In this webinar we were joined by AWEX registrar Fiona Raleigh, who discussed the best way to class fire affected wool clips. 

AWI has reproduced with permission some valuable information regarding caring for livestock following bushfires. Whilst caring for livestock and other animals before and after a bushfire is essential, personal safety should be considered as a first priority on all occasions. Be sure to get your Bushfire Survival Plan up to date and to hand. 

GD3624_BTB_81_Dec_2019_one_page_onfarm_Bushfire_i.pdf

This webinar held on 13th September 2019, covered all aspects of managing livestock water during drought. Covering topics such as:

• conducting a water audit, 
• livestock water requirements, 
• water quality, 
• managing limited water supply, 
• water cartage and more. 

Delivered by Alastair Rayner, this webinar provides practical information to assist in managing the precious resource during times of drought. 

awi-stock-water.pdf

Delivered in March 2019, by Geoff Duddy, this webinar discusses all the need to know information that relates to feeding sheep in a containment area. Full of practical information, and tips to ensure that your sheep thrive, and you are conducting the exercise in a way that will assist you maintain your sheep in tip top order, and minimise avoidable issues that may arise. 

In this webinar, held in April 2019, Megan Rogers discusses the essential points of using the AWI feed budget tables to work our what your sheep feeding requirements are. By preparing and using a feed budget, you are able to accurately provide your sheep with the correct amount of feed to meet their daily requirements. Feed budgets also allow you to plan ahead, to ensure that you have sufficient feed on hand to meet the requirements of your sheep for a planned period of time. 

In this webinar, held in September 2017, District Veterinarian, Dr Jillian Kelly discusses some of the more prevalent animal health considerations to be on the look out for when grazing failed crops. 

In this webinar, held in September 2018, and presented by John Piltz of NSW DPI, we hear about all the must do points as well as what to avoid in terms of salvaging crops that are not going to make it through to harvest. 
This webinar will be well accompanied by our webinar on animal health considerations for failing crops, along with the webinar on understanding feed test results, and feed budgeting. 

In this webinar, Geoff summarises some key points for confinement feeding, as well as answers questions submitted by attendees. Covering items such as trough vs self feeders, feeding interval, mob size, a wide range of issues covered. 

In this webinar, we are joined by Brett Littler and Megan Rogers who discuss key points relating to early weaning. Also included is a brief presentation with key points for early weaning lambs - be sure to obtain SPECIFIC ADVICE FOR YOUR OWN SITUATION - before undertaking early weaning. 

Early_weaning_-_presentation.pdf

Alastair Rayner of RaynerAg discusses the importance of and how to ensure you are making sound decisions regarding your livestock during drought. The webinar covers basics of feeding, and importantly, Alastair points out where he sees under or over estimations, and wastage in feeding taking place. 
During the webinar, Alastair discusses where he sees opportunities to do things well, and the importance of writing down plans, and reviewing them regularly. 
For people who are feeding scrub (or considering it) there is a very useful component on scrub feeding. 

In this webinar,  we were joined by the Bureau of Meterorolgy's Alister Hawksford, Leader of Beef, Sheep and Ag Insurance. Alister discussed the current seasonal outlook, as well as how to utilise the BOM's tools that can be customised to your farm, helping you make decisions at the local level using the latest information. There are some excellent tools available to use that can give you forecasts to your actual location! 

Ovine Brucellosis guru Dr John Plant discusses all you need to know about Ovine Brucellosis, signs, symptoms and how to eradicate if from your flock. 

In this webinar, David Brown of Holmes Sackett discusses the processes to assist with taking the guess work out of how to value your sheep, now, and at the end of a feed period. The aim of this webinar is to illustrate where costs and income needs to be taken into consideration, to enable perform an analyisis on where the best value for feeding exists in their own business. 
As with any such advice, Sheep Connect NSW recommends that you seek specific advice from your trusted advisor, and that the information contained in this webinar is for general information purposes, and is based on scenarios for illustrative and educational purposes. 

2013_which_sheep_do__i_keep_lr1.pdf

Geoff Duddy presented an informative and practical webinar all about 'funny feeds' - and what to look out for when considering feeding by products, and other unusual feedstuffs to your livestock. 

Funny_Feeds_handout.pdf

NSW DPI's Development Officer, Sheep Geoff Casburn joins us to discuss how to prepare for and manage in dry conditions. Excellent content about feed cost calculator, as well as reminders to look after yourself and be on the look out for your neighbours. 

Renowned livestock nutrition consultant San Jolly joined us to discuss how to get the best performance from your feeding decisions in pastoral areas. San is a well respected livestock nutrition consultant who specialises in pastoral production. 
San discusses how to ensure your feeding decisions are making productive results in a cost effective manner. Includes discussion on unusual feeds often used during dry times.  

In this webinar, we hear from John Piltz, NSW DPI Research Officer, who gives us a full run down on what to look for when you get your feed test results back from the lab. How to go about ensuring that you are feeding a source of feed that will meet the demands of the class of livestock you are feeding, with the desired outcome. Choosing a feed source is important in ensuring that you get the desired result from your livestock and avoid costly mistakes.  

Rams are a valuable investment in the future of your flock - they are carrying genetics to improve your sheep's perfornance in accordance with your breeding objective. Management of your ram team plays an important role in achieving the maximum number of progeny from your rams. In this webinar, Dr Matt Playford, of Dawbuts explains all the 'must do's' for a successful tour of duty for your rams this joining season. Be sure to check out Matts advice well in advance of putting your rams out for joining, to avoid any mishaps. 

Brett Littler, Central Tablelands LLS, and Megan Rogers, Sheep Connect NSW discuss the must do's and key points for consideration when making a decision regarding possible early weaning of lambs or calves. There is much cross over in the key points relating to lambs or calves, and the speakers each cover the specifics of both lambs and calves. 

Early_weaning_lambs_and_calves_-_key_points_for_a_successful_outcome.mp4

This webinar presented by San Jolly, Productive Nutrition, Kapunda, SA covers important information about the importance of feed testing, how to interpret feed test results to ensure that you are providing your livestock with the most cost effective feed source that will meet your livestock needs. With transport costs significant in pastoral areas, knowing and understanding this, along with the quality of whats in the paddock can make all the difference when providing supplementary feeds to livestock.

Ram selling season arrives and with it comes a myriad of information to brush up on, so that the best buying decisions are made on the day. Sheep Connect NSW have compiled all the information and resources on the topic to make them easy to access. Click on the link to read our special edition newsletter.

Geoff Duddy's presentation on confinement feeding of sheep. Hear from Geoff regarding the must do's and what to avoid when setting up and executing a confinement feeding facility on your farm. 

On 9th December 2016 Sheep Connect NSW hosted a webinar on footrot, with the purpose of updating participants on the state of play in all matters associated with the disease. This webinar will bring you up to date on all the need to know information relating to this significant disease. 

Wet and drying breeding ewes at lamb marking is a practical, low cost and extremely effective tool that can help lift the long term reproductive performance of the breeding flock. it is a well known fact that rearing ability is a learned behavioural characteristic, and that identifying those ewes in the flock who fail to rear, and managing them out of the replacement breeder flock can help lift both the actual numbers but also improve the consistency of Net reproduction rate (NRR) over time with appropriate management.
This video by Dr Gordon Refshauge, NSW DPI Cowra demonstrates the technique of wet and dry to establish which breeding ewes have failed to rear a lamb. 

sheep-udder-assessment-at-lamb-marking.pdf

In this YouTube video, Allan Casey (Sheep Breeding Specialist) demonstrates how to perform a physical examination of rams. In all breeding flocks there are rams that are poor performers, either with physical abnormalities likely to interfere with semen quality or serving ability, or with poor libido. These rams must be identified and removed so that ewes have the best chance of conceiving to service in their first oestrus, thus shortening the lambing period and aiding management at lambing and at marking. The prevalence of physical abnormalities, particularly abnormalities of the testis, epididymis and penis, increases with age. All rams should be checked when determining replacement requirements and again before joining. All rams should be physically examined before purchase.

Crops Rumps and Woolly Jumpers was an innovative forum, hosted by Sheep Connect NSW and the EH Graham Centre, highlighting the different enterprises in mixed farming. The forum was structured in two halves. The morning session was built around the telling of six farmer business stories involving a short video and audience discussion. A facilitated session at the completion of the morning session drew out key themes from these stories. The afternoon session included four sessions with presentations and activities addressing decision making, trends and challenges in agricultural production; what makes success in mixed farming; analysing cost benefits of change (partial budgeting exercise) and deal or no deal (risk assessment exercise). Go to the playlist to see 19 videos showing footage from the forum and farmer video stories.