Drought and Climate Resilient Sheep Farms and Landscapes

Helping sheep producers build drought and climate resilience through improved genetics, resilient feedbase systems and farmer-led research.

Key objectives

Test whether mixed pasture and browse plantings can provide a reliable, nutritious feed supply for sheep during drought and reduce reliance on preserved fodder.

Assess how these plantings can diversify farming systems across productive and marginal land, create micro-climates that buffer sheep and the feedbase from heat, unseasonal rain and drought, and build a more stable, biodiverse landscape.

Determine whether breeding for physical, physiological and behavioural traits that help sheep cope with drought, heat and climatic uncertainty leads to more resilient farming systems and landscapes.

Identify practical management strategies that improve farm resilience and profitability, and address the barriers to adopting mixed pasture and browse plantings.

About the project

The Drought and Climate Resilient Sheep Farms and Landscapes project, known as Climate Resilient Sheep Systems, brings researchers, farmers and industry partners together to develop practical solutions that improve the long-term resilience and sustainability of sheep and pasture systems through drought.

Teams from Adelaide University and Murdoch University will research improved sheep genetics, alongside fodder systems research at Adelaide University’s Roseworthy campus. At the same time, 26 implementation and validation trials will run on working farms across New South Wales (8 sites), South Australia (8 sites) and Western Australia (10 sites), in collaboration with national partners, regional drought hubs and local farming systems groups, including MSF.

The project runs from June 2025 to October 2030. It is a cross-hub project of the SA Drought Hub, based in the Port Augusta node, with a focus on crop and pasture management, farm planning and decision making, and soil and land management.

The aim of this project

The project aims to help sheep producers across southern Australia build drought and climate resilience into their enterprises through improved sheep genetics, resilient feedbase systems and farmer-led research.

By pairing national research capacity with local, farmer-led trials, the project will deliver findings for sheep graziers, mixed farming enterprises and regional NRM and Landscape Boards, from breeding and proven pasture and landscape strategies through to practical on-farm practice change.

Resources

A two-page project factsheet outlining the partners, objectives and planned activities is available from the SA Drought Hub: download the Climate Resilient Sheep Systems factsheet (PDF).

Acknowledgements

Australian Government Future Drought Fund and SA Drought Hub logos

Working together with farmers

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