people at the Walpa event.
"Farmers will often hope it rains rather than have a plan if it doesn't.
"We need to have logical decisions pre-made if it doesn't rain, to have a plan in place if things don't go as expected."
He said sheep were "short-day breeders" and the later the rams were put out, the more lambs would be produced, due to the melatonin response to longer nights, suggesting rams were put out in late March.
"A ewe's condition score at lambing drives lamb birth weight and birth weight drives lamb survival," he said.
"Decreasing mob size increases lamb survival, with every 100 head taken out of a lambing mob, the lamb-survival rate in twin-bearing ewes increases 2 per cent, while the figure is 5pc for the triplet-bearing ewe mob."
He advised people to "put your hand on every sheep twice a year" to condition score them, as it was impossible to tell visually when they had wool on.
Next month, Dr Ferguson will host a session at the Gippsland Red Meat Conference in Sale, titled Genetic Selection in Sheep, covering ASBVs, joining ewe lambs and other pivotal decisions in sheep enterprises.
"We'll look at what having a good genetic plan looks like and the impact of non-genetic factors in ram buying decisions, and how the things that are valuable in a ram are the things that aren't visible," he said.
"We'll also discuss ewe lambing mating and the genetic and management factors that lead to success, the impact of welfare traits and selecting for sheep with high welfare outcomes for consumers.
Dr Ferguson said there had been a real swing towards using ASBV data in the industry, which had gained significant momentum.
"The collected data means people are at a more informed place when buying genetics," he said.
"The sheep industry is catching up with the beef industry and that's been fuelled by the next generation, which isn't willing to accept the status quo."
Gippsland Agricultural Group co-hosted the workshops and GAgG general manager Jen Smith said Dr Ferguson's research projects were incredibly practical and relatable to the challenges the industry faced.
"Mark is a realist, he's out in the field every day and in touch with farmers, their sheep and their grass," Mrs Smith said.
"He has the unique ability to balance economics and the genetics.
"His presentations are relevant and implementable."
The Gippsland Red Meat conference is set for Tuesday, August 29 at the Sale Baptist Church.
Tickets are available via TryBooking, as well as via links on the Gippsland Red Meat Conference Facebook page and the GAgG website.
