Dairy farmers now have a tool to help them decide the best feeding system and associated infrastructure to suit their business.
Called Farm Systems Evaluator, Dairy Australia National Feeding and Farm Systems Lead Karen Romano highlighted its value at the recent Raising the Roof conference in the NSW Hunter Valley.
Ms Romano told the crowd of about 250 there was a lot to consider when investigating feed and housing systems.
“The Farm System Evaluator tool aids decision-making by providing guidance on the farm system options best suited to a particular farm’s goals and needs and assessing the farm’s readiness for farm system change involving feeding and housing infrastructure before any significant investment is undertaken,” she said.
“The tool also helps the farm’s decision makers visualise and prepare for the changes through a strategic plan and action plan. It also helps weigh up the benefits and limitations of operating with different feeding and housing infrastructure.”
The tool, available on the Dairy Australia website, takes into account a variety of physical, human and financial resources associated with each farm.
For example, plans for growth, a farm’s location, economics and the operational requirements of different farm systems.
The launch of this decision tool came as Quentin Moxey, Australian Fresh Milk Holdings Managing Director and a fourth-generation dairy farmer – told the conference that in the future half of Australia’s milk will come from “zero grazing” dairy farmers.
Currently, 6 per cent of the nation’s dairy farmers are zero grazing, representing 20 per cent of the country’s milk pool.
The Farm Systems Evaluator tool is just part of a suite of offerings from Dairy Australia that help dairy farmers considering a transition to housed or zero grazing farm systems.
Two-day Farm Systems Evaluator workshops will be run throughout 2024 and Dairy Australia has also developed a set of farm system transition case studies and videos, which capture the journeys of farmers who have successfully changed to new grazing and intensive farm systems.
More information: https://www.dairyaustralia.com.au/feeding-and-farm-systems/farm-systems/farm-system-evaluator
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