Sustainable production model - dairy

Freshlogic has been engaged to develop a Sustainable Milk Production (“SMP”) model that is relevant to regions of the Queensland and NSW dairy industry.

The principal purpose of the SMP model is to build on the results of regional R&D projects on production systems and techniques, to provide industry with a sound and credible tool that can facilitate an understanding of the features of milk production systems and approaches that are viable in the long term, rather than simply a single-year analysis.

The tool, once completed, will have a number of uses, which include:

·         allowing a comparison of how different production systems can be expected to perform under a variety of conditions;

·         assessing the vulnerability of producer returns to volatility in climates, feed prices and other farm input costs;

·         assessing the impact of major policy changes, affecting irrigation water availability, accounting for tradability in carbon emissions, and other policies affecting operating costs.

The project will use medium to long term forecasts of production volumes, inputs and cost factors for typical dairy farms that are sufficiently representative of the local operating environments – systems in use, feed types, and climatic conditions.   The project aims to provide a decision support tool that will enable dairy farmers and industry stakeholders to practically analyse medium to long term farm management systems and risk scenarios.  The work builds on our commercial project evaluation methods to provide a relevant decision-making tool.

The model has been piloted with a number of dairy farms in Queensland and NSW regions and tested with various sets of stakeholders, including milk supply liaison and extension staff, advisers, and financiers.  The joint project will also develop a recommended approach to allow farmers to access the SMP model.

The tool is one of the strategies of the regional industry aimed at better informing the dairy industry’s participants of the realities for future supply of milk to the metropolitan and regional dairy markets.