PROUD ADVOCATES FOR
THE PEOPLE PRODUCING THE
BEST LAMB IN THE WORLD
Sheep Producers Australia is the national peak body representing Australia's 20,000 sheepmeat producers.
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Our producers work hard, and we do too to enhance the productivity, profitability and sustainability of the sector.
We do this by:
advocating on behalf of producers with government and industry stakeholders
monitoring investment of producer levies
engaging with our members
consulting with industry and sharing important information and solutions
improving understanding of the key issues facing Australian sheep producers.
Priority issues we are working on include:
- Biosecurity preparedness and response
'Biosecurity' is the term given to protecting our economy, the environment and the
community from risks related to pests and diseases entering, emerging, establishing or
spreading.
In Australia, it is extremely important because:​
Biosecurity risks can affect animal health and productivity and damage the quality and reputation of our products with significant consequences for farmers and the industry.
The sustainability and profitability of Australia's sheep meat industry relies on our ability to export. Biosecurity allows us to preserve existing trade opportunities by ensuring we can continue providing safe, high-quality meat and show that we take biosecurity seriously by having strong, national systems in place.
An outbreak of foot and mouth disease has the potential to devastate Australia's livestock industries, costing $80bn (including more than $12bn in lost revenue for the sheep industry) and threatening businesses, jobs and the economy.
Australia has advanced surveillance systems, agreements and protocols in place to rapidly detect and respond to emergency animal disease incursions if needed, including the Emergency Animal Disease Response Agreement (EADRA) and AUSVETPLAN, which are administered by Animal Health Australia.
These set out government and industry obligations in the event of an outbreak and provide guidance on the management and control measures that may take place and define cost sharing arrangements and response arrangements.
SPA is a signatory and active participant, working with other sheep industry and government
bodies to ensure response plans are in place on a national scale and that there are sufficient
trained personnel for responding to an outbreak.
- National traceability
Australia has a world-leading livestock traceability system that ensures every sheep is traceable through the supply chain from birth to processing.
During their lives, animals often move between properties or through saleyards, agricultural shows, feedlots and processing facilities. Being able to rapidly trace these movements is critically important to:
Facilitate swift responses by government and industry in the event of emergency animal disease outbreaks
Maintain 'market access' which refers to Australia's ability to sell products to markets in Australia and overseas
Manage food safety and public health.
Australia's electronic identification (eID) system has a number of advantages. Livestock can be traced more quickly and accurately than using visual identification.
Producers have also been using eID for many years already to inform their decisions and increase productivity. It provides farmers with data and technology to better understand their flock, fine-tune practices and genetics, and trial innovations.
In the future, eID presents a significant opportunity to facilitate the flow of information from processor back to producers about the quality of their carcase, helping them make informed decisions about what's working well and where they can improve.​
​Resources to support the transition to national traceability.
- Sheep health and welfare
Australian farmers take pride in caring for their animals and work around the clock to ensure they have feed, water and shelter and are protected from predators and disease.
Keeping sheep healthy is critical to the sustainability of the industry and every farm, and it is the right thing to do. Healthy, happy sheep are more productive and more profitable too.
Good animal welfare is supported by knowledge and skilled management through the prevention of disease and injury, veterinary treatment, appropriate shelter, nutrition, and recognised Australian industry best practice with regard to handling, transport, processing and euthanasia.
Australia has stringent animal welfare standards and guidelines, and it is protected by law in Australia. The Australian Animal Welfare Standards and Guidelines were created to harmonise and streamline livestock welfare legislation across Australia. The standards form the basis for developing and implementing consistent legislation and enforcement in Australia.
In addition, the industry has been proactive in creating new programs and embedding frameworks to support the industry’s commitment to best practice animal health and welfare.
Under the Livestock Production Assurance program, accredited sheep producers are required to demonstrate that they have on-farm systems that ensure livestock are managed in accordance with the requirements of the Australian Animal Welfare Standards and Guidelines.
Sheep Producers Australia oversees the investment of industry levies in animal welfare research and extension programs with the aim of improving animal management, nutrition, health and welfare outcomes that are practical and effective for producers. This work provides tools and knowledge to help producers improve the wellbeing of the animals within their care and build community support for the sheep industry while increasing productivity too.
- Supporting Aussie exports
Given the limited size of the Australian market, the ongoing viability of sheep production in Australia relies heavily on exports and maintaining our ability to sell products to markets overseas – known as 'market access'.
Sheep and goat meat is Australia's 5th largest agricultural export by value at $4.7bn in 2022-23. This represents a significant, resilient and consistent contribution to our economy.
Lamb is recognised as being synonymous with Australia and associated with celebration and sustenance in countries and cultures all over the world, and the role our farmers play in helping feed the world is something to be truly proud of. We export as much as 70% of our lamb, over 90% of our mutton and our key export markets include the US, China, Korea, Malaysia, the Middle East and North Africa region. Australia is also the world's largest exporter of wool.
Australia's market access is interlinked with our strong reputation for providing high quality, safe and consistent products. This reputation, and trust, has been earned through:
our strong track record in animal health and food safety
our world-leading livestock traceability system
low residues and national testing
strict animal welfare practices
quality products
- Sustainability and climate
Farmers are passionate about the environment in which they raise their livestock. Farming relies on a healthy environment and farmers play an important role as environmental stewards. They also have a strong and vested interest in a low-emissions future because they work in the frontline of Australia's increasingly variable climate and are experiencing more extreme weather events.
At an industry level, stakeholder and customer expectations about Australia's environmental credentials and Australia's commitment to the Paris Agreement make sustainability and climate high priorities as well.
Meat and Livestock Australia’s investment into the Carbon Neutral by 2030 Roadmap aims to enable and empower the red meat industry to achieve the target, reduce operating emissions while maintaining productivity gains.
In support of this, the Australian sheep industry is committed to positive environmental outcomes, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Our industry recognises the need for a collaborative and coordinated approach with government, our broader supply chain and customers to meet this goal.
Emissions from the sheep have been in significant decline for the last 15 years and the industry is on track to achieve the government's 43% emission reduction target by 2030.
Research published in 2020 by the CSIRO showed that Australia's sheep meat sector, despite having increased production in the preceding 30 years, was ‘climate neutral’. Meaning that it didn't contribute to further climate change.
A key challenge is that around 80% of emissions produced by the livestock sector are attributed to enteric methane emitted from sheep and there is currently no single solution to significantly address this. Current research into methane reduction initiatives spans genetics, forages and feed supplements to reduce methane emissions.
Sustainability is not just about climate and the environment. Sheep Producers Australia and WoolProducers Australia consulted extensively with industry and launched the The Sheep Sustainability Framework in April 2021 which defines sustainable sheep production in Australia, prioritises industry issues and measures industry performance against relevant indicators to:
demonstrate sustainable practices
identify areas of improvement, and
better communicate these with stakeholders and consumers via an annual report.
- Research and development
Research and development is vital to the ongoing profitability, sustainability and success of the Australian sheepmeat industry.
We are fortunate in Australia that there is an ongoing commitment to invest in research and development, funded by the levies sheep producers pay , which are matched by the Australian government. Approximately $30-$40M are spent on research and development every year.
Research and development priorities are identified via a ten-year industry plan for the red meat sector, currently RedMeat2030. Research and development program areas include animal health and welfare, environmental sustainability, livestock production, land management, biosecurity and product innovation.
Genetics and animal husbandry have a particular focus due to their potential to increase industry productivity and profitability, for example by encouraging traits that make sheep more resilient to health and disease issues and improving reproduction and lamb survival rates.
Sheep Producers Australia:
oversees levy investment on behalf of sheep producers and advises the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry on the levy rate and its distribution.
contributes to the development of a ten-year industry plan and works with MLA to refine their annual research and development implementation plan
monitors the spending of producer levies, ensuring all R&D investments are aligned and deliver the greatest return possible for sheep producers.
Everything you need to know about traceability (eID's):
Select the state or territory that you operate in, or your industry, to access information specific to that choice. While the traceability system is being nationally implemented, there may be slight differences between locations in the implementation timelines and legislation.
Your Industry
This information has been collated by The Sheep and Goat Traceability Task Force (SGTTF) - a collaboration of all states and territories and sheep and goat peak industry representative bodies, working together to oversee the implementation of mandatory individual NLIS electronic identification in sheep and goats.