SADA Fresh funds more than 30 projects in 10-year history

SADA Fresh is a not-for-profit organisation with milk produced on local farms.

It is processed and bottled by Lactalis at its Clarence Gardens facility in Adelaide and it is sold throughout SA in Coles Supermarkets.

SADA receives 20 cents a litre, which goes to the SA Dairy Industry Fund.

SADA Fresh produces about three million litres of dairy products a year.

The fund pools this money to finance projects and activities that will help secure the future viability of the industry as well as benefitting local farmers and their communities.

A decade on, $2.1 million has been invested in more than 30 different projects to not only help the local farmers and communities but better the South Australian dairy industry as a whole.

Projects funded included a quadbike rollover device rebate scheme, a pasture mapper, a project looking at measuring and using biochar as well as contributions to Cows Create Careers and much more.

SADA president Robert Brokenshire said the projects selected were important to help the industry such as Cows Create Careers, a national dairy program SADA Fresh were able to help fund.

He said Cows Create Careers was an ongoing project that had nearly a thousand secondary school students every year across the state introduced to the dairy industry.

"We are hopefully going to generate our next workforce for the dairy industry, whether it's working on the actual dairy or whether it's tanker driver or quality control, marketing - all the different opportunities that we're looking for ongoing because labour is our biggest challenge at the moment," he said.

"These kids are pretty enthusiastic and they're learning so much about just what the dairy industry is doing."

Mount Compass Area School agricultural teacher Kiara Edwards said as a result of Cows Create Careers the children were exposed to all aspects of the dairy industry through various industry advocates who visit the school during the program.

"It actually allows schools the safe opportunity to engage with industry with your handheld," she said.

"They actually set you up with the industry advocate and a farmer, so the teacher is able to make strong connections.

"For us at Compass, we come from a dairy region and a lot of our kids end up back in the dairy industry.

"It's just one of those programs that are so efficiently run and resourced."

She said Cows Create Careers had boosted her agriculture student numbers in senior school due to the positive influence.

Year 8 student Emilie Faure said she was looking forward to the arrival of the calves next week to learn more about the industry.

"The Cows Create Careers program is made so we take up more jobs in the industry," she said. "Every school should be given the chance to do Cows Create Careers because it helps us to see the different sides of the industry and it's very helpful."

Classmate Lachlan Philips said he was enjoying making a model of a barn.

"I am trying to symbolise best practice showing how a barn is better than leaving a cow in pasture," he said.

Mr Brokenshire said any sector of the sector with a project needing investment should make an application to the SA Dairy industry fund.

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