In this episode Fiona Macarthur speaks with Michelle Cousins a director of Cousins Merino Services which she runs with her husband Paul and son Josh. Cousins Merino Services is based in Burra, SA and operates across South Australia, north west NSW and Victoria. It provides a range of services to the Merino industry including on-farm flock testing, pregnancy scanning, fat and eye muscles scanning, merino sheep classing and data management. Michelle is a service provider for data entry into Sheep Genetics and an accredited provider of RamSelect and her family runs a successful Merino and Poll Merino stud in South Australia and they are also co-owners of Mount Eba Station, a 3380 sq km merino property near Glendambo in South Australia.

Today's guest is Will Wilson, Chair of Australian Wool Innovation's WoolQ Pty Ltd. Over the past 30 years Will has had a successful and extensive career in the financial services sector in Australia and overseas. In 2014 he was member of Australian Wool Innovations review panel into Australia's wool selling system. This panel was tasked to look at current issues relating to the selling of Australian wool and became the precursor to the Wool Q platform. For the past 3 years Will has overseen the development and management of the Wool Q platform.

Will explains to Fiona why Wool Q was created, the platform's functionality and new tools available for woolgrowers, how it works alongside the traditional wool auction system , how wool brokers work with Wool Q and how Wool Q can assist with woolgrowers wanting to improve traceability for their customer.

In this episode Sheep Connect NSW's Fiona Macarthur speaks with Dr Belinda Hackney soil specialist with the NSW Department of Primary Industries about the benefits of hard seeded legumes in times of drought.

Wild dogs cost Australian economy $66.3 million every year. Australian Wool Innovation funds and co-funds Wild Dog co-ordinators in each mainland state. Their role is to help producers and farmers collaborate to reduce the impact of predation of Wild Dogs and therefore improve on-farm productivity, rural community wellbeing and biodiversity.

In this podcast Dr Fiona Macarthur speaks with Dave Worsley who's the Wild Dog facilitator in the New England for Australian Wool Innovation about exactly what a Wild Dog is, how they impact sheep production and main principals of a Wild Dog control program from sheep and cattle producers.

Sheep Connect NSW's Dr Fiona Macarthur speaks with veterinary consultant Matthew Playford for an online version of one of Sheep Connect NSW's flagship workshop's, RAMping Up Repro.

RAMping Up Repro (RUR) is focussed on improving ram performance and working longevity in commercial sheep enterprises.

This is usually a face-to-face workshop but due to the global pandemic this course is now being offered online via webinar and this podcast.

The online course runs through the highlights of the workshop but is designed to increase the skill of producers across the key components of ram performance and impacts on overall breeding enterprise performance, including: Anatomy, Physiology, Spermatogenesis, Metabolic demands, Health, disease & biosecurity, Financial impact of the ram team.

Relevant links:

How to Condition Score

ParaBoss, LiceBoss, FlyBoss

AWI Sheep Selection Tools document

Doug Alcock speaks with Sheep Connect's Dr Fiona Macarthur about how climate change might impact sheep producers in the central tablelands of NSW.

Doug has worked as a livestock officer with the NSW Department of Primary Industries for 23 years, one of his particular areas of expertise is grazing systems management. This interested Doug to work on the development and release of the grazing systems modelling tool, GrassGro. Following this, as a part of a CSIRO led-project Doug played a leading role in climate change impacts and potential adaptations for NSW grazing farms. Since then Doug has applied these principals using the most recently available climate projections to explore the likely impact of climate change on grazing operations in the central tablelands of NSW.

In this episode Doug explores the use of outputs from a range of global climate models to quantify the impacts on a typical central tablelands grazing farm.

Relevant articles:

https://www.mla.com.au/research-and-development/search-rd-reports/final-report-details/Environment-On-Farm/Climate-Change-Adaptation-in-the-Southern-Australian-Livestock-Industries/948

https://www.climatechangeinaustralia.gov.au/en/

https://www.data.qld.gov.au/dataset/consistent-climate-scenarios

Dr Jason Trompf discusses strategies for rebuilding your flock during recovery from drought/fires. Jason talks strategies for whole of flock productivity - and in particular reproduction rates across your flock. Jason shares his valuable insights into how to get the extra productivity from your flock, thereby helping during a rebuilding phase.

This podcast is a recording of the recent Sheep Connect NSW webinar.

Learn more about upcoming webinars and register at sheepconnectnsw.com/events

In this podcast Sheep Connect NSW manager Megan Rogers discusses how the network is pivoting and adapting its education and information in the onset of COVID-19. It explains how you can access Sheep Connects specialised information while face-to-face workshops are paused.

AWI's Sam Arnfield gives you an insight into the annual get-together of the Sheep Connect New South Wales Producer Advisory Panel (PAP) in Sydney earlier this year. Chairman Rob Kelly and SCNSW manager Megan Roger discuss their strategic direction and priorities for the coming year as well as explaining some of their flagship workshops.

Click here to find out more - or register for upcoming workshops.

New England sheep producer Rob Kelly implemented containment feeding in his operation for the first time in 2019. This podcast is an account of his experience, which included lambing in the feedlot and importantly his perspective on the transition out of the lot. He is speaking with Dr. Fiona Macarthur via a Sheep Connect NSW Webinar recorded in early 2020.

For more information www.sheepconnectnsw.com.au