Our people, customers and the community

Australia’s sheep industry revolves around livestock, but from producers in the paddock through to customers at the checkout, it’s the people who build and sustain it. Measuring health and safety, capacity, and contribution to community is how the Sheep Sustainability Framework (SSF) ensures the industry protects its most valuable asset: people.  

The SSF Annual report 2024 examined how the sheep industry is progressing on one of its key pillars, ‘Looking after our people, our customers and the community’. The report resulted in many improvements, but some challenges remain.  

Protecting people 

When it comes to looking after people in the sheep industry, safety is considered a highly material topic. Agricultural workplace fatalities account for 20% of worker fatalities in Australia, despite only making up 2.3% of the Australian workforce.  

In 2024, the number of fatalities and serious injuries declined. Despite this decline, the number of sheep producers who have undertaken work health and safety risk assessment remains low, at 54.6%.  

Continuing formal on-farm risk assessments, safety planning and training will contribute to further improvements in total fatalities and serious injuries. For the first time, the SSF also recorded the life satisfaction of sheep producers to account for the physical and mental wellbeing of people in the industry.  

According to the Regional Wellbeing Survey 2022–23, Australian sheep producers scored 76.1 points on the Global Life Satisfaction Index. This score, which encapsulates the standard of living, health, achievements, relationships and community, was higher than the reported life satisfaction of Australia overall (69.4), and similar to that of Australian beef producers (74.3). 

Finding people 

Sustaining the agriculture industry requires workers, but in recent years, they’ve been notoriously hard to find.  

In 2024, the outlook didn’t improve much, with 42% of producers finding general labour availability to be a major issue in their operation. This has increased from 35% of producers in 2023. 

The attractiveness of the industry continues to be impacted by the federal award rate ratio (which compares the national pastoral award with the national minimum hourly casual rate) which declined from 1.23:1 to 1.14:1. 

Positively, the number of producers experiencing a lack of shearing labour as a major challenge has eased slightly, from 38% in 2023 to 35.3%. 

Retaining people 

The complex issue of succession planning is also key to continuing the productivity of established sheep operations, particularly those owned and operated by family groups.  

The percentage of producers with a formal succession plan generally remains low at 19.9%, which is a slight decrease from the year before, with 21% reported in 2023.  

Other producers have discussed plans but are yet to reach a conclusion or formalise their decision (28.2%), and more are yet to commence any discussion (33.2%).   

Consumer trust 

While businesses are critical to production, customers are crucial to profitability, with trust in the industry underpinning the industry’s social licence.  

According to the Annual Report, the number of Australians who believe Australian lambs are farmed and raised in a humane manner remains steady, at 54%.  

The number of Australians who believe Australian lamb is worth paying a bit more for experienced a slight increase from 25% to 27%, potentially attributed to a slight decrease in lamb prices over 2023. 

The metrics recorded within the SSF represent key pillars of the industry’s future success. While the report recognises the various successes and challenges within the industry, the figures offer a pathway forward for improvement.