Contents

Foreword 2

Setting the scene - Western Australian flock demographics 3

Flock projection 5

Finally we can talk about fat 6

Yardstick sire referencing demonstration 9

Katanning Reference Flock 12

The Australian Wool Innovation Ltd breech strike resistance project 14

DAFWA and UWA joining forces to solve the winter dag problem 18

Running the ruler over lamb in 2017 – the future of lean meat yield analysis 20

We like our meat red! Demonstration of packaging options to optimise colour at retail & colour measurement technology 23

Eat the lot - demonstration of cut by cook effect on sheep eating quality 26

Chaos on the maternity ward: can optimising lambing density minimise mismothering and improve lamb survival? 28

Labour or love? Labour saving technologies that allow a life off farm 32

The good gas on methane: live demonstration of gas measures 35

Ewetube: let Siri do the sheepwork! 38

Contact 40

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ForewordOn behalf of the Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia (DAFWA), it gives me great pleasure to welcome you to ‘Bewety and the Feast’ – a sheep industry research open day. ‘Bewety and the Feast’ is being delivered by DAFWA’s Sheep Industry Business Innovation (SIBI) project in partnership with the Sheep Alliance of Western Australia, made possible by the State Government’s Royalties for Regions investment.

The WA sheep industry is an important part of the WA economy, with the combined farm-gate value of sheep meat and wool being over $1.1 billion dollars per year. The SIBI project is focused on increasing the economic value of the sheep industry backed by research, development and innovation. Events like today are focused on building industry capacity to help sheep producers deliver the volume and quality of products required by new and existing markets.

Research into areas that can increase productivity from the same or a larger base flock, and investment in new technologies that can improve labour efficiency, sheep traceability and advances in breeding, are an essential part of growing the WA sheep industry. Ultimately these will all combine to increase the value of and confidence in the WA sheep industry.

I hope that after today’s program you leave feeling confident of the high quality of collaborative research that is being conducted on your behalf, and that through increased adoption we can all help the WA sheep industry meet the demand for meat and wool into the future.

Dr Bruce MullanDirector Sheep Industry DevelopmentDepartment of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia

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Setting the scene - Western Australian flock demographicsFollowing two decades of decline the Western Australian (WA) sheep flock reached its lowest number in mid-2011 when it numbered just 14.0 million head following a severe drought in the prime sheep producing regions of WA. Between 2010/11 and 2012/13 the flock went through a recovery phase rebuilding to 15.5 million, an increase of 10%. However, over the following two years the size of the WA flock contracted, declining to 14.0 million by mid-2015, before rising to approximately 14.3 million in 2016 (Figure 1).

Similarly the number of breeding ewes has also declined during the last ten years. In 2004/05 there were 13.3 million ewes but this number has fallen to 7.5 million in 2015/16.

Whilst declining in absolute terms, WA sheep turn-off as a proportion of the flock size has increased in recent years. This is reflective of the rising importance of sheepmeat, increasing marking rates and the changing structure of the flock. In 2004/05 turn-off as a percentage of the flock was less than 30% however this has risen to 41% in 2015/16.

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Turn-off Flock size Breeding ewes

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Figure 1 Closing number of sheep and lambs, and closing number of breeding ewes in WA and total turn-off for WA (Based on Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data, DAFWA analysis)1

Over the last 25 years, the WA sheep flock has changed in structure and composition. As evident in Figure 2 the breeding ewe component of the flock has increased significantly from 45% in 1990 to 62% in 2015, whilst at the same time the proportion of wethers in the flock has decreased from 32% to 9%. This is largely due

1 2015/16* DAFWA estimate.

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to the rising importance of sheepmeat, especially lamb, to the sheep enterprise and the reduced reliance on wool due to low prices following the stockpile era.

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Figure 2 Changes in the Western Australian flock composition between 1990 and 2015 (Based on ABARES AgSurf data, DAFWA analysis)

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Flock ProjectionIt is estimated that the WA sheep flock may number just 12.9 million in mid-2017 as seen below in Error: Reference source not found.

Opening number of sheep 14.3 million

Number of ewes joined 6.6 million

Marking rate 88%

Lambs marked (est.) 5.81 millionTurn off

Lambs slaughtered 3.3 million

Sheep slaughtered 1.0 million

Live exports 1.7 million

Interstate movements 0.3 million

Total turn off (est.) 6.39 millionLosses (~6%) 0.9 million

Closing number of sheep (est.) 12.9 million (-10.1%)

Table 1 Western Australian flock project 1

In July 2016 it is estimated that the total number of sheep and lambs in WA was 14.3 million head. The five year averages indicate approximately 5.81 million lambs marked and total turn-off, which includes sheep and lamb slaughter, live export and interstate transfers, is projected to reach around 6.39 million. Including an allowance for losses on farm, this gives a closing number of 12.9 million sheep for the close of the 2016/17 financial year- a year on year decrease of 10%.

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Finally we can talk about fatSarah Blumer, Murdoch Universitys.blumer@murdoch.edu.au

Sarah is a research officer working at Murdoch University with a focus on the feed and liveweight efficiency of adult ewes. Not having too much herself, Sarah is excited about making sure her own ewes have enough fat to sustain the amazing work they do for the wool and sheep meat industries.

The storage and mobilisation of fat is an important mechanism for all animals to cope with fluctuating environments. Fat is stored during favourable times and then mobilised to provide energy for fundamental functions when requirements exceed supply, such as during periods of limited nutrition or during late pregnancy and lactation as explain in more detail below.

Environmental and genetic factors influencing the liveweight of adult Merino and Border Leicester-Merino ewes across multiple sites and years (2015)S. E. Blumer, G. E. Gardner, M. B. Ferguson and A. N. Thompson

Variation in liveweight change in the ewe flock during periods of poor nutrition can affect farm profitability through the effects of liveweight loss on potential stocking rate, management interventions including supplementary feeding, and ewe and lamb survival and productivity. There is variation between individual animals in their ability to manage periods of poor nutrition, but the links between liveweight change and breeding values in the adult ewe flock have not been quantified. We analysed 5216 splined liveweight profiles for 2772 ewes managed over three years at eight sites across Australia to define the relative effects of environment, reproductive performance and breeding values on liveweight change. The range in liveweight loss varied from 1.3kg to 21.6kg, with site and year the largest contributors to liveweight change. This demonstrates that seasonal conditions and management were the most important factors influencing liveweight change. Liveweight loss was influenced by previous and current reproductive performance but these effects were small in comparison to the effects of site and year. There were mixed effects of sire breeding values for growth, fat and muscle depending on site. Increasing sire breeding values for fat by 1mm acted to reduce liveweight loss by up to 1.3kg, mostly at those sites with a larger proportion of weight loss. Management had the greatest effect on liveweight change however there appears to be scope to use breeding values to select sheep that will lose less weight during periods of poor nutrition in some environments.

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Whole body fatness is a good predictor of phenotypic feed and liveweight efficiency in adult Merino ewes fed a poor quality diet (2016)S. E. Blumer, G. E. Gardner, M. B. Ferguson and A. N. Thompson

We predicted that adult Merino ewes with a higher proportion of fat would be more efficient, through both lower intake and reduced weight loss. Four year old Merino ewes (n = 64) were held in single pens and fed a chaff based diet either ad libitum with the aim of achieving liveweight maintenance, or a restricted amount in order to achieve liveweight loss of 100 g/day. Liveweight change and feed intake were measured, and residual liveweight change and residual feed intake were used to indicate efficiency. There was a difference of 2 mega joules of metabolisable energy per day between the most efficient and least efficient ewes for residual feed intake, and a difference of 90g per day between the most efficient and least efficient ewes for residual liveweight change. There was a significant association between blood plasma levels of leptin and both liveweight and feed efficiency, so that ewes with high levels of leptin had a lower daily intake, and/or lost less weight than those with low levels of leptin. Managing adult Merino ewes to maximise fat tissue accretion during spring via genetics and/or nutritional management could be a useful strategy to reduce feed requirements during summer/autumn because the ewes will be more efficient and have larger fat reserves to lose before achieving a lower critical limit.

Increasing sire breeding values for post weaning fat improves the condition score of their adult ewe progeny in late pregnancy (2016)S.E. Blumer, B.L. Paganoni, C.A. Macleay and A.N. Thompson

There is a positive relationship between condition score, and sire ASBVs for post weaning fat, and this suggests that selecting for high fat allows ewes to maintain a higher level of body condition during a period of peak demand on their maternal tissues. This could be due to an association with higher intake or with intake efficiency. Feed intake of ewes during late pregnancy under pasture conditions is often insufficient to support foetal requirements in addition to ewe maintenance, leading to an energy deficit and mobilisation of maternal tissues. Reid & Hinks (1962) reported that fat ewes had reduced intake in comparison to ewes in medium condition, which suggests that the mechanism is more likely to be linked to efficiency. There are some reported benefits of whole body fatness on feed efficiency in dry ewes (Blumer et al. 2016), and it seems from this study that these benefits could be amplified in pregnant and lactating ewes.

Selection for high fat genetics could therefore improve ewe condition score at critical points such as late pregnancy. This would have additional production benefits such as improving lamb survival, which is positively related to condition score of ewes in late pregnancy (Oldham et al. 2011; Paganoni et al. 2016). A better understanding of fat tissue deposition, its distribution and mobilisation in Merino ewes would be helpful to realise these potential benefits.

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Yardstick sire referencing demonstration Bob Hall, Icon Agriculturebob@iconag.com.au

Bob is one of a team of Farm Management consultants with Icon Agriculture with offices in the Southern Sheep Belt of WA at Darkan. While applying a whole farm approach to business consulting they specialise in sheep management and the place of sheep in the whole farm enterprise. Their clients run over 1% of the national sheep flock. Their annual benchmarking figures are second to none regarding the sheep enterprise, its profit and possibilities.

The sheep on display in the yards are the ewe progeny of the 2015 mating for the yardstick sire evaluation trial.

13 sires were entered for the 2015 Yardstick progeny test and carefully selected and randomised ewes were mated by laparoscopic AI at the Mt Barker Research Station in early February 2015. The progeny were moved to GSARI Katanning after weaning and have been there since.

One of the sires Merinotech WA Poll 95 5043 (born in 1995) is sponsored by AWI as a “Historical Sire”. This was entered in a yardstick trial many years previous to 2015 and AWI is interested in assessing genetic progress over the years.

A full range of measurements are taken from the progeny. Breech score and wrinkle; body weights at various ages; all fleece data; Eye muscle and fat etc. In addition all the sheep are classed by a professional sheep classer (Preston Clarke) for all visual attributes. Worm resistance was supposed to be tested but the sheep never had sufficient worm burdens to undertake a valid test.

This was the 19th Yardstick sire evaluation and is one of the longest active sites out of 14 that have been run Australia wide under the auspices of the Australian Merino Sire Evaluation Association (AMSEA) who set protocols for the evaluation and supervise their running.

Yardstick 2016 and 2017 matings are currently at the Ridgefield University farm at Pingelly and are held in conjunction with the AWI Merino Lifetime Productivity trial where progeny will be run for their lifetime in order to study adult measurements.

It is hoped that there will be a 2018 mating for Yardstick and ram breeders are encouraged to consider an entrant.

It needs to be explained that the results are for a single ram and those on display are only Flock breeding values comparing only the sires entered. The results will in future be subject to further analysis and comparisons and these results will be entered in the annual publication “Merino Superior Sires” which allows broader comparison with hundreds of sires. When ram breeders enter rams over time they

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obtain better information about the overall breeding value of their flock and obtain information as to where their performance can be altered or improved.

The 2015 mated Yardstick is indebted to DAFWA personnel, in particular the farm manager and staff and Meghan England (née Cornelius) who supervised the programme.

Yardstick is run by the Federation of Performance Sheep Breeders WA (inc).

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Katanning Reference FlockJohan Greeff

johan.greef@agric.wa.gov.au

Johan has been involved in the sheep industries in both South Africa and in Australia. He has been interested in the genetics of all production traits (wool, growth, reproduction and disease resistance) in sheep. During the past 10 years he has been managing the Genetic Resource (previous Information Nucleus Flock of the Sheep CRC) and the Breech strike flock. These two flocks have made major contributions in our knowledge of the inheritance of meat quality and disease resistant traits. They have also contributed to the developing of genomic breeding values for economically important traits that are hard and difficult to measure.

Introduction

One of the most tangible features of the Australian Sheep Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) program has been the information nucleus flock (INF). This has morphed into the Genetic Resource Flock which is now funded by Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA). The Reference Flock (RF) is basically a progeny testing scheme where progeny of selected industry sires are measured for a large range of traits, most of them not commonly measured on commercials studs. The INF program has three main objectives.

Obtain estimates of (quantitative) genetic parameters. These are heritabilities of new traits and correlations (genetic and phenotypic) of these traits with existing production traits as well as estimates of genotype by environment interactions.

Undertake genome association analysis, resulting in the ability to predict breeding value based on genotypic information.

Enhance estimates of breeding values of animals in commercial studs. This refers to increasing the accuracy of Australian sheep breeding values (ASBV) due to additional information measured on relatives.

The accuracy of selection is dependent on the amount of information measured on the progeny. It is not possible to measure carcass quality traits on live animals. These traits are difficult and expensive to measure and are referred to as hard to measure traits (html). These traits are generally difficult to improve, unless they have strong and favourable correlations with traits that are easier to measure. Traditionally, breeding programs have first used information from the ‘easy to measure’ traits, but breeding objectives tend to become more sophisticated, with more emphasis on health, and product quality. Thus this RF satisfies the need to obtain more information on the “html” traits.

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Current design of the Reference flock

The Katanning RF consists of 1200 Merino, Border Leicester X Merino and Dorper ewes. These ewes are inseminated with semen from leading industry sires for a wide range of traits.

The progeny are raised together at Katanning and slaughtered at WAMMCO and measured for carcass traits by Murdoch University.

Genomic association studies

DNA is also collected on all parents and progeny in the RF and tested with the Ovine SNP chip. This SNP chip contains thousands of genetic markers that are linked to specific genes. These DNA markers are used to predict the genetic performance of sheep in industry flock that have not been measured. Industry can submit blood cards through Sheep Genetics to be DNA tested and breeders will receive a genomic breeding value for the traits of interest which will allow breeders to breed for traits that they cannot measure on their own sheep.

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The Australian Wool Innovation Ltd Breech Strike Resistance ProjectJohan Greeff, John Karlsson (retired) and Tony Schlink (presenter)

tony.schlink@uwa.edu.au

Tony has been involved in the livestock industries in both southern and northern Australia. He has a research interest in wool quality and has been involved with Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) Breech Strike Resistance Project since 2009. He was originally based at Mt Baker working with the breeding flock. Two years ago he moved to the University of Western Australia to work on what attracts flies to sheep.

The Breeding for Breech Strike Resistance Project has been the most comprehensive investigation into the underlying causes of breech strike on unmulesed Merino sheep since the 1920s when Seddon showed how important wrinkles are in increasing the susceptibility of sheep to breech strike.

Since the introduction of surgical mulesing in the late thirties the research focussed on mulesing, and from the early fifties on the use of preventative jetting chemicals to control flystrike. The high initial success rate of chemicals created a strong feeling that mulesing along with chemicals, will be the permanent solution to the breech strike problem. However, in the sixties and seventies it became clear that chemicals won’t solve the problem as the blowfly developed resistance to the available chemicals and concerns regarding residues increased. A number of insecticides with different active ingredients have been developed but blowflies have eventually developed some level of resistance to all of them. With the endeavour to phase out mulesing, all this confirms that breeding is an important long term permanent solution to breech strike.

This project has clearly identified that flocks in Mediterranean regions with lower levels of dags, less wrinkles, less urine stain and lower breech cover will be less prone to be struck by flies. These factors can be managed through strategic crutching and to some extent by improved worm control. However, these husbandry techniques are labour intensive and costly and alternative strategies are needed to develop low input, easy care production systems with the extra bonus of clean and green.

The main findings from this breech strike genetics experiment to date is that large differences exist between sire progeny groups and that some sires’ progeny are naturally very resistant to breech strike. Although wrinkle is an important indicator trait of breech strike (especially in low dag country), the results expelled the general myth that breeding plain-bodied sheep will solve all breech strike problems. We have found that some plain-bodied sheep can be more susceptible to breech strike than “normal” Merinos. Dags and urine stain are more important than wrinkles or breech

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cover in uncrutched sheep, but under a crutching regime, wrinkles are the most important factor making sheep susceptible to being struck.

We also showed that odour from sheep plays an important role in attracting or repelling blowflies. Our work with sniffer dogs trained by Hanrob Dog Academy in Sydney has clearly shown that dogs can differentiate very successfully between wool from resistant and susceptible lines (from sheep that have not been struck for at least 18 months). AWI is currently funding an investigation into the chemical compounds that cause the differences in odour with the University of Western Australia. The odour project is only in its initial stage but encouraging results have been found which support the outcomes found with the sniffer dogs of differences between resistant and susceptible sheep. This work is likely to lead to potential commercial outcomes for woolgrowers.

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DAFWA and UWA Joining Forces to Solve the Winter Dag ProblemGraeme MartinGraeme.Martin@uwa.edu.au

Graeme grew up on a sheep and wheat farm in the shire of Victoria Plains. He gained a degree in Agricultural Science and a PhD from The University of Western Australia (UWA), and then worked for two years in France and three years in Scotland before returning to Australia to a joint position with CSIRO and UWA. He moved full-time to the university in the 1990s and became full professor in 2001.

Graeme is also leader of ‘UWA Future Farm 2050’, a major project that is focused on the greatest issue facing humanity – the need to feed 50% more people without destroying the planet. This project also aims to make positive contributions to the local, state, national and international rural communities.

The DAFWA-UWA Project

The Australian sheep industry loses $600m pa because gastro-intestinal worms reduce productivity and also cause diarrhoea that attracts blowflies, leading to flystrike. To make matters worse, the worms develop resistance to drenches and the use of mulesing to avoid flystrike is no longer acceptable.

Johan Greeff and John Karlsson of DAFWA tackled the worm-fly problem on two fronts: 1) Breeding sheep that are resistant to flystrike; 2) Breeding sheep that are resistant to worms. DAFWA and UWA have now joined forces, and also set up a partnership with Curtin University, to take the next step towards realization of the project goals and uptake of the technology by industry. The latest on flystrike resistance will be presented by Tony Schlink. The plans for the worm resistance project will be presented by Graeme Martin.

Breeding worm-resistant sheep is very effective, but some resistant animals still develop diarrhoea because they have an allergic reaction (‘hypersensitivity’) to the small numbers of worms that persist in their gut. They are therefore still susceptible to flystrike. Our plan is to look into the immune system of the sheep and find the cells, molecules and genes that cause the allergic response. We will then be in a position to identify hypersensitive animals early in life and breed simultaneously for resistance to both worms and diarrhoea.

The “winter dag” project is ‘clean’ because it avoids the use of drenches (that don’t work anyway) and ‘ethical’ because the goal is to make ‘mulesing’ irrelevant.

The outcome for industry will be a major reduction in costs, leading to greater profitability, and far better animal welfare so the animals are more productive.

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Moreover, the image of our industry in the marketplace will be greatly improved, helping to guarantee exports of wool and sheepmeat long into the future.

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Running the ruler over lamb in 2017 – the future of Lean Meat Yield analysisSteve ConnaughtonS.Connaughton@murdoch.edu.au

Steve Connaughton graduated from Murdoch University in 2011 as a veterinarian, and proceeded to work in general practice for two years in Canberra. He then spent 12 months in the UK, also practicing as a mixed animal veterinarian, before returning to Australia to undertake research back at Murdoch University. Steve’s PhD began in early 2016, and is looking in to the calibration and standardisation of DEXA technology for assessing carcass composition of lambs. His favourite way to eat lamb is a leg over a coal spit, seasoned with garlic and rosemary.

Currently, the lamb industry does not have a standard for assessing carcass composition, and thus lean meat yield; and the carcass data producers will typically be given back is only hot carcass weight, and occasionally the fat score of the carcass. Fat scoring will sometimes be used in processing plants to determine the price paid to producers for a carcass of a given weight – with score 1 (very lean) and 5 (very fat) being less desirable. The most common method for assessing fat score is through GR (grade rule) palpation.

This method of determining body composition is incredibly imprecise, with one study showing that - when operating at chain speed – operators responsible for palpating and determining fat score were measuring at the incorrect rib 70% of the time. Additionally, this form of measurement for determining lean meat yield is a single-point measure, meaning that the entire carcass composition is extrapolated from only one location. Such a measurement is wide open to biases between different breeds, sexes and age. A better measure of lean meat yield is one that measures the entire carcass in a single assessment.

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Source www.makingmorefromsheep.com.au

Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) is such a form of imaging, using x-rays to determine the amount of fat, lean muscle and bone within the whole lamb carcass. By using two different types of x-rays, two images can be created and subsequently compared via a computer, determining the amount of fat and lean muscle by the level of difference in the images.

This mode of carcass assessment has so far proven to be far superior to existing techniques – with the added advantage of being able to operate at chain-speed in an abattoir. With this leap forward in technology, both processors and producers will see the benefit of more accurate and precise carcass measurements. Producers, for example, will have access to a wealth of feedback information about each lamb that is sent through the abattoir, allowing them to make future genetic and management decisions for their flock. This has the potential to vastly improve the nation’s flock – maximising returns for both producers and processors, while ensuring that the highest quality lamb is reaching the optimal markets.

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High Energy DEXA image of a carcass

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We like our meat red! Demonstration of packaging options to optimise colour at retail & colour measurement technologyMaddison CorlettM.Corlett@murdoch.edu.au

Maddison is undertaking a PhD at Murdoch University, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Animal Science with first class honours from Murdoch University in 2015. Maddison’s area of special focus was reducing methane yield from sheep by feeding the legume biserrula and received a number of awards based on this research. She is now continuing her passion for agricultural research by undertaking a PhD at Murdoch University. The research is funded and led by the Sheep Cooperative Research Centre, an industry body with a focus on tangible outcomes for each stakeholder in the supply chain. The focus of her research is unveiling consumer perceptions towards the colour of lamb meat, with actual consumers assessing meat and providing their opinion on the colour.

Research topic

Meat colour is a very important quality which consumers base their purchasing decision on at the time of purchase. In Australia, lamb products have a retail shelf-life of approximately 48 hours when displayed in traditional overwrap packaging (Calnan, et al. 2014; Jacob, et al. 2007). After this period, they are discounted or minced (Liu, et al. 1995; Troy and Kerry 2010). This common practice of discounting lamb products represents a major economic loss to the Australian lamb industry which needs to be reduced. One of the ways to do this is to identify consumer responses to meat colour and compare this to objective measures of meat colour using Hunterlab, Minolta or Nix instruments. The outcome of this work will be focused on determining if one of these devices can instrumentally measure the colour of the meat and accurately predict if the colour is unacceptable and needs to be discounted, or determine if the meat product has ‘more time’ before it needs to be discounted. There are also indications that suggest that consumer attitudes to meat colour have recently changed, and that the modern consumer’s response to meat colour is also affected by the packaging method. Along with the traditional overwrapping packaging, there are now other relatively new alternate packaging systems adopted by meat industry including modified atmosphere packaging, and vacuum skin packaging which can extend the retail shelf life of meat. The growing adoptions of these alternate packaging methods means further research is needed to investigate the effects of packaging type on meat colour and eating quality. The relationship of packaging type on meat colour and eating quality has received recent research in beef yet remains limited in lamb or sheep meat.

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This work will provide industry benefit to see if objective instrumental measures can reflect consumer perceptions of meat colour in lamb and if consumer perceptions have changed over time. This would decrease the amount of lamb product discounted or minced prematurely when the colour is still red and appealing to consumers. This creates an opportunity for real-time prediction of meat colour acceptability when on retail display or abattoir prediction for how long the meat product can be on display before become unacceptable in colour. Comparing the Hunterlab, Minolta and Nix will enable the comparison of multiple machines, and identify if one or more machines are better at detecting or predicting certain consumer perceptions.

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Eat the Lot - demonstration of cut by cook effect on sheep eating qualityDr Liselotte Pannier - Post-Doctoral FellowRachel O’Reilly - PhD Candidatel.pannier@murodch.edu.aur.oreilly@murdoch.edu.au

Liselotte successfully completed a PhD in Ireland, Dublin, through University College of Dublin and the Ashtown Food Research Centre (Teagasc). Her PhD focussed on genetic markers in candidate genes and meat quality traits in beef. Since then Liselotte has been a researcher at Murdoch University for over 8 years under the Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Sheep Industry Innovation. Her research is mainly focused around consumer sheep meat eating quality and recently she has been coordinating international eating quality studies taking place in Australia, China and America to understand consumer perceptions in those 3 consumer groups. Furthermore, her research is also focussed around intramuscular fat and nutritional traits (iron, zinc, FA’s) in sheep meat.

Rachel successfully completed a Bachelor of Animal Bioscience with First Class Honours at Sydney University in 2012. Her Honours research involved assessing knowledge, attitudes and practices of smallholder cattle farmers in rural Cambodia to determine the effectiveness of participatory based intervention programs. Having a keen interest in agri-industries, she joined the NSW Department of Primary Industries graduate program in 2013 gaining experience in animal biosecurity policy, vertebrate pest research, microbiological disease and diagnostics, and red meat research and development. Rachel commenced her doctorate in philosophy in 2015, investigating the differences in international consumer sensory perceptions of Australian prime lamb, a project involving China, USA, and Australia.

Lamb and Sheep Meat Standards Australia (MSA) model

Lamb consumption declined in Australia in the 90’s with inconsistent products reaching the supermarket shelf. To maintain strong consumer demand and improve sheep meat quality, research was undertaken to identify critical control points for eating quality in the sheep meat supply chain. From this research a MSA sensory protocol for sheep was developed adapted from that in beef, taking into account the smaller cuts found in lamb and sheep.

Currently the sheep MSA program requires entire supply chain compliance with guidelines for best practice including feed management, handling, curfew, slaughter, product aging and retail presentation. The details are publically available on the Meat and Livestock Australia website. The process has been shown to successfully reduce the variation in sheep meat tenderness. While successful in improving eating

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quality, the program has been mob based and lacked individual carcass grading, and cut by cooking method grading. As such, the lamb and sheep meat model is currently being extended into a cuts-based system similar to the beef MSA model. With knowledge of breed type, carcass weight, a measure of lean meat yield, and intramuscular fat, an even greater reduction in the variance in eating quality for loin and topside cuts can be achieved.

International Consumer Perceptions of Australian Sheep Meat

The USA and China are Australia’s most valuable export markets for frozen and chilled sheep meat products. As such, untrained consumer taste panels utilising MSA protocols have recently been carried out in these key international markets. Preliminary findings indicate it may be a suitable tool to predict Australian lamb and sheep meat eating quality for the two international consumer groups. Eating quality or palatability of sheep meat is described by tenderness, juiciness, flavour liking, and overall liking. Results of consumer taste panels show overall liking of Australian lamb and yearling meat rated very highly, with Chinese, American and Australian consumers in agreement. Similarly, the perceived juiciness of loin and topsides were similar for all consumer groups. Chinese consumers expressed significantly lower mean tenderness scores, however these lower eating quality estimates likely reflect their inexperience with the “western” style cooking method of the grill.

Greater insights into these key export markets will assist the Western Australian sheep industry to tailor products and marketing strategies, ensuring product sustainability into the future.

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Samples for consumer taste panels

Chinese consumers tasting Australian sheep meat

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Chaos on the Maternity Ward: Can optimising lambing density minimise mismothering and improve lamb survival? Amy Lockwooda.lockwood@murdoch.edu.au

Amy is a PhD student at Murdoch University. Amy’s research is investigating the effects of lambing density on ewe-lamb behaviour and lamb survival.

Marking rate is an important driver of profitability for sheep enterprises. Lamb mortalities are estimated to cost the Australian sheep industry $540 million per year (Lane et al 2015). Hence, the Australian sheep industry aims to increase marking rate by 5% over the next three years. Improving the survival of twins is a priority for the industry given the mortality of twins is typically double that of singles and improving the survival of twins is likely to have the greatest economic pay-off compared to improving other aspects of the reproductive process.

Very little is known about the effects of mob size, stocking rate and therefore lambing density on lamb survival. A survey of sheep producers by the BestWool BestLamb program showed that for each additional 100 twin-bearing ewes in the mob at lambing, lamb survival decreased by 3.5% (Figure; Lockwood et al submitted). Lamb survival also decreased by 0.7% for each additional ewe per hectare, regardless of birth type. The existing guidelines of 100 to 250 twin-bearing adult ewes per mob at lambing could therefore represent a range in marking rate for twin-bearing mobs of at least 10%.

The National Lambing Density Project, supported by Australian Wool Innovation, Meat & Livestock Australia and partnering organisations, is currently quantifying the effects of mob size and stocking rate on the survival of twin-born Merino or maternal lambs to marking. The research will occur at a total of 70 demonstration sites across Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales during 2016 and 2017. In addition, the project is engaging producers who pregnancy scan for multiples to provide marking data for individual mobs of single or twin bearing ewes.

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0 100 200 300 400 500505560657075808590

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Figure 1 The effect of increasing the mob size of twin-bearing ewes at a stocking rate of 8 ewes/ha on lamb survival(Lockwood et al unpublished)

The data collected will aid in understanding the effects of lambing density across a broad range of environmental and management conditions in southern Australia.

In addition to the National Lambing Density project, further experimental work is also providing an understanding of the associations between lambing density, ewe-lamb and flock behaviour, and lamb survival. This work aims to understand whether higher lambing densities are associated with a greater risk of disturbance at lambing from other lambing ewes or newborn lambs and whether this subsequently increases the risk of mismothering, ewe-lamb separations and lamb mortality. Research will also be undertaken this year to investigate the interactions between mob size and feed-on-offer to determine whether the effects of mob size are amplified when pasture is limiting. The research is utilising new sensor technology to assist in understanding ewe-lamb and flock interactions during lambing. Overall the lambing density research aims to contribute to the development of guidelines for producers on mob size and stocking rate at lambing in order to improve lamb survival and marking rates.

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Labour or love? Labour saving technologies that allow a life off farmJohn Paul Collins, DAFWA Katanningjohn.collins@agric.wa.gov.au

John Paul (JP) has worked for DAFWA in Katanning for the past 15 years. During this time JP has worked in saltland pastures, application of precision agriculture to cropping, local extension and now in the integration of new on-farm technology into sheep enterprises. JP’s passion has always been in sheep, learning a lot from Dad, who was a woolgrower for over 50 years. JP work’s with a pilot group of young, passionate and tech – savvy sheep producers who either have tried or are testing many labour saving tools on their own properties for our case studies. The overall finding is that sheep don’t need to be labour-intensive or hard work, as there are many tools available to make it easier to run sheep.

Background

For many passionate sheep producers, the time spent working with their sheep is a ‘labour of love’. However, access to quality labour is a constraint in expanding their sheep enterprise and juggling the competing demands with cropping. There are opportunities to explore how more sheep can be run with either the same number or less labour units. The aim of the new on-farm technology activity is to explore how commercially available technology can be integrated into a sheep enterprise, to improve labour efficiency, enable better breeding and improve traceability. We are also exploring blue-sky technology that will have the potential to transform the WA sheep industry.

Connectivity

On-farm connectivity is a key starting point when investing in any technology. First, mobile phone reception is a key consideration and if there is limited or no reception then options should be considered. At the Katanning Research Facility (KRF), we have installed mobile phone signal boosters at strategic locations to amplify the mobile signal. Second, access to reliable internet through WIFI coverage is important when investing in technology. This is important for software updates, access to training videos and live support via remote desktop access. We are currently exploring opportunities at the KRF to further improve WIFI access at key locations as part of our overall investment into technology.

Remote monitoring

For sheep farms that are fragmented and require a high labour expense to check troughs and tanks on remote properties, investment into remote cameras is a worthwhile expense. The cameras operate on a time schedule, are plug-and-play and rely on access to the mobile phone network to take an image of a tank or trough and send it to the cloud, for viewing on your device. We recently conducted a

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benefit-cost analysis on a sheep producer who had invested in cameras. Previously, he would drive 300-400 km every 2-3 days to inspect troughs. After purchasing the cameras, this has reduced his time spent physically checking troughs and he has re-allocated this labour to other parts of the sheep enterprise. For every dollar invested, he is saving $5.30 in both labour and vehicle costs and has paid for the cameras within 2 years. Further information is available in a feature article we have available on the DAFWA website.

Sheep handlers

There are a large range of commercially available handlers which are designed to restrain sheep whilst husbandry tasks such as drenching, vaccinating or backlining can be performed. These handlers offer several benefits. First, there is an improvement in occupational health and safety and reduced risk of fatigue and injury. This translates to greater enthusiasm to perform routine husbandry tasks in a timely manner. Staff can also be more productive the following day if they are not worn out. Second, there can be real savings in time and labour if more than one husbandry task can be performed whilst the sheep is in the handler. For example, a lamb at weaning can be given its required needles, drench and flystrike treatment all at once whilst in the handler. Third, there is a benefit to giving an opportune bunghole crutch if it is required, or collect a weight which can be used to improve management. Whilst these tasks can be done without a handler, these facilities are often incorporated into many handlers and they can be done without an additional expense in labour.

Our early analysis of the role a sheep handler plays in a sheep enterprise is that often the savings in labour units or throughput are not high. Further, for a handler to be a useful labour-saving tool it needs to be properly incorporated into the sheep yards with an adequate inflow that is conducive to sheep flow. Finally, there are some very real and practical benefits in reducing fatigue and improving safety for farm workers. More information will be made available on the new on-farm technology webpage as it comes to hand.

Summary

Sheep work doesn’t need to be hard or difficult. We are looking at a whole suite of labour saving tools such as remote cameras, laneways, automated jetting races, use of electronic eartags in a pedigree matchmaker system to determine pedigree and sheep handlers. These case studies will all be supported by a benefit-cost analysis. Future case studies will focus on electronic identification, sheepyard design and on-farm connectivity. With the improvement in sensor technology, there will be future opportunities to collect information from sheep via sensors such as dam pedigree, movement patterns and location. Once technology is integrated into a sheep enterprise and is providing real benefits in reducing labour requirements, there are opportunities for running sheep to be less about ‘love’ and more about profitability and providing value-adding opportunities for grain that is grown on the farm.

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The good gas on methane: Live demonstration of gas measuresPhil Vercoephilip.vercoe@uwa.edu.au

Phil is a professor at The University of Western Australia and Associate Director of its Institute of Agriculture. Phil did my Bachelor of Rural Science degree and PhD at UNE, where he specialised in the molecular biology of ruminal microbes and the regulation of cellulase gene expression. Phil has over 25 years’ experience in animal production systems where he has always had an interest in linking rumen microbiology, nutrition and genetics. For the last 10 years the focus of Phil’s research has been in finding practical ways to reduce methane emissions from ruminants that improve profitability and the perception of the industry. Phil has led national, multi-institutional, and collaborated with DAFWA and Murdoch University in projects investigating nutritional (bioactive supplements), improved feedbase and genetic approaches to reducing methane. Phil also led the Rumen Pangenome Program (RPP) the aim of which was to provide high quality data that could be used to deliver a comprehensive understanding of animal genotype x rumen environment x management interactions that determine methane emissions. Phil has a strong drive to create a collaborative rather than competitive environment amongst WA researchers in agriculture, because he thinks the sky is the limit if we do. A critical part of reaching the sky is having a strong partnership and trust between researchers and producers.

Why all the fuss about methane and why should we give a stuff, or should that be a belch? By 2050 it’s been estimated that the demand for meat and milk from ruminants will be 60-70% more than it is in 2017. Production from ruminants in dryland areas is expected to play an important role in responding to this challenge, particularly as the competition for grain for human consumption and biofuel production becomes greater and consumers are demanding products to be ‘Clean, Green and Ethical’. What a huge opportunity for Australia’s extensive grazing industries if we play our cards right. However, the role of ruminants in meeting global food demand has become controversial because some are concerned about the environmental footprint of the livestock sector, a lot of which is based on estimates that the methane they burp accounts for 10% of Australia’s greenhouse-gas emissions and 14-16% of human-induced greenhouse-gas emissions globally. From a productivity perspective methane is a waste product of the fermentation in the rumen and an energy loss to the animal. When cattle and sheep digest feed, between 2-10% of the feed energy they consume is lost in the form of methane gas. So the good gas on methane is that we gain multiple benefits if we reduce the amount it cattle and sheep emit; the animal captures and can make more use of the

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energy in feed, we reduce the sectors contribution to our national emissions, and we address one of the issues consumers of our products have.

What makes a ruminant a ruminant is the large fermentation vat that sits at the ‘front end’ of its digestive tract (the rumen). This large vat harbours a microbial soup that has a mutually beneficial relationship with the animal. The animal delivers feed to the microbes on a regular basis and they ferment the feed, which is the only reason the animal can consume and extract nutrients for production from diets that are high in cellulose (fibre). That fermentation provides the animal with its energy and protein needs, but it also results in some inefficiencies and waste products, one of which is methane. Since 2009 there has been a major investment nationally by the Federal government, R&D organisations, Universities, State Government Departments, CSIRO and private companies to find innovative solutions to reduce emissions from ruminants in Australia. The University of Western Australia, Murdoch University and DAFWA have collaborated together and with other institutions around Australia to make a significant contribution to this national programme. There have been 4 main targets for the research: 1) targeting the animal genetics; 2) targeting the feedbase; 3) targeting the rumen microbial population; and 4) targeting the interaction between genotype, environment and management (GxExM). There was also an underlying programme across all these targets that was focused on developing new methods to measure methane from individual animals more easily for breeding purposes (demonstrated at Open Day) and from grazing animals. I’ll provide a snap shot of some of the key findings in this programme including; the heritability of methane emissions, improving feed efficiency, the differences in methane produced from different plant species and the scope for making better choices, and plants and compounds that specifically target the methane producing bugs in the rumen, all of which highlight the contribution WA institutions have made to the national effort.

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Figure 1 Methane being measured in animals using the portable accumulation chambers or ‘butterboxes’

Figure 2 Grazing systems including Australian native shrubs

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EweTube: let Siri do the sheepwork!Beth Paganonibeth.paganoni@agric.wa.gov.au

Beth is a Research Officer for the livestock industry, working to increase the reproduction and performance of Western Australia’s sheep flock. Currently Beth is involved in the application of movement sensors to measure proximity, interactions, location and behaviours of sheep.

Increasing the adoption of genetic technologies (using sensors) will increase the rate of genetic gain in our state flock, assisting our efforts to double the value of the sheep industry by 2025.

How Siri’s sensors and the iPhone have changed the world:1. Touch screen/no hard keyboard2. Software distribution/jailbreaking3. Addicted the world to motion and orientation sensors!

Apple’s accelerometer in the original iPhone was something of an exotic novelty to many users. Current models have accelerometer, gyroscope and compass.

So what does this mean for sheep production?

It means we have the opportunity to apply these sensor functions to livestock. For example, we have already been using the Bluetooth function of sensors to detect the rear type and dam pedigree of lambs.

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Rear type and pedigree information are important for the sheep industry to improve reportable breeding values for reproductive traits. Current techniques of collecting rear type information are expensive, such as blood sampling for DNA and labour expensive, such as mothering-up lambs to ewes at birth. Using sensors to match up lambs to ewes is a novel technique that could reduce labour expenses.

We tested this technique on 976 lambs from the Breech-Strike flock at Katanning. The sensors determined the same dam as mothering up for 941 of the 976 lambs (97%). Only seven lambs had different dams identified by the sensors compared to the mothering-up technique (<1%). The other 2% had no dam identified by the sensors, indicating minimal interactions. Blood samples for DNA have been collected from all the ewes and lambs and will soon be analysed to compare the accuracy of the three techniques (sensors vs mothering up vs DNA).

Think blue sky….big screen…..cloud farming…ALERTS!

The proximity function is just one small part of what Siri’s sensors can do. In fact there is a smorgasbord of other potential applications that we are investigating, such as location, activity and movements. Imagine the possibilities!

EweView is Simply Smart Sheep Farming –

Our design allows you to get the sheep husbandry hints you love even quicker than before and our new features make sheep work easy.

We’re finding better ways for sheep to move and thrive. Download the app and get a truck to the yards in minutes. Or become a driver, move your flock onto more feed and earn money on your improved growth rates and schedule.

With all the new software support systems being marketed such as Sapien, AgriWeb, Koolnote, etc. Imagine if these programs could tell you how many sheep were in each paddock, rather than you having to enter that information. Movement monitoring of sheep in real-time is not far away.

Now that’s the kind of EweTube I’d like to watch!

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Contact

Postal: Locked Bag 4, Bentley Delivery Centre WA 6983Street address: 3 Baron-Hay Court, South Perth WA 6151Web: agric.wa.gov.auEmail: julia.smith@agric.wa.gov.auTelephone: +61 (0)8 9892 8450

Copyright © Western Australian Agriculture Authority, 2016

Western Australian Government materials, including website pages, documents, images and recordings, are protected by copyright law. Copyright of materials created by or for the Department of Agriculture and Food resides with the Western Australian Agriculture Authority established under the Biosecurity and Agriculture Management Act 2007. Apart from any fair dealing or otherwise permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced or reused for any commercial purposes whatsoever without prior written permission of the Western Australian Agriculture Authority.

Important disclaimer

The Chief Executive Officer of the Department of Agriculture and Food and the State of Western Australia accept no liability whatsoever by reason of negligence or otherwise arising from the use or release of this information or any part of it.

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