Murray Dairy, in collaboration with key industry partners, recently unveiled the outcomes of its flagship investment in the Fodder for the Future project.
This comprehensive report, the culmination of three years of trials and demonstrations across northern Victoria and southern NSW, aims to provide technical insights and extension messages to empower farmers in optimising the quality and yield of alternative fodder species.
Fodder for the Future — a joint initiative involving Murray Dairy, Agriculture Victoria, Birchip Cropping Group, Irrigated Cropping Council, The University of Melbourne, Riverine Plains, and Southern Growers — was successfully funded by the Federal Government through the Murray-Darling Basin Economic Development Program.
This collaboration sought to address crucial aspects of fodder production and its impact on regional agriculture.
Murray Dairy’s research and innovation coordinator Yvette Williams said collaboration was critical to achieving results for farmers.
“We identified that the grain and fodder industry had extensive knowledge in agronomy that could be applied directly on dairy farms, and we also felt that improved understanding of milking herd diets and quality targets for fodder would help increase common understanding of what makes good fodder in the market,” Yvette said.
“By working with these partners we were able to share information to incorporate into the trial sites as well as reach a wide audience of both dairy and fodder producers.”
The report underscores the significant variations in yield and quality observed across all trial sites, emphasising the influence of site-specific seasonal conditions, sowing timing and crop types.
Managing crops to meet both yield and quality targets in a given year was a challenge, as many factors such as rainfall, dry conditions, flooding and weeds had different impacts at different times at different sites.
A third of the project’s cereal samples and a quarter of the vetch samples met the AFIA Grade A1 specifications, but only one-to-three per cent of the samples met the more stringent quality specifications of the Feed Central Excellent grade.
This highlights the variation in quality that is still achieved when growing fodder under relatively controlled trial plot conditions, the challenges that are amplified at commercial paddock scale, and the opportunity that exists to improve quality of fodder products on the market.
“Growing high quality fodder on paper seems straightforward but the practical implementation can get really difficult in our region where we are dealing with extremely different seasonal conditions each year, across all the different sites,” Yvette said.
In addition to the specific technical messages generated by each trial site, the project identified several additional extension messages to support farmers adopt practices on-farm to improve the quality and yield of their fodder.
These messages focused on the practical application of technical outcomes.
The messages were centred around relationship building, diversification and income generation, the yield and quality trade-off, the importance of proactive weed control and the importance of break crops in dairy rotations.
The project found all of these factors were critical to managing risk in fodder systems, particularly in response to extreme climatic conditions.
Looking ahead, and building on the results of this project, Murray Dairy — in collaboration with Dairy Australia, Gardiner Foundation and the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries — will delve deeper into the role of break crops in fodder systems.
This new project, a part of the national C4 Milk Research Program, aims to evaluate consecutive crop effects in forage production systems.
By understanding the cumulative impact of intensive cropping rotations on the profitability and sustainability of dairy farms, the research will shed light on the role break crops play in these systems.
The Birchip Cropping Group and Irrigation Farmers Network will deliver this vital research over the next three years on behalf of Murray Dairy.
Murray Dairy is looking forward to working with partners and farmers to continuously improve fodder production systems in the region.
Kerang fodder producer Jarrad Schlitz says locally focused research gives farmers the opportunity to see outcomes that are directly relevant to their businesses.
“We see the dairy fodder industry as an important aspect of our market, and to get information on how to improve quality and yield that is directly related to our soils and seasonal conditions is really exciting,” he said.
For more information on the project, contact Yvette Williams by email at yvettew@murraydairy.com.au or phone on (03) 4811 6008.
From Murray Dairy