Western Australian sheep research and development is about to leap forward with a $1.3 million investment in a new sheep feed efficiency facility at Katanning.
Construction has begun on the 940 square metre research shed, which will be fitted with 20 pens to house about 300 sheep, at the WA Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development’s Katanning Research Facility.
This nationally significant facility will enable researchers to electronically record the feed intake of individual sheep fed a range of different diets under commercial conditions to identify genetically superior animals to target in breeding programs.
Better understanding feed conversion will enable WA producers to refine breeding and management programs to reduce the cost of production and improve the competitiveness of WA sheep meat in the global marketplace.
Albany-based contractor Colab Construction has been announced as the successful tenderer to build the facility, scheduled to be operating in December 2019.
Source: WA Government