Meat & Livestock Australia adoption programs have delivered $1.04 billion in total net benefits to participating producers who adopted a new practice between 2015 and 2023, the organisation's annual Producer Adoption Outcomes Report shows.
In 2022-23, around $59 million was delivered in annual net benefits to 13,757 producers who participated in learning and training activities to grow their businesses.
According to MLA's program manager for adoption, Sally Leigo, the program provided a suite of service offerings, including training products, group learning, one-on-one coaching, resources and tools that put producers needs as top priority.
"Through this focus of putting producers themselves as the top priority, a greater emphasis is placed on addressing their individual business needs," Ms Leigo said.
"MLA and our delivery partners provide extension services that allow producers to explore how to improve their business skills as well as pasture and livestock management through the latest research outcomes, technology, or best management practice."
During 2022-23, 9.3 million sheep, 8.7 million cattle and 536,179 goats were positively impacted by practice change programs rolled out by MLA. Landholders participating in adoption initiatives were responsible for 157.5m hectares of Australian agricultural land.
MLA's flagship programs for producers include Profitable Grazing Systems, Producer demonstration sites and EDGE Network. These programs provide information on key management practices through supported learning packages, peer-to-peer learning and workshops.
In 2022-2023, the PGS program saw continued growth in engagement and return on investment to producers. This was largely driven by the increased delivery of SLPs throughout northern Australia and the introduction of MLA's southern SLP, Grass to Dollars.
PGS will deliver $269.2m in total net benefits to participating producers as a result of SLPs attended between 2015-2022. MLA's investment in PGS since 2015 delivered $15m in annual net benefits to producers in 2022-23.
The PDS program aims to increase the rate of adoption of key management practices and technologies that improve business profitability, productivity and sustainability.
Between 2015 and 2023, the PDS program has delivered $215.1m in total net benefits to participating producers. While the program delivered up to $13.1M in annual net benefits to producers within 99 locations around Australia in 2022-23.
"On average, and depending on the area of practice change, producers could expect an additional net benefit of between $1.77 to $4.69/ha annually as a result of their participation in the PDS," Ms Leigo said.
A sheep producer from Victoria who took part in a PDS last year said: "Working with like-minded farmers who were keen to crank things up was fantastic.
"We did lots of activities and picked up information, things like weighing, condition scoring, feed quality and it was great to do it as part of the group. Even small things like feed testing ryegrass at different stages was very beneficial."
The EDGE Network gives producers the opportunity to develop skills to improve their livestock enterprises through one- to three-day workshops.
There are six courses currently available with two new courses in development:
- Business EDGE
- Business EDGE Young Guns
- Breeding EDGE
- Nutrition EDGE
- Grazing Fundamentals EDGE
- Grazing Land Management EDGE
New courses coming soon:
- Carbon EDGE (launching October 2023)
- Southern Rangelands Grazing Fundamentals EDGE (launching 2024)
EDGE has delivered $468.4m in total net benefits to participating producers as a result of workshops attended between 2015-2022. This includes $72.6m of total net benefits identified for 2022.
"On average, and depending on the area of practice change, northern beef producers participating in an EDGE workshop can expect an additional net benefit of between $8-$89/km2 annually," Ms Leigo said.
"Likewise, on average, southern producers participating in an EDGE workshop can expect an additional net benefit of $6.33/ha annually."
