Development of a WA Sheep Industry Colla

Summary

​This project was commissioned by the Sheep Alliance of WA (SAWA), an organisation of 50 members from across the WA sheep supply chain, whose members had identified a need to provide an independent and detailed business prospectus for investment in a WA sheep industry integrated RD&E program.

They warranted that the work should build on the red meat priorities identified by WALRC and provide a cost benefit analysis for a set of proposed activities that are specific to advancing the performance of the WA sheep industry businesses and where the investment in such would fill an identified research/extension gap and opportunity.  It was requested that a central theme to the prospectus would be the opportunities to gain through collaboration.

The prospectus was researched and developed by a team of four independent consultants led by Dr Alex Ball of Rural Analytics, whose mandate was to develop a culture of broad consultation and engagement in order to optimise the collaborative effort and capability of the prospectus to be funded.

The prospectus has been completed and accepted by the SAWA directors and funders. It identified four key themes and included a set of four recommendations and two imperatives that need to be progressed by the WA RD&E community together with industry.