Supporting the Transition for Sheep Producers

This project is part of a broader transition program supporting sheep producers as the industry moves away from the export of live sheep by sea.

Funded by the Australian Government, the program is designed to help producers confidently adapt their farming systems and explore new market opportunities for wool, meat and co-products.

What’s the focus?

The program is focused on ensuring sheep producers are well equipped to navigate change by:

• Building knowledge of best practice farming systems
• Supporting informed decision-making during the transition
• Exploring alternative market pathways for sheep products

What you’ll gain

This is a practical, producer-led program designed to build capability, confidence and readiness. By taking part, you will gain:

• Locally relevant, practical knowledge you can apply on your farm
• Exposure to different production approaches and systems
• Greater confidence in making decisions that suit your business

Key learning areas include:

• Feedbase resilience
  Including confinement feeding, pasture regeneration, and mixed species systems
• Market opportunities and readiness
  Understanding emerging options for wool, meat and co-products
• Technology and tools
  Including EID and other technologies tailored to different production systems

How the program works

This is a multi-year program (2026–2028) centred around the Kojonup region, combining hands-on learning with peer-to-peer engagement.

Direct involvement:

• Around 25 core producers will participate in a structured benchmarking and learning program

Wider industry access:

• 50–150 producers and advisors will engage through workshops, field walks, podcasts, case studies and an online knowledge hub

Building confidence through benchmarking

A key feature of the program is benchmarking, helping you:

• Compare your business with peers
• Identify opportunities for improvement
• Understand what works—and what doesn’t—for your system

The focus is on supporting better decision-making, not prescribing one approach.

Measuring impact

The program will track progress and outcomes to ensure it delivers real value to producers. This includes:

• Benchmarking surveys at the start (2026) and end (2028)
• Changes in producer confidence and readiness for change
• Adoption or refinement of practices where relevant
• Ability to make and explain informed business decisions
• Engagement across workshops, resources and digital content

The sheep industry is changing. Not everyone’s going the same direction, and that is fine.

Live sheep export by sea ends in May 2028. That’s a known. What’s less known is what the right response looks like for any given farm, system, or business, and honestly, there isn’t one answer.

Southern Dirt is running a producer program in the Kojonup region to build a clearer picture of what producers are actually doing, thinking, and learning through this period. The program is funded through the Grower Group Alliance as part of national transition support, which means we can offer practical frameworks, structured learning, and locally grounded resources to producers who want to be part of it.

What we’re building

Connected network of producers at different points in their journey, because the most useful knowledge in any room comes from more than one direction.

What it looks like in practice

Producer demonstration sites, field walks, workshops, dedicated topic-based comms channels, podcasts, videos, factsheets, and decision tools.

The right brain to pick. The right information. The right framework to work out what fits your constraints — or doesn’t.

Current topics

This program is evolving as we go.

If you’ve got an idea about what we should tackle, or how we could approach a challenge you’re actually facing, we want to hear it. Reach out.