Main Events over the past year:
DairyTas supported and organised a number of events during the year covering a wide range of activities. Some of the main ones are listed below.
- Aug 08 Dairy Situation & Outlook Report Briefings, Burnie and Launceston
- Oct 08 Tasmanian Dairy Conference, Burnie
- Nov 08 NZ Equity Partnerships and Investment in Dairy seminars, Hamilton and Ashburton
- Nov 08 Cows Create Careers presentation day, Ulverstone
- Feb 09 Defeating the Dairy Doldrums Days, 4 locations across Tasmania
- April 09 Dairy Business of the Year awards and field day, Togari
- May 09 Agfest Dairy Pavilion, Carrick
- May 09 Lameness Workshops, Elizabeth Town and Winnaleah
- June 09 NZ Fieldays Display, Hamilton NZ
- June 09 Dairy Live, Launceston
Dairy Effluent Management Program
2008/09 saw the completion of the Dairy Effluent Management Project after 4 years operation across all Tasmanian dairy regions. Around 160 dairy farms participated in the program and invested around $2.5M on farm. Australian Government funds of $1.34M were provided over this period with around $800,000 going towards the farm on ground works component of the project.
Small Project Grants
The Board approved the following projects to a value of $30,940 in 2008/09.
| Project | Value | Recipient |
|---|---|---|
| Investigating the potential of deficit irrigation strategies to improve the efficiency of water use in irrigated temperate pastures - Phase II | 10,000 | TIAR |
| Evaluating and Demonstrating the Business Performance of a High Input Large Herd Dairy Farm in Tasmania | 5,400 | TIAR |
| Comparison of Dairy Returns between King Island and Mainland Tasmania 2007-09 | 5,000 | TFGA |
| Preliminary evaluation of remote-sensing technologies for the detection of oestrus in dairy cows. | 8,060 | TIAR |
| Australian Dairy Innovations Conference; dairy farmer participation | 2,480 | Dairy Farmers |
Dairy Industry Development and NZ Agricultural Fieldays
DairyTas has continued its promotion of the Tasmanian Dairy Industry at Mystery Creek Fieldays in New Zealand. This is the third year we have had a presence. Interest has been down on previous years due largely to the lower returns from dairy and the pressures on the industry.
We have had support for the State Government Department of Economic Development in this promotion and in the Equity Partnership seminars that were conducted in Tasmania and in NZ. The industry downturn and lack of interest from Fonterra in new milk supply has curtailed this interest but we expect this to come back again in the years ahead.
As well as the Department of Economic Development we recognise and appreciate the support from ANZ and Elders Real Estate with the New Zealand promotions and the Equity Partnerships seminars.
Water Use and Nutrient Management Project
2008/09 saw the completion of this project funded by the National Landcare Program and delivered by the TIAR Dairy Centre. The project involved 17 dairy farms in Flowerdale, Ringarooma and the Derwent Valley.
The results from this project suggest that soil concentrations of P, K and S are above the desired optimum agronomic range. Over the period of the project there was a moderate decrease in soil P from an average of 36 (2006) to 34 mg/kg (2007 and 2008), while K decreased from year 1 to 2 (348 to 312 mg/kg) but increased in year 3 (360 kg/mg). Sulphur showed no significant change throughout the project (24, 19 and 25 kg/mg).
Nutrient budgets demonstrated that the majority of farms created a surplus of P, K and S with excessive use of imported nutrients through fertiliser. It's apparent that not all imported/exported nutrients from the farming system are accounted for when fertiliser decisions are being made. Basic economic analyses revealed that potential on-farm savings from $29 to $636/ha could be achieved through maintaining the optimum agronomic range in soil tests.
Water use efficiency data demonstrated that participating farmers generally reached or exceeded the industry average WUI of 1t DM/ML, averaging 1.35, 1.42 and 1.27t DM/ML for irrigation seasons 2006/07, 2007/08 and 2008/09 respectively.
The project delivered nutrient budgeting information, irrigation efficiency information and information to assist with better fertiliser management on farms.
Duck River Nutrient Budgeting Project
TIAR is delivering this project with dairy farmers in the Duck River catchment, funded by the Australian Government's Caring for our Country initiative. 2008/09 was the first year of the project.
The project aims to assist the farmers with on-farm nutrient mapping and through farmer focus groups will assess a broad range of environmental priorities and resources. Farm specific nutrient budgets will be produced to gain improved information on nutrient management and farm inputs. Farm nutrient maps will identify nutrient hot spots and deficiencies so that application of fertiliser is better targeted and the risk of nutrient losses to waterways is minimised.
The project is running over 2 years with 15-18 farms each year participating in the project.
Envirofund Projects
In 2007/08 DairyTas received funding from the Australian Government's Envirofund Program for 2 projects in Northwest Tasmania to support waterway fencing and Revegetation on dairy farms. Both projects were subcontracted to Agricultural Resource Management to deliver.
The first of these was Improving Water Quality and Biodiversity in the Mowbray Swamp, was for $42,480 and involved 4 farms in the Mella, Smithton and Nabagena areas. The second project was based in the Togari/Brittons Swamp area, with funds of $31,520 with another 4 dairy farms involved. Both of these projects will be completed in 2009.
Dairy Business of the Year Awards
The Dairy Business of the Year Award has been held annually in Tasmania for the last 28 years. It aims to identify and highlight the attributes of the best dairy farm businesses in Tasmania and provide information of benefit to all dairy farmers. The Award and associated benchmarking provides entrants with:
- A financial analysis of their dairy business,
- A comparison of their performance with the top 10% in the industry,
- A field day to highlight the winners property, and
- An opportunity to discuss and understand their results.
The Awards, conducted through the joint efforts of the TIAR Dairy Centre and DairyTas, together with sponsorship from industry and service providers, provide an opportunity, free-of-charge, for all dairy farmers to benchmark their dairy farm businesses and obtain feedback on their business performance. This year some 60 farm businesses participated in the Award and benchmarking program.
The associated field days recognise and celebrate dairy farming excellence in business performance, farm management, human resource management and environmental integrity.
The 2009 field day comprised a morning session at Togari Community Centre that included presentations to overall Dairy Business Award winners, Wayne and Angela Huisman and Hatfield Dairies, Share Dairy farmer of the Year award winners Nick and Jane Smith and to winners of several other categories. Over 200 people attended the associated field days at Merseylea and Smithton.
DairySmart Project
2008/09 saw the commencement of the new dairy extension project from the TIAR Dairy Centre. This follows on from the completion of Pastures Plus in 2008. Dairy Smart has established 10 groups with over 100 farmers across the main Tasmanian dairy regions including Advanced Learning Groups (8), a Manager/Sharefarmer Group and a Business Innovation Group.
The targeted outcomes for Dairy Smart are:
- Participating dairy farmers to have a Return on Assets (RoA) above the state average, as measured by the Tasmanian benchmarking program. Participating dairy farmers to have in place plans to manage their way through changes to their business.
- Participating dairy farmers increase their level of skills and understanding which results in the growth of their milk production by an average of 8% per annum (1.6% above the state average annual growth) or perform above state average regardless of seasonality
When the Dairy Smart project is completed the aim is to have moved people towards improving the way they manage their dairy farm business by adopting a business culture. Business culture is the knowledge people use to generate and interpret business-oriented behavior. It involves what people think, feel and believe as well as their actions, behaviors and activities.
The program also supports the monthly Tassie Dairy Newsletter which goes to all farmers.
Tasmanian Dairy Demonstration Farm Project
This project has completed the second year under a 3 year agreement with the Van Diemens Land Company to use the Gums property at Woolnorth. The focus in year 2 has been on consolidating the knowledge gained in the initial year and with a change in farm manager to drive an improvement the meets the vision "to demonstrate principles and practices that deliver top 10% profitability for larger dairy herds".
The project aims to monitor, measure and report all farm activity on a large scale dairy farm according to the following objectives:
- Provide dairy farmers in Tasmania with a clear understanding of the drivers of profit to achieve top 10% of profitability
- Demonstrate to dairy farmers that the system will be sustainable and managed using best practices
- Communicate data and information to farmers and service providers to inform decision making
- To provide a platform for demonstrating technology that assists in achieving the profit and objectives of the business
- To lift the profile of the dairy industry so that it is viewed as a progressive, successful, environmentally sound industry that attracts good people.
The main sponsors of the demonstration activity on the farm are VDL Company, Impact Fertilisers, Roberts, Circular Head Council, Dairy Australia, Wrightson Seeds and Daviesway. This support funds the farm management support and reporting from TIAR Dairy Centre, business consulting and animal health services, project extension and management systems including the best management practices.
The TDDF is run by a sub committee of DairyTas with a Farm Management Group operating week to week on farm management issues.
Cows Create Careers and Picasso Cows Programs
The Picasso Cow program was introduced to Tasmania for the first time this year. Fourteen life size fibreglass cows were sent to primary schools from Westbury to Boat Harbour with curriculum based on the importance of dairy foods to eating healthy as the basis for the decoration of individual cows.
At the end Term 2 over 200 students, teachers, parents and industry representatives attended the Presentation Day at Latrobe with the decorated cows providing a colourful backdrop. The winner, using the submitted work and the cow for assessment, was Latrobe Primary School. All schools involved reported enthusiastically on the project with many including visits to farms, cheese makers and presentations by health professionals such a dentist.
It is hoped that the project will be offered again next year and will include different areas.
Cows Create Careers is in full swing at 14 high schools from Winnaleah to Smithton, with the program extending to new schools in the northern area of Tasmania this year. Several schools that are involved for the second year have seen the great benefits of the program and expanded the participation from 1 class to several classes, even a whole year group.
As was the case last year, Industry Advocates have visited each school to explain their role in the wider dairy industry and in some cases assisting with assessment tasks. Farmers have again been enthusiastic supporters of CCC when approached to provide calves and DairyTas are especially appreciative of this on-going support.
Two Presentation Days will be held later this year, one on November 16th for the North West schools and the other on November 18th for the Northern schools.
Both programs are part of a national initiative and are strongly supported with resources from Dairy Australia. The benefit with working with schools is obvious from the enthusiastic response we receive from both the teachers and students and the high quality of work submitted.
Thank you to all who have supported these programs during 2009.
2009 Dairy Women's Scholarship Winner, Lauren Smith from Togari
Lauren Smith is the 2009 Dairy women's scholarship winner. Lauren works as assistant Manager with Drew Tyson on Redside Farm at Togari milking around 630 cows. The scholarship enables Lauren to attend the Australian Dairy Conference and other dairy events with DairyTas plus undertake a project to assist her career in the industry.
As well as her work on the farm Lauren is studying for a Diploma in Agriculture.