Western Australia Minister for Agriculture and Food Alannah MacTiernan

Updated Tool To Manage Sheep Condition

Victor P Taffa

• New and improved Sheep Condition Scoring app for Western Australia producers launched at Wagin Woolorama
• App helps monitor and assess the condition of sheep for best performance

McGowan Government is backing productivity improvements in the Western Australian sheep industry, with the development of a new and improved Sheep Condition Scoring app.

“Technical innovations such as the new Sheep Condition Scoring app help drive productivity and growth in Western Australia’s sheep and wool industries, particularly in more challenging seasons such as 2018 for our south-eastern and south coast farmers.” Minister for Agriculture and Food Alannah MacTiernan said.

“Poor or delayed starts to the season make decision tools such as this app particularly useful for sheep producers to review their supplementary feed programs.”

 

Sheep Condition Scoring app, developed by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, enables producers to monitor the condition of sheep and readily access information to manage sheep nutrition.

This helps producers determine if sheep are in the best condition for joining and lambing making it a key tool for this time of the year.

Updated app allows users to add multiple records to a mob and add multiple mobs, as well as calculate averages, generate graphs and email raw data for more analysis. It also features instructional videos and explanations on how to condition score.

Condition scoring is an easy and accurate measure of estimating the nutritional wellbeing of sheep, and is the best method for monitoring pregnant and lactating ewes. Condition score should be used in combination with the available pasture to run feed budgets.