EVERY item of mail Kate Joseph posts – business-related or not – is sealed with an 'Eat more lamb' sticker.
It's testament to an unwavering belief in the need to constantly push sheepmeat – and never let the industry rest on its laurels.
Getting and keeping lamb on the menu remains a core goal for the president of the Sheepmeat Council of Australia.
Seven months into her presidency Ms Joseph said she is enjoying the role, but is quick to insist that she is under no allusions that because sheep meat prices and demand are booming the job is done.
"It is about being proactive all the time," she said. "If you think back 15 years ago lamb was not even on the menus; now it is in every restaurant.
"This is not a coincidence - these are growers' levies at work."
She says lamb was always going to have to work hard to keep its position in restaurants and supermarkets, especially overseas.
"People keep saying we are competing with NZ, US lamb producers, but the reality is it is chicken, pork, beef and vegetarians that we are competing with.
"Sheep producers shouldn't be seeing other sheep producers as competition as there are not enough sheep producers out there."
Ideally Ms Joseph would like to see all sheep meat countries working together to ensure lamb is a fixture on menus and on supermarket shelves.
However, good prices and demand does not, she stresses, guarantee that there is always going to be strong returns.
And acknowledging your competition, being innovative in marketing and having open communication is about the only way to get around this, she says.
As for attracting more lamb producers and in particular youth to the industry, Ms Joseph says "it's a big challenge" and admits she doesn’t have the answer.
She looks to stop, but then proceeds: "I think we have to show people that you can make money.
"This is a modern industry, there is exciting stuff going on, and it is changing all the time."
Ms Joseph's trajectory into the sheep meat spotlight has been a calculated one.
She was one of the few females to complete an agricultural science degree at La Trobe University, and in the next 15 years finished a masters on sheep nutrition, worked in the Tasmanian Department of Agriculture as an extension officer for beef and sheep on King Island, and had a stint running courses for farmers for Glenormiston Agricultural College until returning home to the family property months shy of her 30th birthday.
"It is always a bit challenging when you go home," she says.
"You have to get your head around the fact you want to implement changes, while dad has always done it one way – and it is not that you don't like what dad was doing but you want to move with the times."
Ms Joseph and her partner Trevor Smith live on a downsized portion of the family property where she grew up on the undulating slopes of south western Victoria, near the seaside town of Port Fairy.
When Ms Joseph is home she is straight out into the paddocks to attend her 1150 odd first-cross ewes.
Given her Sheepmeat Council responsibilities – chiefly, trying to extend sheep meat European market access, helping reinforce the lamb brand and representing the sheepmeat industry in the formation of the new Australian animal welfare standards and guidelines process - she isn't home a lot.
Last month it was 11 countries in Europe and the Middle East in two weeks as part of an industry delegation on market access.
Right now, she's home ensuring her ewes are in the right condition for the start of lambing in a few weeks.
She speaks eagerly about her own farm business – a "meat factory", where first-cross ewe/Poll Dorset lambs are born in winter and sold as suckers in December over the hooks.
She is proud of getting 95-98pc of lambs in specification and last year her lambs averaged 22kg carcase weight.
"There is nothing more satisfying than loading a truck full of good lambs and knowing you have got them there."
Ms Joseph admits there is still a lot of frustration when good breeding is penalised by processors who set the hook price on the average price out of sale yards, and believes contracts must become part of the future landscape especially over the winter.
Saleyards, she says, are "too much of a raffle" after doing the hard work for 18 months.
To try and eliminate some of the variability, a price is always secured before delivery, fat scoring and weighing is regularly done so there is no surprises, and she makes regular trips to works to see first hand how her lambs kill out.
"I go every couple of years, but if I made a radical change I will always go and see how they kill out."
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