About 50 sheep producers attended wool and sheepmeat marketing forums in south-east and southern inland Queensland last week to hear top-level speakers discuss sheepmeat and wool marketing opportunities.

The forums were organised by Leading Sheep, which is an innovative grassroots project that is bringing new technologies, information and skills to Queensland producers with the aim of increasing the profitability and productivity of the industry.

The Leading Sheep project is an Australian Wool Innovation Limited initiative in partnership with the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries and supported by AgForce.

Successful wool marketer, Eric Hutchinson from Roberts Ltd in Tasmania, told producers at the Goondiwindi (November 17) and St George (November 18) forums about opportunities to market the Queensland clip in the same way Tasmanian wool is being marketed as a “brand”.

Mr Hutchinson said industry needed to establish a brand identity that could be marketed to retailers with a justifiable value proposition and then actively manage the supply chain route.

He said the wool auction system served as a clearing house at the lowest possible price and the wool chain served as a transactional pipeline unless owners of the wool took control.

“Producers can hold ownership of wool further down the pipeline if they source volumes of wool then secure orders for garments or tops to get the ball rolling,” Mr Hutchinson said.

At the Goondiwindi forum, Sam Gill from Sheep Genetics Australia discussed selecting Merinos for wool and meat traits and having a breeding objective consistent with market demand.

Mr Gill said that genetic effects are cumulative and the investment is permanent, but the genetic potential of sheep flocks is maximised by producers successfully managing the feed and husbandry required to bring out the best in them.

Department of Queensland Primary Industries and Fisheries senior extension officer Lloyd Dunlop told St George producers that despite perceptions to the contrary, sheep have consistently outperformed cattle in gross margin terms in recent years.

Mr Dunlop said all sheep enterprises from prime lambs to pure Merinos and new breeds have routinely generated better gross margins per dry sheep equivalent (DSE) than cattle.

For details, contact Lloyd Dunlop on 07 4671 6708 or Lloyd.Dunlop@dpi.qld.gov.au