DUBBO will host four consecutive days of important sheep breeding business in March next year, when it hosts the Sheep CRC’s final conference and the Sheep Genetics Leading Breeder Forum.

The final Sheep CRC conference on March 19-20 in the east-central New South Wales city is being promoted as the last chance to tap into the minds of the Sheep CRC’s research team about new and innovative ways to improve sheep businesses before the CRC closes on 30 June 2019.

The Sheep Genetics bi-annual Leading Breeder Forum will be held immediately after the Sheep CRC conference in Dubbo at the DRTCC on March 20-21.

The Cooperative Research Centre for Sheep Industry Innovation (Sheep CRC) was established in 2001 and after two extensions to its research agenda in 2007 and 2014, its final suite of projects will come to an end in mid-2019.

Sheep CRC chief executive officer James Rowe said after 18 years, the conference marks the final public event of the Sheep CRC before it ceases operations.

“I urge producers and industry participants not to miss this opportunity to celebrate the innovation, impact and transformational technologies the Sheep CRC has delivered with its collaborators and industry supporters.”

The conference will feature presentations on the full gamut of major R&D activities that have taken place since 2001, and will include talks from researchers, producers and industry leaders, as well as a trade display with hands-on support to assist in adopting new and innovative tools to improve sheep businesses.

“Taking a longer term perspective will provide important insights on the transformation that we have all been part of and the implications for future development of this forward looking industry,” Prof. Rowe said.

Leading Breeder Forum’s focus is on the future

The Sheep Genetics Leading Breeder Forum is separate to the Sheep CRC conference, but will immediately follow the event on the afternoon of March 20. Both events are being held at the Dubbo Regional Theatre and Convention Centre.

The two-day Sheep Genetics Leading Breeder Forum is targeted at leading seedstock breeders and service providers from across the sheep industry and explores exciting updates from the breadth of industry that these breeders can then take and implement into their breeding programs

The theme of the forum is breeding sheep for the future environment and is broken into four key sessions:

• 1. What does the future hold for the sheep industry and breeding programs
• 2. Breeding within an integrated supply chain
• 3. Welfare and reproduction – breeding for productivity and social licence
• 4. Creating opportunities through genetics

The forum’s presenters will include researchers from within and across industries, project leaders, and leading breeders.

On the evening of 20 March a dinner where the 30th Anniversary of LAMBPLAN and 21st Anniversary of a Merino Evaluation will be celebrated.

Sheep CRC conference registration is $100 (plus GST) and includes catering. Program information and registration is available at www.sheepcrc.org.au

Registrations for the Leading Breeder forum will open shortly and places can be booked via the Sheep Genetics web site http://www.sheepgenetics.org.au

Sources: Sheep CRC, Sheep Genetics.