Using benchmarking to improve the financial and social sustainability of commercial goat meat, cashmere and mohair farms in Australia

Production and financial benchmarking was undertaken with commercially motivated mohair, cashmere and goat meat farmers in Australia. There were large differences in animal and fleece production and financial returns between the best and worst performing farms. Farmers and industry groups reported that the process and results were helpful and resulted in them changing management practices. Benchmarking demonstrated that there is substantial scope to increase productivity and profitability through improved genetic selection and improved management of pastures, breeding flocks and in kid survival and growth.<br /

Highlights from day three of the EuroSciCon 2015 Sports Science Summit.

This EuroSciCon Sports Science Summit represented a significant gathering of leading professionals in the field of sports science. The conference was held on 13-15 January 2015 at the O2 arena, London, UK. The chairman on the third day was Mr Greg Robertson, a specialist trainee Orthopedic surgeon from Edinburgh. The conference attracted over 80 attendants from all over the world, with 32 presentations from invited speakers and peer-reviewed submissions. This meeting report provides a summary of the best abstracts from the conference

Evaluation of Community Jobs Scotland Programme

The final evaluation report for the Community Jobs Scotland (CJS) programme for 2011/1

Development of strategies to increase commercial production of mohair and cashmere in Australia

We aimed to identify impediments to investing into mohair and cashmere production and to suggest programs and strategies to attract investors. Targeted interviews of people focussed on attributes of an investment opportunity. Analysis differentiated views of small and large-scale producers and those not involved in these industries. Potential investors into mohair and cashmere make decisions based on the compatibility of the enterprise to their farm system, the technical, financial and market feasibility of the enterprise and its comparative advantage with other possible courses of action. They are sceptical of information coming from within these industries that is not sufficiently supported by fact. There are many implications from these findings including the need for the industries to: understand the investment decision process; provide objective financial and benchmarking data; make information more accessible; overcome resistance to these industries; and increase the visibility of the industries.<br /