The University of New England is licenced by the Trust to deliver this module as part of its formal curriculum. Students from other Universities may also enrol.
Educational Institutions. other than the University of New England, wishing to utilise these resources as research and/or reference materials will be provided a copy of all the materials, including source documents in Microsoft Word format, subject to their acceptance of a licencing contract with the Australian Wool Education Trust. This contract spells out their obligations to AWET and the limitations in the use of the materials. Such institutions must have an appropriate licence with the Copyright Agency Ltd.
Institutions or individuals who wish to utilise the materials as references or for self education will be provided access to the source documentation in PDF format only, subject to their acceptance of the terms and conditions. They can request modules and/or topics.
Any questions or requests for additional information should be directed to: wool.education@woolwise.com
WOOL 300 provides a detailed introduction to the Australian sheep and wool industry and production systems. It outlines the factors affecting the production of sheep meat and wool and considerations the producer needs to take into account including nutrition, genetics and environment. It also outlines the marketing systems for wool and the importance of meeting consumer demands for the sustainability of the industry.
The course has been designed for joint delivery by UNE and New England TAFE.
This topic will introduce the key factors that characterise the Australian sheep industry including the environments in which wool and sheepmeat are produced, the different enterprises responsible for sheep production and their relative contributions to the industry, historical and current trends in sheep population and wool and sheepmeat production and state and regional differences in sheepmeat and wool production.
On completion of this topic you should be able to:
The majority of wool produced in Australia is of Merino origin and is generally produced under grazing production systems. Merino wool tends to be finer and more suited to end-use in fine apparel. Australian wool also has a reputation for being relatively free of dark and medullated fibre contamination due to stringent clip preparation procedures. There are many characteristics of wool that can affect it’s suitability for particular processing procedures and end uses including fibre diameter, staple length and strength, fleece weight, colour, style and contamination. This topic aims to outline how these characteristics impact on wool quality and their effects on price received for wool. The influence of time of shearing on these characteristics will also be discussed.
On completion of this topic you should be able to:
This topic describes the different sources of genetic variation and how these can be manipulated to improve wool production from a given flock. It also outlines some of the breeding strategies that may be used to improve fibre diameter and clean fleece weight despite their antagonistic genetic relationship.
On completion of this topic you should be able to:
An animal’s capacity for fibre production and the quality of that fibre is determined by its genotype. However, its ability to express this genetic potential can be modified by a number of factors, the most important of which is nutrition. Furthermore, nutrition can be used to manipulate current flock performance whereas selective breeding is used to change the ‘future’ flock.
On completion of this topic you should be able to:
Many physiological and environmental factors influence the quality and quantity of wool produced on farm. These factors need to be managed to optimise wool production and quality. There are many management strategies that need to be considered including time of shearing, disease control, timing of cull sales, grazing management and reproduction management. Many of these factors interact in their influence on wool production.
On completion of this topic you should be able to:
Although the volume of wool produced in Australia has been declining, Australia is still the largest producer and exporter of wool in the world. The major export market for Australian wool is China with demand increasing from 38% in 2002 to around 77% in 2012. India is the second largest export market for Australian wool and is projected to increase competition with China for Australian greasy wool. In 2011-12 Australia produced 424 000 tonnes of greasy wool with 405 000 tonnes of this being exported (ABARES 2013) with a value of $3.07 billion.
On completion of this topic you should be able to:
As consumers have become more discerning in their preferences for meat consumption, meeting market specifications for sheep meat production has become more important. This has meant that producers have had to change their production systems to ensure they are meeting specifications for carcase weight and fat depth to continue to be profitable.
On completion of this topic you should be able to:
Growing lambs require a balance of energy and protein in their diet for optimal growth. In some situations lambs will have to be fed supplements with the intention of maximizing lamb growth to achieve target market specifications. Sometimes it may be more economic to allow slower growth rates and have lambs reach target weights when prices are higher.
On completion of this topic you should be able to:
This topic describes the practical on-farm quality assurance measures that producers should consider to minimise the risk of the customer being dissatisfied with the sheepmeat product supplied. Customers all over the world demand food products that are of consistent quality and free of chemical residues and other contamination. It is important to the long term sustainability of markets for Australian products that as all meats are facing continued pressure to be safer, healthier and taste better. Of the factors that impact on these aspects of quality some can be controlled by producers but many others are influenced by downstream actions in the transport, processing, retail and food preparation sectors. This lecture focuses on the production sector.
On completion of this topic you should be able to:
Meat sheep may be marketed in Australia as stud, store or finished stock. This topic deals with both store and finished meat sheep. Until the mid 1970s there was little change to the method of selling or marketing meat sheep .Since then descriptive language has been implemented for live sheep and carcases though AUS-MEAT. The industry has adopted methods to transfer carcase description from farm to retail and back again
On completion of this topic you should be able to:
This topic covers the processes involved in slaughter and preparation of sheep for slaughter to meet animal welfare and consumer standards for a quality product. This topic is taken from the International Sheep and Wool Handbook, Chapter 30, Courtesy of Australian Wool Innovation Limited.
On completion of this topic you should be able to:
Sheep Genetics (SG) is the national genetic information and evaluation service for both the meat and wool sectors of the sheep industry. SG has been developed jointly by Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) and Australian Wool Innovation Limited (AWI), together with industry.
On completion of this topic you should be able to:
Disease is one of the major environmental factors, like nutrition or climate, which markedly influences the efficiency of sheep production for wool or meat. This lecture introduces you to the major disease challenges facing sheep and the mechanisms by which they influence sheep productivity and welfare. The lecture will then briefly describe some important diseases of sheep.
On completion of this topic you should be able to:
Grazing Management can be a useful and powerful tool for livestock producers to achieve a number of goals.
On completion of this topic you should be able to:
The variable nature of our Australian climate makes it almost impossible to rely on pasture alone as the basis for efficient livestock production and certainty in being able to meet consumer’s expectations for delivery and quality. In most parts of Australia there is a predictable pattern of rainfall and pasture growth. Predictable winter rainfall in southern Australia is associated with a very dry summer leading to predictable feed shortages in late summer and autumn. In the tropics the characteristic summer rainfall and dry winters make feed shortages in late winter a common occurrence. Supplementary feeding to maintain stocking rates and to meet production objectives is a standard practice under conditions where there are predictable extremes in pasture production.
On completion of this topic you should be able to:
High flock reproductive performance is essential for maximising profits particularly in a prime lamb enterprise. To achieve this appropriate pregnancy and lambing management, particularly from mid-pregnancy to lamb marking, needs to be practised to ensure maximum lamb survival. Nutrition during pregnancy and lambing is critical so throughout this lecture there will be references to pasture benchmarks required to ensure nutritional requirements are met..
On completion of this topic you should be able to:
Precision Sheep Management (PSM) is a practical approach to managing sheep (sub) flocks to achieve increased profits. By collecting individual measurements on animals, the top and bottom performers in the flock can be identified and grouped to maximise production and minimise costs. There is a large amount of variation between animals for most traits and by collecting and using this information for selection, nutrition and disease management there can be large benefits.
On completion of this topic you should be able to:
Setting up a profitable husbandry calendar is not a simple task. It involves assessing the resource base of the farm and juggling management events to get the optimum compromise between conflicting needs of pastures, animals, financial resources and labour. There is no one right answer as to what would be the most profitable husbandry calendar, however there are some guiding principles that will allow the manager to set up that calendar within the resources allocated.
On completion of this topic you should be able to:
In broadacre farming businesses, the key resource limitation is land. Because land is so expensive it cannot easily be acquired to increase the scale of the business, and in addition there is a significant amount of fixed costs that come with owning and farming land which means that to generate an acceptable profit the land must be operating near its economic capacity. The economic capacity of the land will be that point at which additional spending within the area under management brings no higher return than that generated from buying additional area. Maximum profit per hectare is therefore the key objective in the operation of a sheep enterprise.
On completion of this topic you should be able to:
This topic provides case studies of two sheep enterprises located in geographically diverse regions. The first is an enterprise located in South East South Australia and is a mixed enterprise with prime lamb, wool and crop production. The second is located in the New England region of New South Wales and would also be considered a mixed enterprise but with more focus on superfine wool production with some prime lambs and cattle. The aim of this topic is to outline how the production environment and therefore management inputs differ between the two locations and enterprise types.
At the end of this topic you should be able to: