| The regional focus built into the Leading Sheep project means each committee can determine the direction it takes in fostering a more profitable and productive Queensland sheep and wool industry through new technologies, knowledge and skills.
At a recent meeting, the south-east regional committee reflected on its activities to date and decided to emphasise personal capacity building, human development and change management skills during the next phase of the project.
The Leading Sheep project brings together key stakeholders in the Queensland sheep and wool industry – Australian Wool Innovation, the Department of Primary Industries and AgForce – and operates in four Queensland regions including the central west, the south west, the southern inland and the south-east.
Leading Sheep regional coordinator Ian Perkins said the south-east regional committee has decided that the delivery of technical information is not enough and it wants more emphasis on achieving changes within the industry, and believes this requires an emphasis on group work in addition to dissemination of information.
During the second half of 2005, the south-east group held several nutrition workshops and a wool and sheep meat marketing day that was particularly well attended.
"Members of the group feel that information days just aren’t enough and that woolgrowers in a public meeting find it difficult to disclose a lot of details and work together to achieve an outcome," Mr Perkins said.
"Therefore, our plans for next year include looking at options for facilitation training and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality training which will help the group understand how different people are in the way they react and interact."
Other workshops being investigated for the south-east in 2006 are more on marketing, feedlotting, organic production and certification, and facilitator training.
Leading Sheep has a three-year budget of $2.4 million that includes $1 million funding from AWI and $1.4 million in-kind support from DPI&F and AgForce.
The outcomes of the project will be achieved through changing producers’ knowledge, attitudes, skills and aspirations through the development and delivery of regional activities which are identified by the coordinating groups.
For more information on the south-east regional group, contact either coordinator Ian Perkins on (07) 4681 3668 or email lpmian@halenet.com.au, or Department of Primary Industries sheep extension officer Lloyd Dunlop on (07) 4671 6708 or Lloyd.Dunlop@dpi.qld.gov.au. | 
