Adapting Dairy Farm Systems
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Project Background
The Adapting Dairy Farm Systems project began in 2019 and aims to provide dairy farmers with information and resources to support them to make well-informed decisions when considering new feeding and housing systems.
The Australian dairy industry is currently in a state of unprecedented and rapid transformation, with numerous dairy businesses in northern and southwest Victoria, inland New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia making changes in the production system to address evolving feedbase and climatic pressures.
Without targeted and strategic support to facilitate farming system adjustment, there is significant risk parts of the dairy industry may not transition quickly enough, and farmers could make poor investment decisions.
This program has formed collaborative partnerships with Agriculture Victoria, Murray Dairy, NSW DPI and subject matter experts both within and outside of Australia. A National Feeding System Strategy Advisory Committee (a community within dairy Moving Forward) has also been established to serve as a consultative group for work around feeding and housed systems Research, Development and Extension (RD&E) priorities and provide constructive technical and strategic advice in this area.
Project Objective
The objective of the Adapting Dairy Farm Systems program is to provide Australian dairy farmers with information and resources that will support them to make well informed decisions when designing and using cattle feeding and housing systems, to ensure profitability is maximised and risks are minimised. Specifically, the program will:
- Provide farmers (and their advisers) access to robust and evidence-based information to support their decision making as they contemplate change in the areas of feedbase alternatives, cattle feeding infrastructure and housing infrastructure.
- Provide farmers access to a decision support process that will identify and mitigate risks before any capital is invested and farm systems changes are enacted. This decision support process may also be used to optimise infrastructure management post investment.
- Provide farmers with access to Australian based service providers with recognised expertise and skills in the areas of intensive farming systems or cattle housing design.
- Provide industry recognition and support for the farmers currently using or intending to move their businesses towards forms of intensive feeding system and/or housing system.
Project Activities
Adapting Dairy Farm System program areas of research, development and extension:
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Economic and risk analysis of intensive feed systems
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Technical review alternate feedbase, forage options and herd management infrastructure
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National Guidelines for Dairy Feedpads and Contained Housing Systems
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Farm System Evaluator
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Further Project Deliverables
Feeding and Housing System Case Studies
The Australian dairy industry is undergoing significant transition as businesses adapt to reduced water availability, a changing climate, higher input costs, policy and market drivers. In some regions a steady change in the dairy feedbase has occurred, with increased annual pastures, cropping and fodder conservation, and an evolution to partial and total mixed rations.
The future operating environment is likely to be characterised by increasing variability and volatility, requiring adaptive management at all levels. Farm businesses are taking different approaches to managing these changes based on a range of factors related to the business and to the people behind it.
The following case studies are focussed on system change occurring across various regions in Australia. These are not intended to be a blueprint for change, rather to provide examples of the different strategies that businesses are using to manage risk and volatility in the current environment.
Feeding Equipment & Feeding Infrastructure
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Purchasing a mixer wagon
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Building a concrete feed pad
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Basic feed-out area
Housing infrastructure
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Clear Roofed Compost Shelter
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Double sided Compost Barn
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Double Compost Barns with open central Feed Land
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Narrow Compost Shelter with Feedpad
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Information Sheet: Budding pack shelters
Drylots
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Semi Compost Shelters in Drylots
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Barn with open outside Feed Alley and Drylots
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Operating an Intensive Farm System Drylots