The Beef and Sheep Conference 2019 took place in Windhoek, Namibia, from June 7-12. A comprehensive programme with internal workshops on beef and sheep, international comparisons, latest developments on beef and sheep markets, farm analysis, field trips to sheep, cow-calf and beef finishing farms was provided.

Several changes in the format of the programme aimed to create even more exchange and interaction than in previous years, for example poster sessions and an interactive session on our benchmarking using the comprehensive tools available. A special focus was on the African context and development. Workshops considered greenhouse gas mitigation potentials in beef production as well as the types, prevention measures, damages and costs of predators in livestock production which are particularly relevant in Southern Africa. For the first time, we managed to link the agri benchmark data bases to the OECD / FAO outlook and obtained an farm level outlook for the next ten years.

Field trips with visits to beef and sheep farms highlighted the issues surrounding faming in already difficult climatic conditions, accelerated by the most severe drought in the last 90 years.

A full day of the Conference was dedicated to the Global Forum with Namibian and international decision makers of the beef and sheep value chain on June 10. Longer term perspectives of the livestock sectors in Africa as well as the competitiveness of beef and sheep production of the region were one focus. The other focus were regional issues and specifics like communal grazing, commodity-based trade, FMD and feed efficiency in cattle. The presentations of the Global Forum are available below.