Sheep producers happier than average Australian as industry value grows

Published Aug 7, 2024

Tridge summary

The Sheep Sustainability Framework's annual report reveals a notable increase in the gross value of sheepmeat and greasy wool production, reaching $7.7 billion, which is an 8.9% rise from the previous year. The percentage of non-mulesed wool declares has also seen an upward trend, with Merino wool at 18.6% and non-Merino wool at 47.1%. The use of pain management during animal husbandry procedures has mostly improved, with over 89.7% of Merinos and 96.2% of non-Merinos receiving appropriate pain management during mulesing in 2023. Additionally, the report highlights that Australian sheep producers' life satisfaction is slightly above the average for the country, with 76.1% scoring on the Global Life Satisfaction Index. The industry is actively working to improve transparency and sustainability, with a growing number of producers implementing carbon accounting and biodiversity measurement practices. Despite these advancements, the industry faces challenges such as access to labor, with 42% of producers reporting issues with finding general labor and 35.3% struggling to secure shearers. A new digital dashboard on the SSF's website aims to address these challenges by providing interactive data on the industry's sustainability efforts.
Disclaimer: The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

The gross value of sheepmeat and greasy wool production is up, the amount of non-mulesed wool being declared is on the rise and sheep producers are more satisfied with their lives than the average Australian. That's according to the newly released annual report for the Sheep Sustainability Framework, which has captured the largest range of data to data on the sustainability performance of Australia's sheepmeat and wool sector. The report, which is being released at LambEx in Adelaide on Wednesday, showed that the gross value of the Australian sheepmeat and greasy wool production rose 8.9 per cent in a year to $7.7 billion. Another key takeaway is that the percentage of wool declared as non-mulesed has increased to 18.6 per cent for Merino from 15.8pc and 47.1pc for non-Merino from 40.1pc. Meanwhile the use of pain management for animal husbandry procedures has mostly continued to improve with the latest National Producer Survey showing that 89.7pc of Merinos and 96.2pc of ...
Source: Farmweekly
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