The new on-farm technology activity for the Sheep Industry Business Innovation project featured several case studies on sheep farmers who had successfully adopted technology, notably labor-saving devices, into their sheep business. The producers who had raised or maintained the number of their flock of sheep and were actually saving money on labor were the ones who were targeted.

Agricultural labor is a significant barrier to expanding the flock of sheep in West Aᴜsᴛʀᴀʟɪᴀ. Despite the availability of several labor-saving tools and technological systems, information about how to incorporate these into a sheep enterprise and which tools are best for specific sheep enterprises is still required. On the right, you may access particular case studies.

After considering the benefits of each technology, an adequate payback period should be determined before investing in any new technologies. It’s important to consider extra benefits, albeit they can be difficult to measure, such as “peace of mind” and “reduction in error.”

In order to increase productivity and efficiency while also increasing the number of sheep runs per worker, sheep farmers can integrate the five critical technologies listed below into their flocks.

Producers can find it promising to combine sheep and cattle on the same farm in order to deal with uncertainties and produce in an agroecological ᴍᴀɴner. The benefits of mixed-species grazing on ɢʀᴀssland utilization and animal health have been shown by prior studies. However, there aren’t ᴍᴀɴy studies that examine how and why farmers really ᴍᴀɴage the two species on their farms. In order to better understand this issue, a survey of 37 farmers who produced dairy, beef, or ᴍᴇᴀᴛ sheep on their farms was conducted.

By considering all system components that are impacted by mixing species as well as the viewpoints of the farmers, we choose to adopt a systematic and thorough approach to how mixed-species livestock farming systems (MSLF) operate. The benefits of species mixing for ensuring economic stability and making the greatest use of ɢʀᴀssland resources were noticed by farmers.

Although farmers frequently cited a burdensome workload as a The truth is less clear because combining species also makes work easier, despite the fact that farmers frequently listed a heavy workload as a disadvantage. Farmer responders spoke highly of organizational independence and the delight of the variety of jobs. We found four possible combinations of sheep and cattle on pasture, each of which shows a different degree of interaction between the two species and is influenced by the field layout and cow production. One option to combine the two species in terms of work organization is to distribute among workers the labor required for each species throughout the course of the year.

Each species’ work is primarily organized in one of three ways, depending on the availability of labor, the intended use of resources, and the numerous ways in which animal production cycles are structured. Farmers used coexistence-related mechanisms to adapt their farms to climatic, financial, and workforce-related issues. These mechanisms included changing the ewe/cow ratio, breeding cycles, labor versatility, grazing ᴍᴀɴagement, and resource allocation across species.

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Video resource: Machinery Magazine