Search

Simple Summary: Best practice guidelines are available for the management of Maternal and Merino ewes across southern Australia; however, these are lacking for Composite and shedding breeds. Through a telephone interview, the management practices of a unique group of southern Australian sheep producers, and the motivations behind these practices, were explored. A large proportion of respondents reported mating and lambing practices that aligned with best practice guidelines; however, a smaller cohort did not see value in meeting the nutritional and mating length recommendations. Additionally, most producers are also seeking new information frequently and have implemented management changes within the last five years. Further work is required to understand the perceived barriers to best practice adoption, and for management guidelines to be developed for all sheep breeds to ensure sheep enterprises are operating in the most productive and profitable manner. The management of ewes across southern Australia may vary with breed and can change over time and, as such, a greater understanding of producer management practices and the motivations that influence these practices is required. A cross-sectional study was performed by telephone interview with sheep producers managing Composite, Maternal, Merino or shedding ewe breeds mated in either spring, summer, or autumn. The surveyed producers were a unique subset of southern Australian producers. A large proportion of the surveyed producers followed current best practice guidelines for ewe mating and lambing nutritional management; however, some producers did not align with these targets. Further, some producers did not see the value in attaining the current recommendations. Pregnancy scanning was widely practiced, likely an artefact of the recruitment process; however, a few producers did not utilize this information for nutritional management at lambing time. Finally, most producers were active in their search for new information, seeking information regularly from a wide range of sources and reported making management changes within the last five years. Further work is required to understand why some producers are not adopting best practice where possible and to understand current barriers for adoption. Management guidelines for all sheep breeds are required to best manage sheep across southern Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The conditions and management practices imposed during mating can influence the success of a sheep production enterprise. However, the impact of mating practices across southern Australian sheep production systems are relatively unknown. Mating liveweight and body condition score data were collected at mating from four sheep breeds and during three seasons of mating across southern Australia. Further, the seasonal conditions during mating were ranked by the producers and ram percentage and region were also recorded. Bayesian Network analysis was used to explore the relationships between these variables and pregnancy and fetal number at scanning. The results of this survey study emphasize the interrelatedness of the explored mating conditions and practices and the importance of understanding their interactions for optimizing sheep reproduction and nutrition from mating. Sheep production in southern Australia may vary by breed, time of year, production output (wool, meat, or both), region and seasonal influence. Sheep producers with flocks of approximately 300–500 ewes (n = 58) were recruited across southern Australia to take part in a survey and mating variables were collected from over 30,000 ewes between October 2020 and August 2021. A Bayesian Network (BN) was developed to identify the interrelatedness and most influential variable on pregnancy and fetal number (of pregnant ewes) outcomes under different scenarios. The BN analysis indicated a low association between the variables explored, however, were breed dependent. In wool-based breeds a mating liveweight of 60–69.5 kg predicted the lowest non-pregnant and greatest number of fetuses, and in shedding ewes 70–79.5 kg predicted the lowest non-pregnant rate and 90–99.5 kg the greatest number of fetuses. Pregnancy rate and fetuses per ewe were optimized at ram percentages of 1.5% for Composite and Merino ewes and 2% for Maternal ewes. A mating BCS 4 resulted in greatest pregnancy rate and number of fetuses across all breeds. Curvilinear relationships between mating liveweight, BCS and ram percentage were observed with pregnancy rate and fetal number. Practically, reproductive potential is best managed on a breed basis and with consideration of all variables explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earth observation (EO) satellites facilitate hazard monitoring and mapping over large-scale and remote areas. Despite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites being well-documented as a hazard monitoring tool, the uptake of these data is geographically variable, with the Australian continent being one example where the use of SAR data is limited. Consequently, less is known about how these data apply in the Australian context, how they could aid national hazard monitoring and assessment, and what new insights could be gleaned for the benefit of the international disaster risk reduction community. The European Space Agency Sentinel-1 satellite mission now provides the first spatially and temporally complete global SAR dataset and the first opportunity to use these data to systematically assess hazards in new locations. Using the example of Australia, where floods and uncontrolled bushfires, earthquakes, resource extraction (groundwater, mining, hydrocarbons) and geomorphological changes each pose potential risks to communities, we review past usage of EO for hazard monitoring and present a suite of new case studies that demonstrate the potential added benefits of SAR. The outcomes provide a baseline understanding of the potential role of SAR in national hazard monitoring and assessment in an Australian context. Future opportunities to improve national hazard identification will arise from: new SAR sensing capabilities, which for Australia includes a first-ever civilian EO capability, NovaSAR-1; the integration of Sentinel-1 SAR with other EO datasets; and the provision of standardised SAR products via Analysis Ready Data and Open Data Cubes to support operational applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]