Feed for autumn lambing ewes

Department of Agriculture feeding trials with grazing sheep have consistently shown that the level of supplementation should be set for survival and little more, because beyond that the additional costs of supplementary feeding usually outstrip the benefits from extra production. Even sheep in the greatest need - autumn lambing ewes in late pregnancy and the early part of lactation before and during the break of season - can be fed less than was thought necessary to achieve acceptable production

Look after the tail enders

IN Department of Agriculture drought feeding trials last summer, shy feeders lost weight and died while the bigger sheep grew fat. When drafted off and fed separately the shy feeders ate their share and survived the summer

A survey of shearing times

When do farmers in W.A. shear their sheep, and why do they selest the times they do? A Department of Agriculture survey attempted to answer these questions, which have important implications for the wool industry

Objective measurement and the stud breeder

The movement towards sale of wool by certificate and sample highlights the significance of objective measurement in the Merino stud breeders\u27 selection of his top rams. This article suggests how stud breeders should use the Department of Agriculture\u27s Flock Testing Service to gain genetic progress in wool producing ability without loss of visual buyer appeal. Studs\u27 use of the service will be evaluated in 1974

Reproductive wastage among Merino ewe flocks. 2. Non-clover areas

This research sought to define the reasons for low fertility among Merino ewes in Western Australia. This first article looks at wastage in Non-Clover area

Using natural resource inventory data to improve the management of dryland salinity in the Great Southern, Western Australia

The synoptic assessment of salinity risk and the likely costs and benefits associated with various management options is crucial to natural resource management decision-making in southern Australia. A variety of methods have been proposed and tested for assessing various aspects of salinity risks and costs, but no large region of Australia has ever had a comprehensive risk assessment across the range of biophysical and economic issues with forecasts of the effectiveness of different levels of intervention. This National Land and Water Resources Audit Implementation Project (referred to locally as Salt Scenarios 2020, or SS2020 for short) attempted to provide such an assessment (at a scale of around 1:100,000). The existing methods of monitoring and predicting salinity (based on variables derived from widely-available Landsat TM data and existing contour data; albeit with improved variable extraction from the DEMs) are being applied to the rest of the agricultural area of WA as part of the Land Monitor Project, funded in part by NHT. Collecting accurate contour data (2-metre) is a major part of the NHT project. This Audit project was proposed to allow other fundamental data sets, and especially groundwater levels from bore-hole data, to be used to significantly improve predictions in lower-rainfall areas as well as refine the predictions in the high rainfall areas. The Great Southern is an area of considerable economic and environmental value populated by 60,000 people. In 1996, it was estimated that about 30% of the cleared land and associated vegetation and water resources are at risk from becoming salt-affected over the next 30 years unless high-water use farming systems and farm forestry are adopted over large parts of the region(Ferdowsian et al., 1996). Four key questions arise with respect to the future of this region as affected by dryland salinity: •How large will the problem eventually be under current land practices? How large might it be in the year 2020? •What is at risk if the area under threat grows that large? •To what degree can we change the eventual extent of salinity with land use alternatives that are both feasible and available? •What are the costs and benefits of intervening with these alternative land uses? Ultimately, the SS2020 Project aimed to provide some guidance to state, regional and local planners and managers regarding salinity risk in the Great Southern. The analyses underpinning this guidance were based on similar data employed by NLWRA projects under Theme 2 – Dryland Salinit

A multi-agency project of the Western Australian Salinity Action Plan supported by the Natural Heritage Trust

Land Monitor is a multi-agency project of the Western Australian Salinity Action Plan supported by the Natural Heritage Trust. It will provide land managers and administrators with baseline salinity and vegetation data for monitoring changes over time, and land height data from which contours accurate to two metre intervals can be produced. The Project will also provide estimates of areas at risk from secondary or future salinisation. Land Monitor will cover the 18 million hectares of agricultural area of south-west, Western Australia. Sequences of calibrated Landsat Thematic Mapper satellite images integrated with landform information derived from height data, ground truthing and other existing mapped data sets are used as the basis for monitoring changes in salinity and woody vegetation. Heights are derived on a 10m grid from stereo aerial photography flown at 1:40,000 scale, using soft-copy automatic terrain extraction (image correlation) techniques. Proposed Land Monitor products include salinity maps, predicted salinity maps, enhanced imagery, vegetation status maps and spectral / temporal statistics. These products will be available in a range of formats and scales, from paddock, farm to catchment and shire scales to suit customer needs

The Land Monitor Project

The Land Monitor Project is providing information over the southwest agricultural region of WA. It is assembling and processing sequences of Landsat TM data, a new highresolution digital elevation model (DEM) and other spatial data to provide monitoring information on the area of salt-affected land, and on changes in the area and status of perennial vegetation over the period 1988-2000. Land Monitor is a multi-agency project of the Western Australian Salinity Action Plan supported by the Natural Heritage Trust. The Project will also providing estimates of areas at risk from secondary or future salinisation, based on the historical salinity maps and a set of landform variables derived from the high resolution DEM. Sequences of calibrated Landsat Thematic Mapper satellite images integrated with landform information derived from height data, ground truthing and other existing mapped data are used as the basis for monitoring changes in salinity and woody vegetation. Procedures for accurate registration and calibration were developed by CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences (CMIS), as were the data integration procedures for salinity mapping and prediction. For the DEM, heights are derived on a 10m grid from stereo aerial photography flown at 1:40,000 scale, using soft-copy automatic terrain extraction (image correlation) techniques. Land Monitor products include: high resolution DEMs; calibrated sequences of Landsat imgery; present and historical salinity maps; predicted salinity maps; maps of change in vegetation status and spectral/temporal statistics. These products are available in a range of formats and scales, from paddock to catchment and shire scales to suit customer needs

Aboriginal young people’s perspectives and experiences of accessing sexual health services and sex education in Australia: A qualitative study

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Aboriginal) young people seek information and access health services for their sexual health needs. This study examined Aboriginal young people’s perspectives on sexual health services and sex education in Australia. Overall, 51 Aboriginal people aged 16–26 years were interviewed by peer researchers in Sydney, Australia in 2019–2020. The findings suggest that the internet was used to assess information quickly and confidentially, but Aboriginal young people questioned its reliability and accuracy. Family, Elders and peers were seen as sources of advice because they had real-life experience and highlighted intergenerational learning that occurs in Aboriginal communities. School-based sex education programmes had mixed reviews, with a preference for programmes delivered by external specialists providing anonymity, clear and accurate information about sex and relationships and positive approaches to sex education, including how to gain consent before sex. There was a need identified for school-based programmes to better consider the needs of Aboriginal young people, including those who identified as LGBTQI +. Aboriginal Medical Services were highly valued for providing culturally safe access to services, while sexual health clinics were valued for providing specialised confidential clinical services with low levels of judgement

Quantifying low English literacy in Australian Aboriginal communities: a correlational study

While the English literacy outcomes of Aboriginal children are constantly measured and debated, attention falls away once they leave school, leading to limited data on English literacy rates among Australia’s Aboriginal adults. This paper reports on an investigation into the prevalence of low literacy in adults in eight Aboriginal communities in NSW, Australia, drawing on both self-report data from household surveys and objective professional assessments using the Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF). The research was conducted in partnership with a national Aboriginal organisation as part of a longitudinal study of the impact of improved adult literacy on the social determinants of health and social wellbeing. Of the participants who were measured to have low or very low English-language literacy level using ACSF, 51% had completed Year 10 or higher. This casts serious doubt on the value of school completion data which is used, for example, in Close the Gap reporting, as an accurate predictor of adult literacy rates. Results further show that while self-reported low literacy was prevalent in the population studied, there was also a significant overestimation, with adults who have completed years 10–11 nearly 30 times more likely to overestimate compared to people who only complete primary school. Given the well-known associations between adult literacy and a range of other outcomes including income, employment and health, national adult literacy surveys such as the Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies should aim to produce more comprehensive national, regional and local data on Aboriginal adult English literacy