Western Dairy Programs

Western Dairy runs a number of programs to help Western Australian dairy farmers with farm business management, feedbase and environmental management, as well as training and scholarship opportunities for farm workers and tertiary students.

Dairy Farm Monitor Project

The Dairy Farm Monitor Program collects farm data from up to 30 participating farms in Western Australia each year to benchmark the financial and physical performance of the WA industry. The data is independently verified and collated, providing a unique snapshot of the performance of the region.

Pasture Trials and Demonstrations

The Western Dairy pasture trials are an initiative of Western Dairy, incorporating three individual trials and demonstrations.

Western Dairy provides independent analysis of pasture varieties and management tailored specifically to the WA dairy industry and environment. These include The WA Seed Performance Trial (WASP), Grazing Management demonstration (Goldilocks Grazing) and Seed Mix Trial.

WASP trial partners include Nutrien, PGG Wrightson Seeds, Barenbrug, IH Seeds and Valley Seeds.

The trials are run in accordance with best industry practice protocols, as developed by the Pasture Trial Network (PTN) system.

They include:

• Assured data integrity and confidentiality with Western Dairy independently running the trial.
• Seed for the trial is purchased from the rural retail network and germination tested at the time, to ensure that it is suitable for inclusion in the trial.
• The trial is intended to run every year for three years, to build a solid data set spanning multiple years and seasons, with the ability to capture new products as they enter the market.
• WASP may also contain pasture seed retailed in WA that does not meet criteria for entry into the PTN system.

WASP

WASP is an independently run annual ryegrass trial over two sites at Dardanup and Forest Grove in the heart of WA's dairy region. The trial compares all retail seed products that are currently sold in WA and provides independent economic analysis to dairy farmers.

Grazing Management Demonstration (Goldilocks Grazing)

Goldilocks Grazing tests best grazing management strategies, with plots being grazed to the ideal residual, over-grazed, under-grazed and grazed too early. The performance of pasture production is then assessed over the growing season.

Seed Mix Trial

The Seed Mix Trial assesses the benefits of early grazed available fodder and the subsequent yield of oats and ryegrass seed mix over the growing season.

Smarter Irrigation for Profit Program

Western Dairy is taking part in a program to better assess irrigation system performance and optimise pasture and crop yields.

A 220-hectare dairy farm in Dardanup is one of 46 sites on dairy, cotton, sugar, grain and rice farms across Australia participating in the Smarter Irrigation for Profit 2 program until 2022.

The project is supported by funding from the Australian Government's Department of Agriculture as part of its Rural R&D for Profit program, and Dairy Australia.

Western Dairy will use C-DAX technology to regularly measure pastures over the growing season and map the correlation between soil moisture, water application and pasture growth.

Western Dairy participated in the first phase of the program between 2016 and 2018 and collected baseline data from four dairy farms.

For further information, visit the Dairying for Tomorrow website.

DairyCare Effluent Management Program

Western Dairy's DairyCare project assists farmers to review and upgrade their dairy effluent systems.

The project is made possible through the State Government's Regional Estuaries Initiative and Revitalising Geography Waterways fund.

Farmers are being supported to design, install and maintain fully-enclosed effluent systems that reduce nutrient loss off their dairy farms and improve the water quality of regional estuaries.

Farms in qualifying catchments may be eligible for funding towards developing plans and completing capital works upgrades.

Environmental Management

Western Dairy is committed to best-practice environmental management and supporting more WA dairy farmers to adopt sustainable practices.

Western Dairy, together with the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development and Geocatch, have developed these farm guidelines based on best-practice environmental management on WA dairy farms.

Training and Development

Western Dairy offers two industry-accredited certificates in partnership with South Regional TAFE. These courses can be delivered within or outside of a farm traineeship:

• Certificate III in Agriculture (Dairy Production)
  Accredited training for a wide variety of everyday dairy farm activities.
  
  
• Certificate IV in Agriculture with a dairy focus
  Accredited training for management roles on a dairy farm

The benefits of formal training for employers include supporting employee career aspirations, greater employee retention, reducing the length of time training, and helping to develop a professional dairy workforce.

Western Dairy dairy trainer Rob LaGrange liaises with employers and students to ensure agreed outcomes are met and supports all participants through their journey.

Research Scholarships

Every year, Western Dairy seeks expressions of interest from university students completing their honours year, or undertaking a PhD with a dairy focus, to consider a project that will contribute to the knowledge bank of WA dairy research.

In 2018-19, Western Dairy awarded scholarships to University of Western Australia student Shilja Shaji and Murdoch University student Teanna Cahill.