Research & Development

Other research and development links are provided below:

The Federal Government collects a levy from Australian woolgrowers and provides a matching contribution of up to 0.5% of the gross value of wool production based on a three-year average. Wool levy payers vote in a process called WoolPoll each three years on what percentage of their wool income will go to funding future research, development, innovation and product marketing. WoolPoll 2012 set the levy at 2% for the period 2013-2016. A company known as Australian Wool Innovation Limited (AWI) manages the funds and research projects with the aim of increasing the long-term profitability of Australian woolgrowers. (AWI is also the owner of the Woolmark brand.) Information on activities and projects can be obtained from www.wool.com

In July 1998, a transaction levy on the sale of sheep, lambs and goats was introduced to fund R&D, marketing and promotion in the sheepmeat industry through Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) and animal health matters through the Australian Animal Health Council (AAHC). Information on activities and projects can be obtained from www.mla.com.au and www.animalhealthaustralia.com.au

CSIRO, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, is Australia’s national science agency and conducts research on behalf of the wool and sheep industries see www.csiro.au

The Co-operative Research Centres (CRC) Program is a Federal Government funded initiative with the aim of making Australia’s industries more efficient, productive and competitive. For information on the Sheep Industry CRC see www.sheepcrc.org.au

A valuable source of research and extension information spanning the last fifty years is contained in www.livestocklibrary.com.au

Information regarding Recessive Black Gene can be found http://genome.cshlp.org/site/press/BlackSheep.xhtml