AI picks up errors in Sheep Producers Australia's Future Flock report

Sheep Producers Australia chair Bindi Murray has been forced to defend the economic analysis attached to its Future Flock - A Ten Year View (2027-2036) report, after artificial intelligence picked up multiple errors in the paper. 

The national peak industry council and advocacy body representing Australia’s 20,000 sheepmeat and lamb producers has faced mounting scrutiny from government and state farming organisations following the release of two taxpayer-funded reports under the Future Flock strategy.

Ironically the authors of the economic report admitted in their own methodology that they had used AI tools to assist in researching and developing the report in the first place.

Some of the errors included overstatements about Australia's global sheep flock ranking compared to China, basic livestock definition mistakes such as mislabeling the Border Leicester breed and it presented production projections as historical facts. 

Ms Murray said that following concerns raised about the report, Sheep Producers Australia asked the report authors to review each issue identified in detail. 

“That process found a small number of errors relating to wording, references and definitions. These have been corrected in an updated version of the report,” she said.

“Importantly, these corrections do not change the economic modelling, its results or the conclusions drawn from it.”

“Sheep Producers Australia welcomes scrutiny of its work. Where genuine errors are identified, we will correct them. Where questions are raised about complex modelling or analysis, we will work with the relevant experts to test those concerns properly and – if required – better explain the modelling or analysis,” she said.

The Future Flock strategy is designed to provide a clear and unifying long-term vision for the Australian sheep sector on the back of six months of consultation held last year, including a meeting at Longford where local issues raised included skyrocketing production costs, workforce constraints and the friction between different industry structures, which have become even more obvious since key results were released at the LambEx conference in Adelaide in July this year.

Tasmanian sheep and wool producers were represented by members of TasFarmers’ Red Meat and Wool Committee, which has yet to meet or comment following the release of the report’s key findings.

Meanwhile some of the state’s prominent wool growers have been left wondering why they didn’t get a seat at the table.

East coast wool grower of 40 years Bruce Dunbabbin, who is Australian Association of Stud Merino Breeders vice president and on the Stud Merino Breeders of Tasmania committee, said he didn’t receive an invitation to any meetings and has received no correspondence about Future Flock.

“I had no ability to have any input and that goes for many in the wool industry, which leads me to question its credibility,” he said.

One of the biggest criticisms been the use of $800,000 in federal government funding set aside to help the industry transition out of live exports - plus $3 million spent on the past two LambEx events.

Peak bodies like WoolProducers Australia have stayed critical and distanced themselves from the process and state organisations such as WAFarmers have expressed doubt over whether the strategy will drive meaningful change or simply be left on a shelf.