Leading Sheep Final Report

Abstract

Leading Sheep is a producer-driven network designed to assist Queensland’s sheep and wool producers improve their productivity and profitability through the delivery of timely and relevant information and events. It is an important partnership between Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) and the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) and is supported by AgForce. This fourth phase of Leading Sheep (2015-2018) has focused on pest animal management, health/nutrition, business performance, beneficial technologies and opportunities for young industry members.
Leading Sheep has 1962 people on its database and reaches approximately three quarters of Queensland’s sheep businesses, managing 1.8 million sheep (85% sheep in Queensland, ABS 2016-17). Leading Sheep has delivered 48 events to 2012 participants, 33 of these events were face-to-face (1579 participants) and 15 webinars (433 participants). The success of Leading Sheep and value provided to industry is clearly demonstrated by:
• an increase in membership of 457 people
• the diverse audience, 36% of members are female and 20% under the age of 40 years
• participants rating events highly for satisfaction (8.5/10) and value to their business (8.1/10)
• 96% of event participants learnt something new and 63% intend on making a change to their business
• a follow-up phone survey showing that 64% of participants have made a practice change and Leading Sheep was rated as around ‘half’ (5.2/10) of the influence on these changes.
A number of new initiatives were trialled, including a sheep and wool challenge and a mentoring program. Despite there being definite benefits for the few participants, these initiatives detracted time, effort and resources away from Leading Sheep’s strength of delivering timely and relevant events. Emphasis was also placed on promoting opportunities and resources to school children through the Leading Sheep network, but it is questionable whether this is the right network to reach the intended target audience.
Communication and promotion continues to be vital for Leading Sheep and a variety of methods were used including: media releases, ‘FlockTalk’, the Leading Sheep website, emails to the network, ‘Around the Camp’, short YouTube videos and Leading Sheep Facebook page. There are 1603 subscribers to Leading Sheep emails with an average read rate of 34% and a rating of 7.3/10. While the Leading Sheep Facebook page has 819 likes.
The following key recommendations are suggested as a result of this phase of Leading Sheep:
• continue to plan and deliver events, both face-to-face and webinars, that promote relevant information and encourage practice change. Consider recording key presentations from face-to-face events. Plan and record webinars as short segments (less than 5 minutes 30 seconds) to improve access and viewing time
• for any new initiatives, consider the impact on staff time, resources and other key Leading Sheep activities
• keep using a variety of communication methods throughout Leading Sheep. A specific focus should be on increasing awareness of and usage of the Leading Sheep website and Facebook page. Ease of compilation and readability of ‘Around the Camp’ needs to be improved. More short YouTube videos (less than 4-5 minutes) should also be considered.