Border Leicester group calls for review of a 'breed at the crossroads'

The Border Leicester breed may be set for some changes to its society and its operations to ensure it remains a dominant maternal sire in the prime lamb industry.

Recently, the SuperBorders Group - which is made up of breeders who are also members of Sheep Genetics - shared a discussion paper with the Australian Border Leicester Association's board, stating the breed is "at a crossroads".

Border Leicesters have played a pivotal role in the lamb industry for more than a century - siring Border Leicester-Merino ewes (first cross ewes) - but SuperBorders president Chris Hewitt says the breed needs to assess if it is best positioned into the future.

Among the challenges identified in the discussion paper, which was developed at a SuperBorder conference in Horsham, Vic, are fewer Merino ewes from which to breed these prime lamb mothers and growing competition from other sheep breeds as well as composites.

"And I know particularly around our area here (Vic Wimmera) there are fewer and fewer sheep in paddocks with the younger farmers preferring tractors and growing lentils," Mr Hewitt said.

Mr Hewitt, from Alderside Park stud at Warracknabeal, said while SuperBorder members were using performance recording to make progress in their breeding programs the group has also undertaken marketing activities similar to the federal association.

He says the case for the first cross ewe was "an easy sell" with their fertility, hybrid vigour and growthy lambs, but these advantages needed to be reiterated.

"If you look at all the record lamb prices we are seeing around SA, Vic and NSW they are nearly all second cross lambs," he said.

The discussion paper recommends strengthening engagement with Merino breeders and first cross producers developing consistent, credible messaging.

It also identifies fatigue among breed volunteers and a growing difficulty to fill committee or board positions.

"We point fingers at the government for creating layer upon layer of administration when it is exactly what we are doing as a breed," Mr Hewitt said.

"We have the federal board and then there are all the state associations, some that meet more than others and some that have already ceased, but if you look it is often the same people on more than one committee."

Mr Hewitt insists the SuperBorders group is not proposing any predetermined breed society structure or amalgamation between SuperBorders and Australian Border Leicester Association, but wants to spark forward thinking discussion among members.

The SuperBorders group will continue to develop a new strategic plan, but he hopes the next step will be for the ABLA to facilitate the formation of a working group with a cross section of members and come up with the best way forward.

"We will not get 100 per cent agreement even from the SuperBorders group," Mr Hewitt said.

"You never do when change is involved, but there will be areas of common ground we can focus on - it is too important not to try.

"It is not about pushing everyone into performance recording but how we can pool our resources, such as possibly sharing a secretariat or what our breed promotion may look like."

Australian Border Leicester Association president Malcolm Starritt commended the SuperBorder group on the "well-worded" document and their investment in developing the discussion paper.

He said it was being considered by the board but with something "so big and broad" it would share the document with its members and ensure it took the time to get a broad consensus from them.

"Considering consolidation will probably be inevitable, it is just a matter of making sure everyone is on the same page without feeling compromised," Mr Starritt said.

He says a difficulty getting volunteers to take up roles was a broad problem across the whole industry, with fewer people in agriculture who are all stretched.

"If you have a professional organisation with a paid secretariat and then a rotating board it is probably more appealing than having a job for life where no one else wants to take it on," Mt Starritt said.

"The SuperBorder group has been around for a long time, as has the ABLA. We have to be adaptive with where people are at and having lots of organisations all pretty much doing the same thing - consolidation will happen if not now into the future."

'We are all trying to improve and promote the breed': SA life member says

Keith Border Leicester breeder Ian Carr has spent more than 30 years in official positions on the state executive, as well as a 20 year stint as the federal secretary of the Australian Border Leicester Association.

So he knows better than most the hours it can take up.

Mr Carr and his wife Sue were bestowed life membership a few years ago for their volunteer service to the breed, but he knows it is getting harder for many to offer the same commitment.

"In 1979 when I started in the breed there were hundreds of people breeding Border Leicesters, now that is down to about 150 members so there are a lot less people to fill all the volunteer positions," he said.

"The same breeders that volunteer in a breed society are often the ones that are in community organisations or leading their sporting clubs, so if we can find ways for it to be less of a time commitment, it will make people more willing to put their hands up ."

Mr Carr is supportive of most of the recommendations in the discussion paper.

"I may be a SuperBorder member and member of the Australian Border Leicester Association, but first and foremost I am a Border Leicester breeder," he said.

For it to be a success, he says it is important that all members' opinions are taken into account.

"No one person has a mortgage on all the good ideas or how things should be done so we need to ensure it is a respectful and wide-ranging discussion among all the members," Mr Carr said.

"And while we have some (studs) testing, others using the show ring to benchmark their sheep and some doing both, at the end of the day we are not that different, we are all trying to improve and promote the breed."