Katanning Research Station Overview:
Katanning Research Station is 8km east of town and opened in 1982. Soil types include light deep sand, gravel over clay, and light clay. It can run 7500 sheep. Onsite R&D staff have expertise in intensive measurement and observation of livestock. All facilities and laboratories are bio-secure and fitted with amenities to control and minimise potential biosecurity risks.
The Katanning Research Station showcases the digital agriculture technologies and the management systems that will lift productivity and lower greenhouse gas emissions from mixed farming operations in Western Australia.
Read more about the Station's current research projects.
Research projects
Research at the Katanning Research Station includes:
- Carbon Neutral by 2030 Demonstration: In line with the West Australian Government's commitment to reducing emissions, the Katanning Research Station has been entrusted with the responsibility of reaching net zero emissions by 2030. In 2020, DPIRD established the baseline carbon footprint of the station and developed an implementation plan. Information on the baseline emissions report, proposed solutions, and current projects can be found here.
- Sheep genetic resource flock: Genetics (breeding values) of feed intake efficiency in sheep and the management and monitoring of the National Genetic Resource Sheep Flock; a genetic research resource for difficult to measure traits such as feed intake efficiency.
- SheepLinks - FutureSheep: Impact of feed supplements and forage combinations on methane production of sheep.
- SheepLinks - FEED365: Evaluation of a range of novel pasture species to develop livestock systems of green feed all year round.
- More than 20 years of involvement in the national sire evaluation program managed by the Australian Merino Sire Evaluation Association (AMSEA).
- The 'Yardstick’ flock: Working in partnership with the sheep industry.
- New on-farm technology for sheep producers: As part of the Sheep Industry Business Innovation (SIBI) project, on-farm labour was identified as a key constraint in the expansion of the West Australian sheep flock. DPIRD appointed a pilot group of leading sheep producers to review labour-saving technology for the sheep industry. The broader industry sought information on integrating these techniques into a sheep enterprise while assessing which products were most suitable for specific sheep enterprises. Different labour-saving devices such as remote cameras, electronic identification (EID) software, and sheep handlers were tested by members of the pilot group and the research station staff and are available for review by the public in a case study format.
Research station Facilities
Katanning Sheep Feed Intake Facility:
The Sheep Feed Intake Facility (SFIF) opened in 2022. It is a 940 square metre facility that can hold up to 300 animals, the biggest of its kind in Australia. The SFIF houses 20 sheep pens (up to 15 per pen). Sheep are sociable animals, so having them housed in groups is the best practice.
This facility features:
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A semi-controlled environment, including technology to continuously monitor temperature, air quality, airflow, and wind speed, as well as an automated feed delivery system digitally controlled via Bluetooth.
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An automated feed delivery system is the first in Australia used in sheep research. This system is custom-built and can blend diets from four different sources with the capability to allocate different diets to each pen. As the sheep approach the feed unit, their RFID tag is read and feed allocation is calculated for sheep individually. The combined capability to blend and weigh diets for 300 sheep through an automated system significantly increases the research capability through labour and resourcing efficiencies besides performing individual feed intake trials in group pens allowing the sheep to express more social behaviours.
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State-of-the-art portable accumulation chambers are used to measure the methane emissions of individual sheep.
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A dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) machine objectively measures the meat, bone, and fat composition of live animals. This data shows changes in body composition over time.
LoRaWAN (Low Power, Long Range Wide Area Network) ‘smart farm’ network is installed across the site, complete with a smart farming hub allowing for 24/7 monitoring of livestock and the surrounding property. The network includes:
- Ten soil moisture sensors,
- Three mobile weather stations
- One station is connected to the Bureau of Meteorology network.
- Silo monitors, gate sensors and water tank sensors are part of a farm-wide network.
- A central command centre monitors the site and demonstrates how the technology can be integrated into farm businesses.
KRS also has:
- An animal house with 160 individual pens for collecting methane measurements
- 50 paddocks (from 2-50 hectares) – including 67 one-hectare lambing plots with water and feed troughs and moveable straw bale windbreak
- Sheep yards and two shearing sheds
- A range of silos for grain and pellets,
- Large hay storage shed
- Range of mechanical sheep handling devices
- Trucks with stock crates and feed trailers
- Meat processing facility, cool room, and freezers
- Standard commercial broadacre cropping farm machinery
- Fully mobile small research-plot gear.
DPIRD Katanning Town Office
The research scientists and technical officers at the Katanning town office focus on field and laboratory experiments on applied grains and farming systems for broadacre crops and resource management. Research focuses on:
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Cereal agronomy - phenology of germplasm for adaptation to earlier (and later) sowing opportunities and timing crop development to avoid frost
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Nutrient dynamics of the crop - sequences to monitor nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium crop nutrition and develop crop management decision-making tools.
The facilities at the town office include:
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Glasshouse with three separate air-conditioned sections
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Sheds and dirty labs to receive, store, and process plant, grain, and soil samples collected from research trials across southern WA grain-growing regions.
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Controlled environment storage areas to maintain plant and grain samples.
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Drying ovens: one walk-in, two wall ovens, and a range of benchtop ovens
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Walk-in cool room
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Offices for the research team and conference room capacity for 65 people.
Contact
For more information on the facilities and R&D opportunities available at the Katanning Research Station please contact:
P: +61 1300 374 731 (1300 DPIRD1) or +61 (0)8 9821 3333
E: enquiries@dpird.wa.gov.au
The Katanning office is located at 10 Dore Street, Katanning WA 6317.