Sheep technology field day: Mulga Springs Poll Merino Stud, Northampton
The SIBI project and the Northern Agri Group (NAG) are co-ordinating a ‘sheep technology field day’ hosted by Mulga Springs Poll Merino Stud, Northampton, on the afternoon of Tuesday 19 September.
The program will include topics such as planning for sheep feeding over summer, sheep genetics and Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs), electronic identification (EID) equipment and software, Fitbit sensors for sheep and Lifetime Ewe Management.
Speakers include Jonathan England (AgInnovate), Brydie Creagh (RIST/DPIRD) and the department’s John Paul Collins, Beth Paganoni and Melanie Dowling.
There will also be a discussion on Mulga Springs’ individual journey into ASBVs and EID, presented by owner Jessica Horstman, where she will discuss some of her key learnings.
In July 2016, the department awarded Mulga Springs Poll Merino Stud a support package to implement EID into their stud. The EID support activity included implementation of Shearwell EID tags, stick reader and barcode printer, Practical Systems Stockbook subscription, Sheep Genetics subscription and 12 months consultant support.
Jessica believes that this project has been invaluable to help her get started with EID at Mulga Springs, especially support associated with the needed bits of hardware and software appropriate for their enterprise.
Jessica said the positives she has gained from the project include being inspired to purchase a sheep handler and consider other labour saving systems, clearly seeing the benefits of ASBV’s and EID and purchasing rams from a stud with ASBVs so they can gain linkages in Sheep Genetics, and inspiring discussion among other farmers in the district and the sharing of ideas and experiences.
She is hoping this year’s data will provide them with initial flock breeding values so they can more accurately assess potential sires; in time they will have data with higher accuracy to advance their flocks genetic gain. They are also hoping to cull animals not just on visual scores, but breeding values so they aren’t carrying sheep when they aren’t profitable, which is especially important in a year like 2017.
Mulga Springs’ experience will be discussed in greater depth on the day. For more information or to RSVP for the Mulga Springs Field Day, please view the sheep technology field day webpage.