In the Sheep CRC, we really wanted to develop
the products produced by the sheep industry,
so they aligned with what the consumer really wanted.
And the consumer really wanted delicious, healthy meat,
wool that had next to skin comfort guaranteed,
and they wanted us to look after the sheep.
And once we'd established those goals,
we started to get alignment with all the industry groups,
the researchers, the funding groups
that would be putting money alongside the Commonwealth
to create a program which really had collaboration,
shared ambitions, right from the beginning.
In industry, there are a lot of hard problems
and if you can get science involved,
you shorten the timeframe for everybody else,
because on farm, everybody tries to solve problems.
So the work of the Sheep CRC, the knowledge from that
has enabled us to change our enterprise
in a relatively short space of time, successfully.
There are three CRCs that we've had.
Each one had its own focus.
Each one was a contained program where we had defined goals
in achieving this transformation that we have
over that 19 year period.
So the undergraduate teaching that we developed
during CRC 1 and the postgraduate program that went
right the way through the CRC program,
will leave the industry in very good shape
to continue that momentum for many, many years.
Before the Sheep CRC developed these education programs,
the industry was on a decline and with an ageing population
running the industry.
But with new young people coming into the industry
that are innovative and excited by the technologies
available, we can continue to grow,
building more capacity within the industry.
People are our most important resource
and I see this wonderful piece of succession planning.
So what the Sheep CRC has done is take people
from individual contributors and researchers
through in many cases to industry leaders.
It takes something like a CRC to have the focus
of developing that human capital,
so that wave of graduates coming out of the Sheep CRC
will be having an impact for the next 30 or 40 years
in that industry.
One of the key aspects of the CRC program design
is that you have to have a legacy arrangement,
you have to know what happens when the CRC funding finishes
because with that level of investment, you need to ensure
that that momentum, the innovation that's developed
with the CRC program funding continues long after
to cement in the permanent benefits
that you've created for the industry.
A lot of the time, the industry doesn't have
deep enough pockets to have big enough projects
to work on these really big problems, like genomics,
like eating quality.
Getting that sorted is too big for one company.
Continued funding of CRCs is pivotal to give people
that really good grounding, the really great networks,
the really great learnings that they can get from that
that they can take them into their working lives,
those networks are fundamental.
The consumer is our market and without a consumer,
we don't have an enterprise.
What the Sheep CRC have done is they have given us
a surety, and credibility.
So be it meat or be it wool, the consumer can be certain
that they are getting the same quality, time and time again.
CRCs are all about transformation.
It's about changing an industry
and we've seen over the last 19 years
an industry change
from one that focused on wool with mutton as a byproduct
to one which now focuses on high quality lamb
and super fine wool as equal partners.
This momentum will continue because it's such a robust,
it's such a complimentary production system.
In agriculture particularly, we don't get simple problems.
We have integrated problems
and we need integrated solutions.
So to assemble a team to tackle really difficult issues,
to deliver really important answers takes time,
takes resources, and it's only the CRC program currently
that is designed to deliver that sort of structured approach
to solving these very significant
industry problems and opportunities.