MLA, Dairy Australia join to set up dairy beef extension training program

AgSTAR Projects managing director Maria Thompson has told the conference there is an opportunity to improve the breeding, the feeding and the management of any marketing of the calves destined for dairy beef pathways.

Australia's dairy and red meat peak bodies have joined to develop a new five-year extension and adoption program for the dairy beef sector.

Dairy Australia and Meat & Livestock Australia will jointly fund the Growing Beef from Dairy study program and encourage its take up.

AgSTAR Projects managing director Maria Thompson told the Growing Beef from Dairy Conference, Melbourne, that only 37 per cent of dairy cattle, of a 1.5 million herd, were bred for replacements.

That meant an estimated conservative surplus of between 500,000-600,000 calves.

"We have existing, and emerging, dairy beef pathways - there is most certainly an opportunity to improve the breeding, the feeding and the management of any marketing of the calves destined for those pathways," Ms Thompson said.

She said there were management challenges on farm, as surplus calves had been seen of having no monetary value.

There was also the issue of the cost of infrastructure, rearing and finding skilled labor.

"There is a huge social welfare licence issue for the industry," Ms Thompson said.

"This area has become a priority for industry, in particular for stakeholders, so they can have access to best management practices and information, the latest research and development."

The project aimed to develop the tools to assess the viability, costs and benefits of rearing dairy cows for beef.

"It will essentially be developing a suite of information and tools to upskill to support both dairy and beef producers to make better decisions across the supply chain, to ultimately improve animal welfare and meat quality outcomes," she said.

The team developing the training package hoped to talk to everyone in the dairy-beef supply chain.

"It's a market-focused outcome for surplus calves - where is the target market, what is the end point for those calves?" she said.

The training package would aim producers to make more informed and better decisions, based on the age and weight of calves, regional, seasonal and market variations.

"A key element of the project is working with farmer and the supply chain to understand what the barriers are and to ensure they are thinking about 'what is the market for my calf, what is the next step, where is my calf going?'," she said.

The project would develop bespoke learning modules, target to calf age and weight.

Source: Andrew Miller, Farmonline National, 19 September 2022