Issues, news and tips for sheep producers::

Improving business skills and financial literacy

Where to invest labour and capital for the greatest return is not always clear in grazing businesses, especially in multi enterprise operations. A new round of Business Edge workshops will shed light on this issue by helping participants assess the different enterprises within their business and make more informed decisions regarding the allocation of labour and capital. During the two day course participants will:

determine whether the business is capable of funding the needs and aspirations of the families involved
prepare and understand key financial information relating to the business
assess and manage risk
understand and manage enterprise performance
consider the pros and cons of running multiple enterprises

The majority of the content is not species specific and is applicable to all grazing businesses. Workshops will be held in Queensland the with similar courses piloted in southern states in the coming months. To get involved contact Ian McLean on 0401 118 191.

Benchmarking report available

As well as comparing enterprises within your business (see above), another way to get a handle on how your business is performing is to compare your physical and financial information with similar businesses. For those that don't already do this, a fantastic resource for seeing the potential benefits is the recently released 2014/15 Livestock Farm Monitor Report from Agriculture Victoria. The report provides physical and financial information on real (but anonymous) farms as well as industry trends. It demonstrates the enormous difference in performance between businesses, much of which is attributable to management. It also provides a summary of results from the project for the last 40 years. There are several agricultural consulting businesses throughout Australia that provide similar benchmarking services on a commercial basis.

Qld biosecurity event

Making More From Sheep recently held an ‘On farm biosecurity and sheep disease investigation’ workshop on property near Stanthorpe, Qld. Twenty participants heard from several presenters about maintaining on-farm biosecurity, the new Biosecurity act in QLD, NLIS transfers and the main section of the day was a post mortem demonstration. Some infected samples displaying common diseases where collected from a local abattoir, which allowed participants to compare the healthy specimens to the infected. Participants enjoyed the break-up of the day with both practical demonstrations and information sessions

Photo: Dr Sandra Adsett from the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries discussing sheep health and disease control with event participants.

New biosecurity videos

If you haven't been able to attend recent biosecutity events, another useful resource is the series of short videos produced by the Farm Biosecurity Program called "Biosecurity Essentials". The latest topics include Train, plan and record and Feral animals and weeds. Click here to watch the videos and explore the Farm Biosecitity website.

Supplementary feeding tips

In a tough season, developing a cost effective supplementary feeding program to meet production targets requires careful planning and monitoring. Key inputs to decision making include:

knowing the feed requirements of different livestock classes
monitoring body weight or condition score
knowing the cost of supplements in terms of their energy and protein content
assessing the contribution of available pastures in terms of their quality and quantity
calculating ration amounts and feeding frequency.

Several tools to assist in making supplementary feeding decisions can be found in module 8 and module 11 of the Making More From Sheep manual

Market reports

Each week the business intelligence reporting team at AWI review the latest information for the Australian wool market, including commentary on factors that may influence or impact on the market. Subscriptions to the report are freely available at:http://www.wool.com/market-intelligence/weekly-price-reports. For MLA market reports visit: http://www.mla.com.au/Prices-markets/Market-reports-prices

Coming Events

Making More From Sheep runs a range of events mostly aimed at small groups/audiences of sheep producers looking to improve skills and knowledge on a topic of local interest. State Coordinators are available to help organise events and presenters to suit local needs and are keen to work with groups, facilitators or service providers for single events or a series of activities. For further information contact your State Coordinator.

Examples of coming events include:

Better Wool Businesses, webinar, 10th March
Restocking - The Road to Recovery, Longreach, 11 March
Worm management for sheep producers - module 1, March 23, Longford
Worm management for sheep producers - module 1, March 24, Tunbridge

See the Making More From Sheep events page on the website for more details.