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SA Sheep Industry Forum - 2014

Sheep industry representatives gathered for the SA Sheep Industry Forum at the Waite Institute on the 13th March 2014.

The aims of the forum were:

• To provide a forum whereby industry stakeholders are provided with updates on activities/programs occurring and relevant to the SA Sheep Industry
• To provide an opportunity for industry stakeholders to network and identify opportunities for collaboration
• To provide an opportunity whereby SA industry stakeholders can interact with the R&D corps
• To use the forum to identify gaps in knowledge, opportunities and issues relevant to the SA Sheep Industry that may need to be addressed.

Forum agenda and speaker details

Nearly 50 issues/opportunities were identified by the 40 representatives attending the forum. The top 6 issues/opportunities included:

• Business management (cost of production)
• Farm biosecurity (lack of awareness)
• Pasture utilisation (opprotunity to significantly improve)
• Australian Sheep Breeding Values (lack of uptake)
• Public perception (of sheep industry)
• Skills and capacity (of the private sector and younger generation)

Further discussions were held in small group sessions on each of these. See the complete list of issues/ opportunities and a summary from the small group discussions.

Links to presentations from the forum are provided below:-

• Skills and approaches for successful farming systems - Basil Doonan
• Livestock Biosecurity Network - Patrick Kluver
• FMD - Roger Paskin
• Experiences with bushfire - Jeremy Rogers
• Water security - Michael Richards
• AWI update - Paul Swan
• SASAG update - Luke Fitzgerald
• SheepConnect SA - Glen Tilley
• Making More from Sheep - Pene Keynes
• Future Farm Landscapes - Ian McFarland
• Future Farm Industries - Andrew Smith
• MLA Participatory R & D - Pene Keynes

Ian Carmichael has provided 3 papers on findings from his research on worms

• Cost of immune response
• Worm burdens and egg counts in South Australian Prime Lambs
• The influence of gastro-intestinal worms and nutrition on performance of prime lambs in south-eastern Australia

For further details on the SA Sheep Industry Forum please contact Ian McFarland on 0437 659 353

The 2014 SA Sheep Industry Forum was funded by the SA Sheep Industry Fund