THE Australian lamb industry looks set to continue its decade-long purple patch of outstanding demand, as SA leads the charge on sheepmeat productivity goals.
On the eve of SA’s Sheep Industry Blueprint one-year anniversary, the Australian Poll Dorset Association’s biannual national conference in Adelaide was told the state had exceeded the ambitious goal to boost the sector by $320 million by 2020 in just one year.
In 2014-15, the total sheep and wool revenue for SA was $1.48 billion, last financial year that figure hit $1.85b.
While the figures have been driven by outstanding lamb and wool prices, SA Sheep Industry Blueprint manager Stephen Lee told conference attendees the aim was to ensure the gross increase was sustained.
“We are not seeking to just increase in farmgate price, but production through the value chain,” he said.
“Under the overarching goal to lift production by 20 per cent, there are a whole series of sub-targets to increase farm productivity and the way information flows between the segments of the value chain.
“The model in SA is working well. Since the launch, 16 projects have started. There is collaboration throughout the value chain for everyone’s benefit.”
For the first time in a decade, the APDA national conference was held in Adelaide, where seedstock producers were reminded of the “weight on their shoulders” to increase consumer and production pressures in the future.
With SA sheepmeat values doubling in the past decade, from $600m to $1.15b, Sheepmeat Council Australia vice-president Allan Piggott said the industry was in its “golden era”.
“We had a great season last year, lamb prices and rams sales are exceptional, but we’ve all been in the game long enough to know we have highs and lows,” he said.
“It is the perfect time to position the industry so we don’t have too many lows.
“The lamb industry is the only agricultural commodity that has increased in real value in the past 20 years – it hasn’t happened by luck.”
While the blueprint sets out to increase lamb weaning rates by 12.5pc within three years, Mr Piggott said there was an immediate challenge with supply because “we’re not breeding enough lambs”.
“If we increased our productive capacity by 20pc, every step in this supply chain needs to grow at the same pace,” he said.
“If we have plenty of lambs but we don’t have the processing capacity, shearers or retail workers, then it all starts to fall over.
“We could work 20pc harder for 20pc more lambs but 20pc less money.”
The Blueprint, which is a collaboration between Livestock SA and the SA Sheep Advisory Group, maps the industry’s growth strategy to 2020.
“I’ve been amazed that if you can demonstrate you are a strong, cohesive industry with a plan, everyone is keen to jump on board and help you out,” Mr Piggott said.
“But when we talk about increasing production capacity, we need to make sure everyone is working at the same speed.”
Mr Piggott implored the 65 APDA member attendees to remain vigilant on consumer demand, beyond simply fertility and ease-of-care breeding targets.
“Our overseas markets want a safe product, the chef is after consistency, the distributor is after a good shelf life, the processors are after lean meat yield, finishers want good feed conversions and producers want a fertile, easy-care flock - the seedstock producer is after everything above,” he said.