Mr Newell said this strategy was a key focus of recent Leading Sheep workshops attended by 40 south-west Queensland producers. The workshops were jointly run with the Australian Wool Network in response to producer demand for information about sheep nutrition for maintenance and production targets.

“By taking the sheep out of the paddocks during drought, the grazing pressure is removed and land degradation is minimised which speeds up the recovery process when the rains return,” Mr Newell said.

“The sheep can also be fed more efficiently in pens and their health can be monitored more closely, which means fewer losses.”

The workshops were held at “Baynham”, Mitchell, and “Kahmoo”, Cunnamulla, with the keynote speaker being sheep feedlot expert Geoff Duddy from the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries.

Topics covered were sheep feedlot-related legislation, feedlot site setup, feed troughs versus ad lib access to feed bin rations, watering systems, water quality, feed rations, and the nutritional requirements for optimal wool growth.

Mr Duddy used a Feedlot Calculator tool that he developed for the Sheep CRC to demonstrate how carefully every sheep feedlot venture needed to be budgeted for, because the margins were often tight.

Awareness of the tight margins was very important for western Queensland sheep producers who might be looking at on-farm opportunity feedlot finishing of lambs, Mr Newell said.

“With our distance from grain storage centres and from sheep processing works, the freight cost component of the exercise is often prohibitive,” Mr Newell said.

He said sheep feedlots might play a role in the following western Queensland situations: