Following a highly successful six years of the DairyFeedbase research program and subsequent industry and farmer consultation, July 2023 will see the start of the next phase of research in feedbase management.
A joint venture between Dairy Australia, Gardiner Foundation and Agriculture Victoria, Dairyfeedbase is one of the dairy industry's leading innovation programs designed to revolutionise feedbase management on Australian dairy farms.
According to Agriculture Victoria's Professor Joe Jacobs, research from the current DairyFeedbase project has had numerous outcomes that farmers can implement now on farm.
"If we look at every individual aspect of the program, we can be proud to say that each project has contributed to the future of the dairy industry," Professor Jacobs said.
"If we break down the achievements across each of the five projects, PastureSmarts has been able to validate a range of methods to measure pasture density and nutritive qualities via non-destructive technologies that can be as accurate as conventional methods while saving farmers considerable time when compared to current methods.
"Technology has also been implemented into improving the accuracy of the Forage Value Index (FVI) through the Future Forage Value Index project."
The FVI enables farmers to select ryegrass cultivars most suited to their environment and is a popular tool for farmers.
"From the 'Smart Feeding' project we have been able to test and implement simple feeding strategies that help improve whole herd intakes without requiring more feed resources on farm," Professor Jacobs said.
"Preliminary on-farm data suggests significant milk production responses from re-allocating the existing pasture base - that is more milk from the same amount of feed.
"We also see similar outcomes from the First 100 days project, where we have been able to develop improved feeding strategies that help fresh cows increase their intake quickly lifting peak production and increasing full lactation production in a cost-effective manner.
"The Feeding Cool Cows project has also resulted in providing regionally specific feeding strategies for improved animal health and milk production across regions that experience chronic (long) heat events and those that receive short-term heat events."
As the current project wraps up, farmers and industry service providers will be able to see more detailed results appearing via different extension activities and supporting resources from Dairy Australia.
The next phase of research
DairyFeedbase '23-28 is the next five-year investment that will underpin the viability of the Australian dairy farm of tomorrow. It is designed to ensure farms are more resilient to the impacts of climate change, and more nutrient efficient resulting in more milk per cow and per unit of land - while supporting the National Soils, Forage and Nutrition R&D Framework goal of a 20 per cent increase in productivity and profitability by 2040.
DairyFeedbase '23-28 will feature six key transformational projects.
The DairySoils project will focus on improving nutrient use efficiency and improving the soil rhizosphere (the area in which the soil microbes live around plant roots) while using less synthetic fertiliser and making better use of dairy waste streams.
Resilient Forages research will investigate multispecies swards to increase high value biomass, nutrient efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase longevity and productivity of perennial pastures.
The Measuring and Enhancing Nutrient Intake project will continue research into improving prediction of pasture dry matter intake using sensors and other technology. There will also be work investigating strategies to enhance nutrient intake and milk production.
The ability to get more lactations out of a cow, sees improvements in farm productivity. The Improving Lifetime Production project will investigate nutritional and management strategies to reduce animal loss prior to the end of their first lactation and improve overall herd reproductive performance.
The Climate Resilience project is set to undertake research into mitigating methane emissions through dietary interventions, both additives and novel feedbase options. In addition, researchers will work with DairyBio to develop proxy measures of methane that enable the development of a specific breeding value for low methane emissions.
As the level of technology increases on-farm, the Sensing Data into Actionable Insight project will look at developing new automated data collation for farming systems. The aim is to develop ways to take information from multiple sources and turn it into more readily accessible information to aid decision making.
The DairyFeedbase programs are a joint venture between Dairy Australia, Gardiner Foundation and Agriculture Victoria that is now represented by the Victorian Dairy Innovation Agreement (VDIA).
For more information on the current DairyFeedbase programs and other herd and feed innovation, visit www.dairyaustralia.com.au/herdandfeedinnovation.
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