Australia's lamb survival rates have not improved in more than 20 years, costing producers around $100 million annually in lost income.

Australia's lamb survival rates have not improved in more than 20 years, costing producers around $100 million annually in lost income.

As the state with the largest output of lamb and mutton in Australia, Victoria stands to gain significantly from improving lamb survival

To find out how to improve your marking percentages, come to a ‘Lamb survival - your lambs your profit' day at Casterton Golf Club on Friday, June 15 from 9:30am to 2pm.

Hosted by EverGraze, the workshop will focus on ways to achieve increased lamb survival, leading to more lambs weaned and higher profits.

Workshop coordinator Anita Morant from the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) said the first step to improving lamb survival was knowing what was causing their deaths.

"Veterinary consultant Dr David Rendell will perform lamb autopsies to show participants what to look for to identify the cause of death in lambs.

"Shelter is another tactic to improve lamb survival, especially when provided to twin and triplet born lambs that are at greatest risk."

"Participants will have a chance to explore and discuss practical ways of providing more shelter on their property during a visit to "Lyndoch Park," which has 50ha of perennial grass hedges providing shelter in lambing paddocks.

"They will get to hear from Tim and Richard Curry about their experiences with managing and establishing the hedges."

"Dr Jason Trompf, consultant for JT Agri-source and Dr Ralph Behrendt, DPI Hamilton, will discuss the latest results from lamb survival research, including industry benchmarks, nutritional management for pregnant and lambing ewes, genetics to build a more productive resilient Merino and shelter options to minimise losses from exposure," Ms Morant said.

EverGraze is a DPI, Future Farm Industries CRC, Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) and Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) research and delivery partnership.