GRDC - Grains Research and Development Corporation

22/08/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 22/08/2024 07:22

MLA and GRDC join forces in $2.1m initiative to support mixed…

A new $2.1 million, four-year pilot project designed to put more dollars in the pockets of mixed farming businesses has been launched by Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) and GRDC.

The joint project is targeting businesses producing both livestock and grain across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.

The goal of the project is to showcase to primary producers how new or alternative management practices, along with key learnings from scientific research and development could benefit commercial mixed farming operations.

As a first step the project co-ordinators are calling for applications for preliminary producer demonstration sites (PDS) across eastern Australia. Applications open on Thursday, 15 August and close on Wednesday, 25 September.

MLA's project manager for producer demonstration sites, Alana McEwan said that partnering with GRDC was a critical and collaborative step in delivering better outcomes for mixed farmers.

"The close linkages between MLA's PDS program and GRDC's National Grower Network (NGN) in delivering impactful, on-farm, locally relevant projects created an opportunity to develop a partnership demonstration site program targeted towards mixed farming systems," Ms McEwan said.

"This partnership program will support groups of producers to demonstrate, adapt and validate the benefits of integrating new management practices, research and development outputs, and associated skills within the context of their commercial production systems."

GRDC's senior regional manager - south, Stephen Loss, said the project was an important opportunity for industry collaboration that would help support on-farm practice change and peer-to-peer learning and deliver production and profitability gains.

"We know it can be challenging for producers to translate R&D into actionable practice change in the context of their local environment and farming system," Dr Loss said.

"This partnership between GRDC and MLA will see the development of six PDS sites that will provide producers with a hands-on and guided experience to implement research on-farm which highlights profitability and productivity benefits to drive practice change."

The MLA/GRDC Partnership PDS Program aims to have producer groups aligned with these six sites and in action by June 2028. These groups will be able to access the PDS sites to demonstrate, adapt and validate the benefits of integrating new management practices, along with R&D outcomes within commercial farming systems.

Mixed farming operators interested in being involved or hosting a PDS should:

  • Access MLA's PDS search tool - users can search all active and completed PDS projects. The tool can be used to search for sites by topic and/or state/region of relevance - making the findings of each PDS more accessible and allowing producers to incorporate the outcomes into their own production systems.

About MLA: Meat & Livestock Australia Limited (MLA) delivers marketing and research and development services for Australia's cattle, sheep and goat producers, creating opportunities from their combined investments to build demand and productivity across the supply chain. Most of MLA's funding comes from transaction levies placed on the sale of livestock, with the Australian Government providing matched funding for levy investment in most R&D.