Advisory Committee

Ron Cullen

Chairman

Ron has been actively engaged in agriculture all his working life, with 5 years (2008 to 2014) as Chief Executive Officer, Sheepmeat Council of Australia.

He now runs a small consultancy business offering services to the red meat industry.

His career in meat and livestock began in 1973, as a sheep and wool extension officer with NSW Department of Agriculture.  During that time he was involved in the development of the Meat Sheep Testing Service, a forerunner of LAMBPLAN.

He is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Peter Blackwood

Blackwood Corriedales

Peter is the owner/manager of Blackwood Corriedales based in TAS. He has over 30 years experience in the sheep industry, with both stud and commercial flocks and his own sheep contracting business managing animal health and welfare.

Peter was Chairman of the Performance Corriedale Group for 3 years and managed the Corriedale eating quality trial in TAS. Peter brings a wealth of experience in both Stud and commercial sector as well as sales, marketing and brand management from his time working with Coopers Animal Health and TP Jones and Co of Launceston.

Kate Dorahy

Cloven Hills

Kate has a passion for sheep breeding, with a solid base in strategic planning, financial management and marketing. With husband Chris and 3 children, Kate runs around 7000 breeding ewes and has been recording in LAMBPLAN for over 12 years.

Andrew Gillett

Wunnamurra Poll Dorsets

Andrew is a younger mixed irrigation farmer from Jerilderie, southern NSW. Together with his Mum, Judy and partner Annabel, they farm around 2500 acres with over half the operation being sheep. Andrew runs a commercial flock of Merino ewes as well as the Wunnamurra Poll Dorset Stud where the family market approx 250 terminal LAMBPLAN rams per year. Wunnamurra have been members of Sheep Genetics since the mid 1990s and so have been long term users of ASBVs and in particular have spent a long time educating their clients on SG and ASBV data. They have been doing AI for over 20 years and have recently completed their 4th year of ET with a view to push their Eating Quality data. Andrew has used MateSel each year since it was available in order to allocate matings and reduce inbreeding.
Andrew would like to see the reach of SG grow to other breeds and even break into the show ring. He believes this can be achieved by ensuring the SG product is as accurate and relatable to the commercial breeder as possible, as well as ensuring eating quality and sustainability traits (such as methane efficiency) are put into focus going forwards

Sally Martin

Sally is passionate about rural communities and agriculture, and has a vision for a united wool and sheepmeat industry.

Sally grew up on a grazing property in the Monaro region in NSW. She studied Agricultural Science and completed post graduate studies focusing on animal breeding management. She worked for NSW Department of Primary Industries and now runs her own consultancy business. 

Belinda Steers

Belinda grew up on their family Merino Stud in North Central Victoria. With a passion for sheep breeding, she worked for many years for Artificial breeding companies across eastern Australia, while completing her Bachelor of Rural Science (Hons) and Post Graduate study through the University of New England.

While well versed in data collection and collation as a data manager, Belinda also runs a commercial Merino and cross bred operation in North Central Victoria with her partner and family.

JB Tancred

GRASS Merinos

JB lives at Gulargambone NSW and, together with his wife Alison manage GRASS Merinos stud at Armatree. JB and Alison also run ‘The Maze’ a 3200 Ha mixed farming property west of Gulargambone.

JB has come to Merino breeding with fresh eyes. Coming from a non-farming background he was introduced to measuring merinos through Alison who came from a very progressive and forward thinking farming family. He very quickly fell in love with objective measurements and breeding values.

He has previously been a board member of the Tooraweenah Prime Lamb Marketing Co-Operative and has helped make strategic decisions for this co-op. He is an active member of the Gulargambone Rural Advisory Service which is one of the oldest farmer’s groups within Australia.

Darren Smith

Darren is an agriculture teacher and sheep producer managing four Sheep Genetics flocks. He has been in agricultural education since 1992, managing the St Gregory Corriedale stud (1992-1994) and the Farrer White Suffolk stud (230139) since 1995. Farrer is a leading sheep educational stud in Australia and strongly promotes LAMBPLAN and the LEQ index. Farrer has 5 star data quality and extensively uses genomics. Darren consistently teaches students to engage with sheep breeding technologies including ASBV’s, Genomics, MateSel and RamSelect. The Farrer Stud is an active Member of the Superwhites group and Darren is currently a member of the Executive Committee. Farrer also runs a Poll Merino flock (609363) breeding modern, dual purpose Merinos with high worm resistance and fertility. 

Darren lives at Kentucky, NSW, and runs a mixed grazing business with his wife (Dr Jen Smith, CSIRO) and family. They run an ultrafine Merino enterprise (Wynilbah 509176), historically  producing numerous 1PP bales. This flock is now focused on Poll Merinos that are non mulesed and worm resistant, but still produce ultrafine Italian-market wool. A small White Suffolk flock (235114) focused on low birth weight and high lambing ease, produces the sires for a prime lamb enterprise.