Day in the life: livestock classer contractor helps stud plans

No two days are the same for a livestock classer who travels most of the wide expanses of South Australia every year.

Cousins Merino Services is a small family business that offers on-farm wool testing, sheep classing, genetic advisory, eID application and ewe pregnancy scanning across the state.

Sheep classing includes scoring the animal on breeding objectives of the producer's desires, such as fat scores, conformation and wool types and for studs, the data is collected for ram sale catalogues.

Sheep classer Josh Cousins said the best part of his job was helping his clients achieve breeding directives.

"We try to select livestock based on each client's breeding objectives and trying to meet their goals and objectives they want," he said.

"We select for the industry to increase what traits they want to improve and work with them to get the best results.

"I enjoy seeing the genetic improvement going on, year-on-year, but it is quite a slow process, so you need to have patience."

Josh said he had grown up around livestock his whole life and knew he wanted to pursue it as a career.

"Once completing my university degree, I probably got more involved with the genetics and breeding side of things," he said.

"A dual-purpose Merino has a number of different traits involved, and it's quite a complex animal.

"There are many different opinions of what a good sheep is, and it's all tailored to individual preferences and ideas."

Josh said his work was seasonal, and the different aspects of the business kept them busy year-round.

"Pregnancy scanning is the first four to six months of the year, then we start to get into more classing and genetic advisory, going through rams and getting ready for ram sales for the middle part of the year into September," he said.

"Ram sales finish around October, and then we go back into classing ewes ready for mating programs.

No two days are the same for Josh, as each client's preferences are different, and he spends a lot of his time on the road.

"During the heat of the year, I like to get started quite early, especially in the summer as stock work is better in the mornings," he said,

"Starting early also means if the job doesn't work out how you want it to during the day, you're not blown out into the night.

"Usually, I try to get started by seven and work to four or five in the afternoon.

"The best bit of the job is client relations and meeting all the different farming families in the industry."

He said they try to work with different clients for their different services, so he could work in one area and minimise travel.

"I do spend a lot of time away from home; during busy periods, I could be away for a week," he said.

"We work quite large days every day, and towards the end of the year, things do get quieter."

Josh said the data collected during sheep classing was used as "lifetime data" which could be reflected on when classing.

"We were getting an idea of how each sire has performed, a lot of it is measuring data and then using it for genetic selection later on, or for progeny testing to see how a sire has performed," he said.

"It's trying to increase the level of accuracy in your genetic selection.

"The client will keep the data themselves, and we also provide all the data, manage the data, and create reports to give our clients as much information as possible to help them make the best decisions possible."

Josh said once data was collected, it was sent back to the office, and a report was created and sent to the client, which he then discussed on the next visit, or over the phone.

"The job is very rewarding seeing the genetic potential come through and working with great people," he said.

"As long as you love stock and love sheep and have a passion for it, it's a very rewarding job."