Feedbase Research

Dairy Australia currently invests in several research and development projects in the area of feedbase across the different dairy regions of Australia.

DairyFeedbase

DairyFeedbase is a joint venture between Dairy Australia, Gardiner Dairy Foundation and Agriculture Victoria.

The project was launched in 2018 and uses the latest technology and science to significantly improve on-farm profitability. The project has the potential to see returns to the industry of $100 million a year in 10 years.

Farmers can expect DairyFeedbase to deliver easy-to-use digital tools and real-time information to improve decision-making in the paddock and strategically allocate feed at an individual cow level.

More information on the individual projects in DairyFeedbase is available in the DairyFeedbase fact sheet.

In addition, the DairyFeedbase website has more information on the different projects involved, including videos with each of the project leaders.

C4Milk

Dairy farmers based in northern New South Wales and Queensland have significantly different challenges in terms of feedbase management than many of their southern Australian counterparts. The C4Milk project is a joint investment between Dairy Australia and the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries that focuses on developing low-risk, high-forage feeding systems.

There are three key areas this project will focus on to assist northern dairy farmers to develop and implement efficient feeding systems that increase margin over feed costs on-farm:

1. Improve the quality of forage consumed: improvements in forage quality to increase intake and milk responses, therefore improving feed conversion efficiency and margin over feed costs.
2. Increased proportion of forage in the diet: increasing the proportion of forage in the diet from low-cost home-grown and purchased forages while maintaining or increasing milk production to reduce feed-related costs.
3. Testing of low-cost feeding systems: developing and testing forage and feeding systems that are low-cost, easy to manage and resilient.

More information on the latest outcomes from the C4Milk project is available on the Dairyinfo.biz website or on the C4Milk page.

Dairy HIGH

Dairy HIGH is jointly funded by Dairy Australia and the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture (TIA). It follows on from the Dairy On PAR project, which had a focus on closing the gap between what is theoretically possible and what is practically being achieved on farms.

Dairy HIGH expands on those themes, looking at the sustainability factors that are of particular importance to Tasmanian dairy farms. These include:

• People
• Profit
• Production from pasture
• Animal welfare
• Environment

More information about the Dairy HIGH project is available on the TIA website.