Stuart Barkla believes this is an exciting time to be in the sheep industry and he is fully optimistic about the pastoral future on Rosscoe Downs, 150km south-east of Cunnamulla.

Recent advances in technology offer huge potential to make productivity gains from sheep that in turn improve profitability and Stuart outlined some of these advances recently at a Leading Sheep forum in St George.

"Six years ago we were not viable because our lamb markings were down to 60 percent, but we’ve boosted that to 122 percent by getting predators under control and improving the quality of our flock," Stuart said.

To control predators, Stuart undertakes a comprehensive 1080 baiting program before and after lambing (with help from a National Heritage Trust grant). Then to improve the flock, he uses ultrasound to pregnancy test all ewes and cull the infertile ones.

With these actions and innovations, Stuart is proud to report that Rosscoe Downs now achieves up to 96 percent conception rates.

In the lead up to lambing, Stuart works through a set strategy that involves feeding the rams six weeks before joining, vaccinating with 6 in 1 and injecting with Vitamin AD3&E. Future strategies include the use of electronic tagging and an auto-sheep drafter to obtain the best selection of ewes.

"We’ve found that in our area the best time to join is the end of February or early March so we have made huge gains by investing time and effort in closely managing and monitoring our productivity."

Stuart recently introduced South African Meat Merino (SAMM) genetics with the objective of moving towards meat sheep while still seeking a woolclip from his 4000 ewes.

"We joined our first lot of ewes to SAMM rams last year as an experimental exercise and found the breed does exceptionally well in our black salad bowl country."

"The SAMM genetics leave all your options open and having a dual-purpose enterprise stacks up well against all others."

Stuart said the SAMM breed suited both the domestic (18-22kg) and the export (above 23kg) trade.

"Our first lambing was 124 percent and we’ve averaged 122.8 percent this year and joined everything to SAMMs."

Although Stuart undertakes opportunity lot-feeding and finishes lambs in a small paddock situation, he is hoping the SAMM genetics will enable the lambs to be finished on natural pasture.

As an innovative producer, Stuart has also dabbled in value-adding and for four years produced Rosscoe Meat Pies, which were made by contract bakeries and sold via 35 outlets throughout Queensland.

"These pies were made from better quality meat than your average pie, but the difficulty was maintaining a consistent quality product."

Stuart and his wife Pru began the pie venture in 2000 and at the time were turning $20 hoggets into an $80 return. But as the prices for hoggets became more attractive, they decided the additional work required in the pie business was not worthwhile.

The pie business therefore went on hold in early 2004 and part of the learning was the need to put a gourmet premium price on a quality product.

Just as he is continually innovating in the way he runs his sheep and his country, Stuart is not ruling out a resurrection of Rosscoe Meat Pies and launching a new gourmet sheepmeat brand, Salad Bowl Country Meats.

Stuart has participated in three recent Leading Sheep sessions – the nutrition day in October, the St George Profiting from Sheep day last month and two climatology teleconference workshops.

Leading Sheep is an initiative of Australian Wool Innovation Limited in partnership with the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries and supported by AgForce, which targets the adoption of new technologies and practices to increase the productivity and profitability of the Queensland sheep and wool industry.

For more information on Leading Sheep activities, contact Geoff Knights on geoff.knights@dpi.qld.gov.au or call 07 4620 8121.