Annually, Murray Dairy invests and delivers in a diverse range of research, development, extension and education programs to ensure farmers and the wider dairy industry are kept up to date with the latest in industry information and best practice.
Priorities for program delivery and research are identified through extensive consultation and industry led engagement activities with the industry. This information is incorporated into an annual operating plan which outlines resource allocations for each year.
In addition to extension delivery, Murray Dairy supports a number of dairy industry groups and committees either through direct funding, facilitation, or coordination.
These include:
• 10 Discussion groups
• 8 Dairy Business Network groups
• 5 Young Dairy Network groups
• Regional Extension and Education Committee
• Regional Network groups (Riverina, Eastern, Western, Central)
• Alpine Valleys Dairy Pathways Project Steering Committee
• Murray Dairy Young Dairy Network
• Project-specific Steering Committees
Animals
Rearing Heathy Calves
A one-day interactive discussion on raising healthy, contented dairy calves. It is designed for calf-rearers and farm managers who are looking to take their pre-weaning calf management to the next level. The care provided for your calves from the start of life is critical to their health and growth rates.
Healthy Hooves
Healthy Hooves workshops are for people looking to explore the identification, treatment and prevention of lameness in a hands-on environment.
Humane Euthanasia of Livestock
This workshops helps participants to ensure the most humane treatment of sick, injured or unsaleable cows with effective, swift and least painful methods.
InCharge Fertility Program
InCharge aims to create a supportive learning environment in which herd managers and farm owners can learn how to measure, review and improve their herd’s reproductive performance and fine tune their existing practices. Participants will investigate their own herd’s reproductive performance and build a plan to achieve their targets.
Farm Business
Our Farm, Our Plan
Our Farm, Our Plan is a program designed to equip farmers to clarify their long term goals, prioritise and identify actions needed, and to better manage uncertainty and risk. This program is designed for dairy farm business owners and/or managers.
The simple review and planning process with group workshops and one-on-one support for farmers, gets your ideas down on paper and into action. Whether it be growing your herd, investing in new equipment, building business management confidence, planning for succession or creating more time for yourself, Our Farm, Our Plan can help.
Dairy Business Networking Groups (DBNs)
DBNs are closed Discussion Groups facilitated by a consultant with the aim to improve farm business management skills, review their business performance, analyse future management changes or capital investments; and identify and evaluate opportunities for their businesses.
Dairy Farm Business Fundamentals
This course runs over two to three days and focuses on farm financial management, providing the skills and knowledge to pull together annual farm financial numbers. It also covers getting organised, budgeting, compliance and farm financial systems. It introduces the Dairy Standard Chart of Accounts and the Dairy Cash Management Planner.
Employment Basics (ESKI)
A workshop aimed at employers, covering the pastoral award and how to employ people correctly in the dairy industry. Find out more at the people in dairy website.
Milking
Milking and Mastitis Management Training (formerly known as Cups on Cups off)
This two-day workshop is suitable for anyone who milks cows on a dairy farm. Skills covered include how and why mastitis infections occur, practical methods to detect and deal with mastitis, adapting the milking process to reduce the risk of infections, how to develop an action plan to achieve best practice in milk harvesting, safe stock handling, workplace health and safety and plant cleaning. The course also offers an on-farm practical day where you will also learn first-hand, methods for preventing, detecting, treating and controlling mastitis in dairy herds.
You will walk away from the course with a sound understanding of priority areas to address on-farm to improve milk quality outcomes.
People
Murray Dairy Young Dairy Network
Technical and social events for young dairy farmers. Events may include dinners, discussion groups, farm visits, tours, guest speakers and seminars on specific topics such as share farming. Feel free to suggest an idea or a topic you think others might also be interested in. Find out more about the Young Dairy Network.
Regional Network Groups (RNGs)
There are five regional network groups running across the Murray Dairy region. RNGs aim to engage directly with farmers and service providers in each of the sub regions of Murray Dairy. RNGs meet regularly to discuss current challenges and opportunities for the industry, information needs and ideas for program delivery. These meetings also provide an opportunity for farmers to hear about services on offer from regional dairy service providers and guest speakers. All information is reported back to Murray Dairy and the Regional Extension and Education Committee (REEC) to inform future activities.
Employment Basics
An introduction to employing people correctly in the dairy industry. This workshop demonstrates how to apply key learnings to individual dairy farm businesses to ensure that the workforce is managed successfully and reducing risk to the business by being compliant.
Feeding & Farm Systems
Feeding Pastures for Profit (FPFP)
The FPFP program aims to provide farmers with the skills and tools to achieve the profitable balance between home-grown feed harvest and supplement use. The program has two days of ‘up-front’ classroom-style delivery plus six on-farm group days over 10 to 12 months. Each participant receives a farm visit to support pasture rotation decisions.
Nutrition Fundamentals
A course which encourages farmers to understand rumen function and then address feed gaps as cost efficiently and effectively as possible using supplements and homegrown feeds (both grazed and conserved)
Advanced Nutrition in Action (ANIA)
The goal of the ANIA training program is to enable farmers to improve herd nutrition practices by providing the technical knowledge, problem solving and strategic planning skills and tools to develop and implement appropriate, nutrition-related management strategies which support personal and business goals. This course is for those with a solid grasp of dairy nutrition and feeding management and looking to extend their capabilities to a higher level. Participants will acquire and apply new approaches, information and tools in herd nutrition management, enable better integration of herd nutrition with the other components of the farm system and assess how key aspects of a farm’s herd nutrition program are performing and identify and pursue opportunities for improvement
Contact
For more information, please contact Murray Dairy by emailing: admin@murraydairy.com.au
