Critics say a strategy designed to unite the sheep and wool industry falls far short of what was originally promised.

The Future Flock, which received an $800,000 Federal Government grant, was designed to guide the sheepmeat and wool sector through change and set a profitable, resilient direction for decades to come.

The strategy was set to be formally released by Sheep Producers Australia chief executive Bonnie Skinner at LambEx 2026 in Adelaide on Wednesday, July 8, and detail the key strategic issues of mutual and enduring importance to the wool and sheepmeat industries.

Instead a 28-page consultation document was released which expended the full grant funds.

WAFarmers chief executive Trevor Whittington said he questioned whether the report existed to cover the fact that SPA had missed its own deadline to launch.

“If a strategic plan can’t meet its first milestone, it doesn’t inspire confidence in delivering the next 10 years,” he said.

Sheep producers will have to wait at least another six to 12 months before they see a Future Flock Strategy, with SPA confirming it will fund the next phase of development.

“Reading between the lines, I suspect the final strategy, whenever it eventually arrives, will still leave one of the most important questions unanswered: who pays?” Mr Whittington said.

“Experience suggests it won’t be long before someone is waving the document around arguing for another slice of the lamb cheque or another cut of the wool cheque to finance the journey.

“Grand visions, after all, rarely graze for free.”

Mr Whittington queried whether the language in the report would resonate with growers.

“I’ve never heard a grazier say, ‘what this place really needs is greater alignment with a shared direction’,” he said.

“Let’s hope that one gets cut out before the final strategy is released.”

Agora Livestock head of markets Dean Hubbard said the report was nothing more than an overview.

“It’s a good overview, but that’s all it was,” he said.

“They’ve been paid a lot of money to do this, you’d like to think it would include where would we like to get to with some measurable parameters around it . . . there’s a lot there that hasn’t been said.”

Mr Hubbard said knowing how many sheep was in the flock was irrelevant and a “waste of time”.

“You can’t measure what someone’s opinion is . . . what we’re processing, what we’re exporting, that’s relevant and that’s measurable,” he said.

SPA put the strategy through a six-month consultation period, where more than 300 people within the Australian sheep industry had the opportunity to contribute through regional workshops, national interviews and national surveys.

Ms Skinner said while perspectives varied, there was remarkable consistency in the issues and opportunities people identified which helped form a series of strategic imperatives in the report.

“The next phase is to work with industry to test, refine and prioritise these findings, identify where coordinated action will have the greatest impact, and develop practical implementation pathways,” she said.

“We will continue to share findings as they develop, as we have done via the Future Flock website, newsletters and webinars.”

Ms Skinner said SPA’s commitment was to align LambEx with a key milestone within the Future Flock.

“What we delivered was a quality summation of the consultation process, key imperatives identified and a clear direction of what success looks like, while respecting the clear message across consultation that we shouldn’t compromise the quality of the Future Flock just to meet a deadline.”

Ms Skinner said the report was well received, from grassroots producers through to supply chain representatives and the broader sheep industry.

“There’s excitement around the next stages of consultation and refinement,” she said.

But WoolProducers Australia doubled down on its refusal to back the strategy.

WPA chief executive Jo Hall said while adaptive strategies had merit, this represented a significant departure from the original proposition presented to WPA and industry, and the one that WPA based its decision on.

“The evolution of the FFS into a ‘living document’ demonstrates precisely the concern WoolProducers raised from the outset; that the project scope and ambition could not realistically be delivered within the original time frame,” she said.

“The slippage in delivery, including both scope and time, confirms our initial assessment that the proposed schedule was overly ambitious and that a more considered development process was required.”

Ms Hall said WPA made a “prudent governance decision” when it declined to participate in November and was “far from being wrong”.

However, she said WPA still supported the concept of a unified long-term strategy for Australia’s sheep and wool industries but it would require “transparency, proper consultation, realistic time frames and broad industry confidence”.