Projects
Dairying for Tomorrow results in significant returns today
Results: A project to increase productivity and environmental outcomes in the dairy industry has shown returns to Australia of four dollars from every dollar of industry funds invested.
Dairying for Tomorrow ‘On The Ground’ was an ambitious program aimed at achieving behavioural change on farm. The primary aim was to boost the development of farmer capacity in natural resource management (NRM) and develop a set of processes, or environmental management systems (EMS), to deal with NRM issues common to dairy farmers across Australia.
Chair of Dairy Australia (DA), Max Roberts, said an evaluation carried out by economic consultants the BDA Group found the program had equipped dairy farmers with an on going capability to identify strategies that contribute toward environmental improvements across different catchments.
‘EMS typically involves some cost, so it was recognised that strategies that delivered productivity gains as well as environmental outcomes would be more likely to be adopted’, Mr Roberts said.
The program commenced in 2001 with seed funding from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. It was coordinated by DA and involved significant collaboration between industry and community groups including the federal and state governments, NRM agencies, milk companies, farm services businesses and dairy farmers.
Dairying for Tomorrow ‘On the Ground’ had three key components:
- DairySAT – a farm based self assessment tool that farmers could use to assess the environmental risks associated with their own operations to identify and prioritise issues and develop appropriate action plans;
- Piloting BizLINK in three different regions; and
- Better PRAC – the development, evaluation and implementation of tools and processes for achieving targeted change identified through farm level action plans.
According to Mr Roberts the update of the program has been impressive. By July 2007 1,400 farmers had completed DairySAT and of these an estimated 80% had undertaken or committed to an action plan for on-farm change.
‘While the changes varied across different regions and farm groups, changes have been made in three broad areas including effluent and nutrient management, water use and irrigation management and biodiversity conservation’, he said.
‘Water quality impacts have been achieved through better management of dairy shed and feedpad effluent, rehabilitation of riparian lands and limiting stock movement into waterways. This has been carried out on individual properties as well as across adjoining properties that share common waterways’.
It is estimated that some 105 kms of riparian land has been improved under the Dairying for Tomorrow project.
There has also been protection of areas of remnant vegetation including bush corridors of land through adjoining properties, and replacement of pasture areas with native vegetation (such as protection of drainage lines and use of shelter belts). This area has been conservatively estimated at around 1 ha on average per farm where action plans have been acted upon, or some 1,120 ha in total.
Improved effluent management, better matching of applied nutrients with plant requirements and nutrient budgeting has enabled pasture production to be maintained (or even increased) under reduced volumes of applied fertiliser.
Reduced nutrient run off has been estimated at 1 kg per ha or 112 kg per farm. Across 560 farms this would total 63 tonnes annually.
The final impact considered was water savings achieved from reducing leakage from existing storage and delivery infrastructure, prevention of water logging in prone areas or more effectively sourcing water from waterways that have been rehabilitated. Water savings have been estimated at 10 megalitres per farm (5.6 gigalitres across 560 farms).
The payoff to levy payers was estimated at $13.4m in present value terms or a return of $18 for every dollar invested through the farm levy.
The payoff to Australia as a whole on the total investment was estimated at $22.5m in present value terms or a return of $4 for every dollar invested by all partners.
