He also told delegates that the WA sheep population had more than halved in the past 20 years. In 1994 WA had more than 32 million sheep – by 2014 sheep numbers had fallen to an all-time low of 14.2m.
Robert said there were many factors contributing to the decline – sheep had onerous management compared to crop-based alternatives, there had been a loss of farmer confidence because of the unpredictable and volatile prices for lamb and wool, along with disjointed supply chains and poor communication systems.
He said the WA sheep industry would become unsustainable if sheep numbers fell to less than 14m.
“If sheep numbers decline further, it will impact on the viability and future investment in WA’s sheep industry.”
The gross value of annual production (GVAP) per head in 1993-94 was A$45 for sheep meat and A$35 for wool.
In 2014 the GVAP per head for sheep meat had increased to A$60 (up 71%) while the GVAP for wool remained the same – that was despite breeding for better-quality wool and increased cut per head.
The increase in total GVAP for sheep meat had come from a change in flock composition – there were now more breeding ewes as well as more lambs with higher carcaseweights.
Egerton-Warburton said the average lambing percentage for WA was only 78%. The benefit from a 2% increase in lambing percentage would be another 200,000 lambs a year.
The reality was that while the cost of production had gone up, total GVAP from sheep for WA had dropped A$650m – from A$1.6 billion in 1993-94 to A$950m in 2014. The drop in GVAP was not just a reflection of supply versus demand. To halt the decline in sheep numbers there had to be a radical change in the way WA sheep farmers thought, he said.
“They need to take ownership of their sheep industry and stop waiting for someone else to fix it.”
History showed that sheep breeders had either specialised in producing sheep for wool or meat. To increase profitability, Egerton-Warburton said WA farmers needed to focus on producing and farming sheep that were best-suited to their farming environment.
“There is no such thing as a meat sheep and there is no such thing as a wool sheep. They are both the same animal. Wool needs meat and meat needs wool and they now need each other more than ever.”
He also said the lamb industry needed wool because data analysis from seven years of research on the “sheep-information nucleus flock” showed the top 100 sires for meat-eating quality were Merinos.
“The research clearly shows Merinos are the best-eating sheep in Australia. That’s because Merinos have not been endlessly bred for lean meat yield and muscle at the expense of intramuscular fat.”
The Egerton-Warburton family’s wild flower business complements the farm’s grain crops by providing natural pest control.
Embracing diversity
In 2010 Robert Egerton-Warburton became a Nuffield scholar, with Grains Research & Development Corp sponsoring his research. He travelled to Ireland, England, North America, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina and met with farmers, business leaders, politicians and researchers studying farming practices for integrated livestock-cropping systems.
Robert said his key finding was that as the diversity of farming enterprises increases within and between farms, so does the opportunities. The benefits he identified from embracing diversity were more profitable farms, and rural communities that were more sustainable.
