Updated workshops kick off this year
On the back of a decade of success, MLA's BredWell FedWell (BWFW) workshops are relaunching this year to reflect evolving best practice genetics and nutrition management.
The workshop program has undergone an in-depth review by the Schuster Consulting Group, Dubbo, to ensure BWFW continues to meet the needs of producers wanting to increase the welfare, productivity and profitability of their herds and flocks through improved genetics and nutrition.
The review included input from a panel of industry experts, who provided advice in areas ranging from practical breeding and nutrition strategies, cattle and sheep production in northern and southern regions, as well as approaches to capability building and adult learning.
The revised program developed through the review process has been refined after piloting, and will be rolled out nationally via a network of trained and accredited deliverers.
The workshop is designed for a range of sheep production systems, as well as northern and southern beef.
New content
Peter Schuster of Schuster Consulting Group said producers can access the latest information at the new workshops.
"The extension and adoption field has changed significantly since BredWell FedWell was first launched, with more information and tools such as Flock Profiling and new indexes now available to help producers apply the outcomes of genetics and nutrition research," Peter said.
"We've focused on integrating these tools into a new format that balances genetics and nutrition decision-making across the whole livestock production cycle, with a specific focus on an individual's profit drivers.
"The new format is designed to help producers increase their productivity and profitability through improving genetics and nutrition."
What to expect
Building on the workshop's first iteration, participants will come away with skills to help them develop a customised breeding objective aligned to their profit drivers, identify sires, and select and feed animals that help meet their objective.
The new highly graphical, easy to follow one-day workshop will continue to be delivered on-farm and is intended to drive practice change, as well as whet participants' appetites for further learning.
Producers will gain fresh knowledge about the latest research and management strategies in the field and will apply this knowledge through guided learning that includes practical exercises.
The structure of the workshop will utilise the BWFW breeding and feeding production cycle – see diagrams – which covers pre-joining and joining, pregnancy, calving/lambing, weaning and beyond, and selection. Each 'wedge' in the cycle represents a major decision point in a producer's commercial enterprise, where consideration of both breeding (genetics) and feeding (nutrition) is required.
Workshops aim to improve the knowledge and skills of producers so they can:
- develop a customised breeding objective for a livestock enterprise aligned to its profit drivers
- identify sires and select animals that help meet enterprise objectives
- feed animals well to achieve objectives and maximise genetic investment.
More than 140 predominantly MLA-supported resources, research papers, tools and reports have informed the refreshed BWFW workshops, with the focus being on delivering implementable research outcomes to participants.
