Name change to beef up Esperance grower group ASHEEP

Esperance-based grower group ASHEEP has rebranded after 20 years in a bid to better reflect its work improving on-farm practices in cattle production systems.

The group — whose name stood for the Association for Sheep Husbandry, Excellence, Evaluation and Production — will now be known as ASHEEP & BEEF.

“After much form-filling, we’re pleased to announce that our new name is official,” ASHEEP & BEEF executive officer Sarah Brown said.

“The grower group was originally set up by sheep producers in 2003 and in 2016 expanded to take on a cattle sub-committee, given the many crossovers between sheep and cattle farming systems.”

Since then, the group has ran an annual cattle field day and facilitated research and demonstrations to drive best practice beef cattle production.

ASHEEP & BEEF chair David Vandenberghe, who runs Wattle Dale Fine Merino stud at Scaddan, said the name change marked “an important step forward”.

“Our grower group has been working with both sheep and cattle for some years. Renaming to ASHEEP & BEEF makes this focus much clearer,” he said.

“The new name also reflects that many of our members are both sheep and cattle farmers and use the information we share for both enterprises.”

ASHEEP & BEEF cattle sub-committee chair Ryan Willing said the group would continue its work to improve productivity in the beef sector, locally and nationally.

“With the livestock price slump at the moment, it is more important than ever to be improving on-farm practices to remain profitable,” he said.

“ASHEEP & BEEF will keep working hard to help both beef and sheep producers stay that way.”

The group runs three Meat and Livestock Australia producer demonstration site projects centred on cattle, with a focus on optimising age of weaning, preventing bull preputial breakdown, and managing bovine pestivirus.