Two Case Studies of Pasture Improvement in a Cost-Price Squeeze

Adverse trends in lamb and wool prices and the costs of most purchased inputs have submitted sheep owners to an increasing cost-price squeeze over the latter part of the last decade. This phenomenon has been the cause of concerned comment by industry leaders and has undoubtedly led to extremely low average returns to capital and severe hardship in some sectors of the sheep industry in Australia. It seems important to know how farmers investing in pasture improvement have fared in these circumstances.