DairyUp delivering research for farmers

Dairy farmers are set to benefit now and into the future because of the research and development undertaken by a 5-year collaborative program in NSW that has recently come to an end. The DairyUP program was a unique collaboration that had ten key projects focussing on a broad range of areas including animals, pastures, farmer capability, future systems and products, the future climate and planning. 

Discussing some of the key outputs and resources for dairy farmers, our guest this episode is Sergio Garcia, better known to the dairy industry as Yani. Yani is the Professor of Dairy Science at the University of Sydney and the DairyUP program Leader. He has had a long and distinguished career in the dairy industry initially in Argentina, his country of origin, then in New Zealand and for the last 20 years or more, here in Australia. 

Resources: 

DairyUP website (publications, final reports, factsheets and other resources) - https://dairyup.com.au/ 

This podcast is an initiative of the NSW DPIRD Dairy Business Advisory Unit – further information and resources are available here - Dairy | Department of Primary Industries

It is brought to you in partnership the  Hunter Local Land Services

Please share this podcast with your fellow farmers and colleagues and feel free to contact us with suggestions or comments via this email address thebusinessofdairy@gmail.com

Further NSW DPIRD Dairy channels to follow and subscribe to include;

NSW DPIRD Dairy Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/NSWDairy

NSW DPIRD Dairy Newsletter - Connect with us | Department of Primary Industries 

Transcript - 

Produced by “Pacific Studio” www.pacific.studio 

The information discussed in this podcast is for informative and educational purposes only and does not constitute advice. 

Transcript

00:00:03:09 - 00:00:34:16
Sheena Carter
Welcome to the Business of Dairy podcast. I'm your host, Sheena Carter. Dairy farmers are set to benefit now and into the future, as a result of the research and development undertaken by a five year collaborative program in New South Wales that has recently come to an end. The Dairy Up program was a unique collaboration that had ten key projects focusing on a broad range of areas including animals, pastures, farmer capability, future systems and products for future climate and planning.

00:00:34:18 - 00:01:03:19
Sheena Carter
Joining me today to discuss some key outputs and resources for dairy farmers is Sergio Garcia, better known to the dairy industry as Jani. Jani is the professor of dairy Science at the University of Sydney and the dairy Up program leader. He has had a long and distinguished career in the dairy industry, initially in Argentina, in the country of origin, then in New Zealand and for the last 20 years or more here in Australia.

00:01:03:21 - 00:01:18:10
Sheena Carter
Welcome to the Business of Dairy podcast, Jani. We're talking today about dairy Up, this large RDNA project run in New South Wales. What was the driver of the establishment of dairy up?

00:01:18:12 - 00:01:49:18
Yani 
Thanks. Gina I'm back. Then around 2018, 20, there was a lot of a negative in the industry, perhaps particularly more in New South Wales. There was also the increased awareness of the differences in the range of systems in New South Wales compared to other regions, and there was also a lot of isolated efforts being done by different groups and organizations in trying to provide some answers.

00:01:49:18 - 00:02:32:05
Yani 
So we put that together. We were working already with the young in France I was and from and Bruce Christy from DPI. I've been in at that time and around 2020 was this the bushfire recovery scheme came up? Farmers were being hit obviously, followed by everything in the created a bit of that negativism as well, like a bushfires, floods and that provided opportunity to put together a program intending to provide industrial recovery, the risk in the industry and potentially creating new markets.

00:02:32:06 - 00:02:39:14
Yani 
And we were successful with that focus in industry recovery. And yeah, we started in 2021.

00:02:39:17 - 00:03:04:02
Sheena Carter
Yeah. And it's a, I think a unique framework that was set up in New South Wales. We sort of are aware of similar models where we've got this large collaboration in other parts of the world and perhaps Australia, but it was a good example of many organizations coming together. So that was fantastic. Now we're going to focus on farmer relevant projects in this podcast.

00:03:04:02 - 00:03:14:11
Sheena Carter
But could you give us a high level overview of the ten projects and 13 subprojects, and the network of dairy farms that were involved in the program?

00:03:14:13 - 00:04:04:19
Yani 
Yes, sure. The problem was really built around the concept of unlocking the potential of milk cow water people. And so the focus areas really were were for mainly where we had a strong focus on pasture based systems through productivity, pasture filter options, carbon emissions. Another key focus was model intensive systems and animal health, and particularly within the intensive systems, but also infrastructure feed based economics, which you will obviously the lead author of The Economics of Intensive Season sina the other two focus areas where data data really meaning not only data, but also automation, technology, etc. that really work across the many different projects.

00:04:04:20 - 00:04:32:12
Yani 
And the other key focus area was the intention of developing avenues at least, or paths to new markets, not only with milk, but also with daily lift, for example. So there was, as you say, there were ten projects, ten dual projects to two of them, one on passive, one on cows, where basically took nearly half of the whole program because each of them had a lot of projects.

00:04:32:12 - 00:04:40:20
Yani 
But the focus areas were those are Patchway systems intensive systems data and new markets.

00:04:40:22 - 00:05:09:23
Sheena Carter
Right. So it's it is a broad range of focus areas. And we will put a link in the show notes for listeners to the dairy website, which for people that want to drill into some of the projects and uncover some more that we are not speaking about today. There is a comprehensive case of information there on reports and papers, etc. so obviously running a program like this takes a lot of funders.

00:05:09:24 - 00:05:27:07
Sheena Carter
And there were 21 agencies who were part of this very large collaboration, so they were either directly funding or supporting the program. Can you expand on who the main partners were and the significance, the overall significance of this collaboration?

00:05:27:12 - 00:06:03:06
Yani 
Yes. The University of Sydney Dairy Research Foundation was the leading organization that this whole program. But we had four main delivery, what we call delivery organizations. One was asked the another one was a private research and consultancy organization based here at Camden and led by Ian Lee, who is also a joint professor. He has in uni DPI at that time, DPI, now DPI, R.D. and and they came with the out of the term project.

00:06:03:06 - 00:06:59:07
Yani 
Five projects were originally from the Australia and basically through the collaboration and the coding together that you know accessing that grant from the Bushfire Industry Recovery Scheme, we were able to enhance the outputs and outcomes and application of those projects from the air. So those were the main organizations. There were 12 partners in total, including those four and in and including industry organization like Neutral Farmers and other government organization like local land services, both Hunter and South East Queensland, and private organizations like Lepton Pastoral Company and Australian Fresh Holding, which were all also contributors and partners in the in the whole program and then use as well as well.

00:06:59:09 - 00:07:26:01
Yani 
There was part of the initial panels and we also had over the course of the program, we had an additional 1012 supporters, project supporters that really enhanced the Samsung contributed money in kind and, you know, different plants in different ways, I suppose, but it was a really big and probably one of the biggest outcomes of the whole thing.

00:07:26:01 - 00:07:27:17
Yani 
Was this collaboration really?

00:07:27:19 - 00:07:37:20
Sheena Carter
Yes. And with your role in leading that, I think I would imagine that was a bit of a high workload to keep across and and juggle Yanni.

00:07:37:22 - 00:08:09:14
Yani 
It was, but it was really a team effort. And we had a very established, a really good governance with all the stakeholders being part of the like a broad ball stealing committee. And we had we have the program coordination group that was more operational management, and we had all these four key delivery organizations represented. And and there was a, a team of over 70 people working through all the different organizations in the app.

00:08:09:15 - 00:08:43:11
Yani 
And I should say something you ask, and I didn't I haven't mentioned yet, but the there were over 34 ton farms in total, and I was super unique and and probably the best thing that we, we had in the whole program because we a lot of the research outputs that we are there already and farmers will benefit from for the to come really came from whether in research done in those funds or by the.

00:08:43:13 - 00:09:02:24
Yani 
And the farmers were so kind in providing resources, information, opinion feedback. So we are super, super grateful for all those farmers. And we hope that the you know, what we were allowed to do in those funds will enable in the to to to keep moving forward.

00:09:03:00 - 00:09:35:20
Sheena Carter
Yeah, it is fantastic and it's wonderful to let's call it keep keep it real and applicable to industry based on actual farms participating. So yeah that's it is very generous of them. So and I guess to add to your comments about the research, it's important to highlight that much of this research has been published in international highly regarded journals so farmers and industry can be assured that the information is of quite a high standard and quality.

00:09:35:20 - 00:10:07:03
Sheena Carter
And as I've mentioned before, will people can access those a lot of those reports on the dairy website. Now let's talk about some of the outputs and tools that are available for farmers in the industry to use now. And I think we'll we'll kick off with the pasture side of things, where in an industry that is still heavily pasture based, and it is really important that we make the most of our pastures and manage them well so we can be productive and profitable.

00:10:07:04 - 00:10:13:12
Sheena Carter
So what were some of the key projects, findings and outcomes from them? That was farmers, yes.

00:10:13:12 - 00:10:59:24
Yani 
And the the bachelor projects were overall was called unlocking the potential of base pasture. And obviously being Kikuyu being a key factor base for New South Wales fans, particularly across the whole coast. And the way we we had a I guess, address that possible activity was we talked to farmers at the beginning before actually starting the project, in terms of which were the key impediment they were seeing, because, I mean, farmers no better than anyone that the potential of the patches and, and they can get more and and we had a really, really good feedback from them in terms of, you know, how difficult was to to manage something that grows so dynamically and can

00:10:59:24 - 00:11:43:17
Yani 
change from growing almost nothing to nearly 200kg per hectare a day after the rain. How to manage the quality? Because as soon as they trying to harvest or great more with the cows, production drops because the can is not as good as that in driver. So with the lack of varieties, the more suitable or more adapted to different conditions or different needs, the potential case of toxicity and the fact that that in terms of environmental impact, there is no match or the there wasn't anything really available for farmers to know exactly what is the how much is the carbon footprint for, for example.

00:11:43:17 - 00:12:23:23
Yani 
So we put all that and in the process that we create the five projects, and each project was really tackling one of those key impediments. And I mean, we could talk the whole day about this, you know, but I think one of the key or the main output of all this project was to we work with these 15 patch Bay farms across New South Wales, and we were able to establish a method based on satellite and satellite, and that is likely saved by the requires a lot of work to be able to to say, yeah, this is calibrated and this is tested and we did that.

00:12:23:24 - 00:12:40:13
Sheena Carter
So the idea being behind the calibration. So we've got the the satellite technology that's estimating pasture growth. And the purpose here is to calibrate the satellite technology. So it's understanding what it's reading in terms of Kikuyu pasture growth.

00:12:40:17 - 00:13:05:20
Yani 
Yes. In the first in first class was to basically test those satellite measurements on tools because we know they're commercially available, but the farmer doesn't know. We didn't know how accurate or not they are. And to in order to do that, that is not a simple process because you have to do it across many farms, across regions, across time, different time of the year.

00:13:05:21 - 00:13:30:15
Yani 
And that requires a lot of additional measurements to be able to evaluate our technology. So we were able to do that. And that is, again, as I said before, publishing in one of the best international saunas. And we were able to determine that, yes, those satellite systems do work, but do also require relatively frequent calibration with a few play metal mission measurements.

00:13:30:15 - 00:14:05:04
Yani 
And that is a really impediment for adoption. And we can come back to that if you want. But with that, if we leave that aside for a second and I know that farmers would be wonderful, what can I use today? But if we leave it aside for a second, the with that calibrated tool, we were able to really measure in detail at the paddock level, the growth and the utilization of each of those parts over two years on the 50 farms with the tool that we now know was called during that time was calibrated and was accurate enough.

00:14:05:04 - 00:14:34:24
Yani 
So the result from that was that across the 15 farms, there was more than four times, four times of partial not being utilized, partially was grown, but it wasn't utilized. And that is an average of the 15 farms. So I really want to see now because if you are, you know a lot about foreign economics, and one kilo of diameter pasture can easily convert into one liter of milk.

00:14:34:24 - 00:14:44:02
Yani 
So we are talking about one ton of matter of pasture per hectare. We are talking about 1000l of milk extra, and that today is roughly $1,000.

00:14:44:03 - 00:14:44:07
Sheena Carter
Where.

00:14:44:07 - 00:15:12:16
Yani 
You are. Yeah yeah, yeah of course. But very well number. And you can, you can argue that even you already pay for that because it could be even basically income without much additional cost. But even if you put all the cost and at the same net margin of the rest of the the farm, you're talking about potentially 200, 250, $300 per ton of net asset or net margin.

00:15:12:16 - 00:15:25:20
Yani 
So it's really very powerful. Multiply that for a farm of 150 200 hectares and you have easily a full salary additional layer. So it's super massive in terms of the potential.

00:15:25:22 - 00:15:51:06
Sheena Carter
And and I think another way to look at it as well is that it's so your homegrown feed, let's just give it a rough value of $150 a tonne. Dry matter if it's directly grazed, if you're leaving that four ton behind somehow, for whatever reason, potentially you're going to be getting that feed from somewhere else and purchased in feed is way north of $150 a tonne dry matter.

00:15:51:07 - 00:16:16:02
Sheena Carter
Let's give it $400 a tonne dry matter. So that's your alternative feed source. When you've already you've already incurred the cost to grow it. So yes, absolutely. Let's understand where the waste is. And and yet let's utilize it better. And if if you can't potentially graze it all let's conserve it. Sure. It adds adds a bit more cost to homegrown feed because you've got all that conservation and feed out cost.

00:16:16:02 - 00:16:19:24
Sheena Carter
But generally I would imagine it's still going to be cheaper than purchased in feed.

00:16:20:02 - 00:16:47:04
Yani 
Yeah it is. You're absolutely right. You know, I think it's again, this is emphasizing I mean, farmers know that pasture better than anyone. And they they know that which paddocks produce better, which perform better analysis. But it's I really believe it's different once you can start putting figures into it like a once in a funnel. No intuitively that it could be utilizing more than one.

00:16:47:05 - 00:17:19:13
Yani 
But when you see in your farm that G, you have grown 12 times and you rise only 6 or 7. Yeah, it can make a difference because it can be a lot more aware of that. We can put a real value in money to what you intuitively knew that was happening. Another level is really amazing. We are still getting additional information out of that database of unique database, I should say from from those two years for the 15 farms.

00:17:19:14 - 00:17:44:17
Yani 
And we are also being able now I will to to look into how much of the pasture utilization component is due to growing more versus how much is due to utilizing it better. And it's quite really quite interesting because obviously, as anyone the farmers know. Right. Of course you have to go. But I mean, the more you grow, the more chances you have to utilize more.

00:17:44:19 - 00:18:17:07
Yani 
But we do have a lot of cases in which basically we're growing the same amount, but utilizing 20, 30 or more percent better than others. So that is a very telling in, in terms of and really worth exploring and to, to apply to. I we really believe that when you put that into practice and we are going to be that's going to be the emphasis of or the next phase of the of the project in the area to again, working with farmers.

00:18:17:07 - 00:18:25:18
Yani 
I want to do it, but it was to put that in practice to actually get in the regional milk and the additional money. So it's a bit. Yeah.

00:18:25:19 - 00:18:52:11
Sheena Carter
It's not. Yeah. All right. Should we move on to some of the cow and herd performance research given our time. So again there are lots of projects focusing on the dairy herd, whether that was calf husbandry, early calving, heat stress management, infectious diseases. It's quite broad. What are some of the key projects that are set to benefit our dairy farmers in this area?

00:18:52:13 - 00:19:27:06
Yani 
We have the what we call B2 project. We will look in the potential of cow and that was led by and lean by very well-known researcher from managing director of silos and his team, and basically was a really broad integrated research program designed to improve health, productivity, welfare and longevity of the cattle, really. So it was a P2, had seven subprojects to address all those areas, an incredible amount of outputs useful for an information useful for for farmers.

00:19:27:06 - 00:19:54:24
Yani 
Really. So I as you said before, I definitely encourage farmers, consultants and service providers to to look into the final report and the papers that were produced. But just to highlight a couple of examples, the longevity to me was the key one. I mean, all farmers know that all the female guard are born with the potential to have eight, nine, ten more lactation perhaps, and very few of them really reach more than 5 or 6.

00:19:54:24 - 00:20:27:01
Yani 
So yeah, it is. When we're talking about unlocking the potential of cow, I don't think there's nothing like it's even close to to longevity. We do get managed to get additional lactation. It benefits all from which whatever angle you look at it, from the point of view of the money you spend to grow that heifer from the, you know, basically deluding obviously, any any cost due to no productive lives to with more milk and even from an environmental point of view.

00:20:27:02 - 00:20:55:19
Yani 
There's a lot of a dilution of carbon emissions into if we if we increase the longevity of the cow. So there were a lot of a really good to the sample over 1700 cows. And so it's very, very unique. I we created a database together with other seen that today has more than 200,000 lactation records from more than 30 farms and over 30,000 cows or something like that.

00:20:55:20 - 00:21:28:04
Yani 
And so it's really, again, similar to what you said before. While the publications is very sound and strongly scientific, scientifically waste, and there were really a lot of new insight, like, for example, the role of some fatty acids like omega three fatty acids to potentially increase survival within the hell I mean, cows with general speaking cows in pasture system had higher omega three than intense systems and generally speaking, cows.

00:21:28:06 - 00:22:00:14
Yani 
Those cars had higher concentration of omega three fatty acids, had on average 300 days more longer life survival in the air. So it's like a an 80% increase in survival in related to omega three. So I guess the good news is that potentially that can be manipulated through diet. So that was it was one of the new proposals we had put on that when we were still very keen to find resources to, to actually test that on farm.

00:22:00:15 - 00:22:22:10
Yani 
But it's very, very promising because we, we, we can and there were many other outputs of course, but such a to mention that as an example, we were able to improve diet manipulation to and result not only in better many more milk but also in more survival is a massive impact on farm. Really?

00:22:22:11 - 00:22:31:14
Sheena Carter
So you're saying that there's more a higher omega three concentration in pasture based diets than in total mixed ration diets?

00:22:31:15 - 00:23:01:14
Yani 
Yes, and that's really interesting. That's all the work by David Sheedy, who one on one of the PhDs within the team. But I guess the very interesting funding is that, you know, similar to we used a Fitbit or or smartwatch and you can basically can tell you your fitness age and say in addition to something is a bad thing, but was similarly, David came up with a concept of a metabolic age.

00:23:01:15 - 00:23:41:17
Yani 
And in a sense, if when you look at all these compounds and indicators for the same age, chronological age, causing the intensive system where metabolically all all than calcium participant, was that mean? I mean that we have to be looking at different different things and how to to manage them. And perhaps, for example, one of the hypotheses from the group was that because my silage is lower in omega three and because my silage is obviously used all year long in intensive system diet, that could be perhaps one of the contributors to to defining.

00:23:41:18 - 00:23:55:10
Yani 
So it's nothing wrong per se, just that it allows to potentially change it or do something about it and get a better result or, you know, more, more survival or more production from the cows.

00:23:55:13 - 00:24:01:17
Sheena Carter
Right, right. That's that's very, very interesting. Anything else in the herd performance space.

00:24:01:19 - 00:24:42:24
Yani 
Yeah. Well again this we can talk the whole day, but I'd like to mention perhaps the the wall by doctor. Now doctor, another PhD student who is now appointed lecturer position researcher position and teach in the University of Sydney. And Sarah actually worked with cats and the indicators early indicator for performance and very interesting findings. C was able to determine that the amount of milk consumed by a calf by day five in the in automatic filters, but obviously will apply the same for any system.

00:24:42:24 - 00:25:14:19
Yani 
But by then number five, which is basically the number I guess 10 or 12 in the life of the calf, because obviously they get into around 6 or 7 days after being born into the automatic calf feeder, the amount of milk consumed and the behavior of calves, how willing they were into trying to attempting to get additional milk even when there was a milk available for them that was translated into better performance and better, higher winning.

00:25:14:21 - 00:25:56:05
Yani 
Wait and see. Follow up those into the adulthood and lactation records, and she was able to demonstrate that those cars are actually performed better. A win was also produced more in not only in first, second and third lactation, but also tended to survive more into her. So it says it's a massive funding really, because if you can translate that into like as, as early as they filed the first couple of weeks, let's say in the life of the car, knowing which one we are, the the ones that will are more likely to perform better in life.

00:25:56:06 - 00:26:23:13
Yani 
I mean, you can do a lot of things about it. You can you can improve your selection or which ones you retain. All farmer can and also you can do something about it. Those that are perhaps showing not such, such a good performance, maybe something that you can correct if I really tackled in time. So it's again I see that it's a super practical application, super impactful potentially for farmers.

00:26:23:13 - 00:26:51:22
Yani 
And we have another student, Kimberly, with us here already, who is following up with Sarah in those steps to to be able to basically, we need to consolidate these findings across a much larger range of farms in Australia and regions, etc., and hopefully be able to develop a tool that can very easily help farmers to convert that finding into something tangible and useful for them.

00:26:51:24 - 00:27:24:03
Sheena Carter
Yes. And, you know, it comes back to that really important calf management. This sets up your heard the future. So it is such a key time to manage and to manage well. So that productivity of your cows, once they enter the herd is optimized and all the flow on implications for that. Let's move on now to intensification. So in New South Wales and other regions of Australia, we're seeing lots of farms looking to intensify their system.

00:27:24:03 - 00:27:54:21
Sheena Carter
And by that we mean sort of going to a fully housed system where the milking herd is fed, what we call it a total mixed ration. So all the milking, milking cows are receiving, all their feed is presented to them. There's no grazing. So the shift towards these systems is complex. There's many reasons why why farmers are doing this, whether it's climatic or depending where you are, access to irrigation water and the cost of that water, heat and wet conditions.

00:27:54:23 - 00:28:10:18
Sheena Carter
Lots of different reasons. Expansion. Dairy looked at a number of aspects of intensification, including the economics of these systems and improvements in the feed base for intensive systems. What's the research showing is here?

00:28:10:18 - 00:28:57:06
Yani 
Jani was, you know, the true collaborative philosophy of the the economic of intensification was led by yourself and so. Well. So Alan, really and I guess I will definitely possible that back to you. I'll say that from the program point of view, the way I see this is that, like I try to pull myself. If I were a daily farmer and was thinking of possibility farming and thinking of moving into into intensity, and for whatever the reasons you you mentioned before, I'll be super, super pleased to have access to the information that data and day up in, in New South Wales, particularly yourself and the team have created and contributed because if even if you

00:28:57:07 - 00:29:28:24
Yani 
know nothing about it and for thinking for the first time, I go into those resources in very in a really small amount of time, you can know that intensive system can be as profitable as top pasture systems in a very in the same amount of time. You can know that in both type of systems that are farms performing really, really well and fans are not doing so well, which obviously clearly indicates that it's not the system but how it is managed or other conditions.

00:29:28:24 - 00:30:19:02
Yani 
I guess the key indicators you can also know because of the, you know that the, the, the creek, what are the clear drivers really for, for, for the system because I mean everything is important and the other is a lot of similar important things in both parts of Asia and intensive system. But you go say for example, production per cow is not necessarily a top key performance indicators in batch of a system, but it's absolutely imperative, one in intensity and family investing five, six, $8,000 per cow all oversee two farms in between the same and one achieving 43l per gallon average, and the other 139 will make a wall of the difference.

00:30:19:02 - 00:30:46:04
Yani 
So that is the those the the fact that that process was able to identify those drivers very clearly. That's I think it's a really help farmers, whoever farmers are thinking about it or considering it's about getting trustable information to make your decisions, how we see where we are not as one or the other with such the that's for really for the farmer to decide.

00:30:46:05 - 00:30:54:11
Yani 
And but I think it's really good to know that we have contributed with really good information for them to make better decisions.

00:30:54:12 - 00:31:16:08
Sheena Carter
Yeah. And I think, you know, you've highlighted and you've actually used this word a number of times throughout the podcast, which you may not have noticed, but talking about unique data sets. And I think dairy up has delivered that in spades. And as you say, this data set around the economics of TMR systems in New South Wales was is a unique DAF set.

00:31:16:09 - 00:31:47:14
Sheena Carter
There was an absence of that information. At the same time I should mention Agriculture Victoria BA were doing the same using the same methodology in northern Victoria, analyzing farm performance up there. So our our farm performance. It was an historical analysis, a five year analysis of seven TMR farms in New South Wales. And the data was a comparison between those TMR systems and the New South Wales Dairy Farm monitor pasture based systems.

00:31:47:14 - 00:32:12:05
Sheena Carter
So that enabled us to tease apart some of those things that that you've mentioned. Yes, any system can be profitable and TMR systems are as profitable as pasture based systems. There's different risks, I think, within the two systems that farmers need to be acutely aware of because they need to manage them, such as, you know, exposure to, to purchase feed markets when times get tough.

00:32:12:05 - 00:32:41:07
Sheena Carter
Because one of the things we did see in that project, that five years included a period where there was a significant drought in New South Wales and where where farms were highly exposed to that purchased fodder market. That proved really challenging in terms of generating a profit for some of those businesses. But I think the other thing to add this P3, the economic work for New South Wales farms, we've been fortunate in being able to use that data set and add to it.

00:32:41:08 - 00:33:05:06
Sheena Carter
So in collaboration with Agriculture Victoria and Dairy Australia, that five year data set is now a nine year data set. And we recently released some results at a conference called Raising the Roof Down in Victoria, where we spoke about the ninth year of data and some trends over time. So I won't go any further into that because that is available in the previous podcast if people want to listen to that.

00:33:05:06 - 00:33:30:20
Sheena Carter
But this Dairy Up program is generating some highly valuable new information for farmers. I should also mention that that project looked at some social science, and that research was done by Ruth Nettle and Nicki Reichelt at the University of Melbourne. And that was really about understanding those motives, drivers, challenges that people have had adopting these systems, you know, sort of in this early phase of the industry.

00:33:30:22 - 00:33:49:24
Yani 
Well, so that fantastic work, as you know, and congratulations to to you and, and and and leading all that because it was a matter and also the this collaboration with, with the rules and Melbourne uni was fantastic to see as well. So well done.

00:33:50:01 - 00:34:04:03
Sheena Carter
Yeah. Thanks Jani. And you know potentially hopefully we can continue that data set because it is very insightful. So beyond the research findings and outputs of the projects, are there any other benefits that dairy Up has provided to the dairy industry?

00:34:04:08 - 00:34:35:20
Yani 
Oh yes. I think as I mean, again, apart from the research outputs per say, I'd say that the actual model that we put in place is again, using the unique and but very powerful. So it's a it's a model that really brought all the organizations together and really enhanced the resources and basically the use of those resources. I was based on, on a whole system research, I guess, with commercial formalization.

00:34:35:20 - 00:35:03:19
Yani 
So we had the model. I'm talking about the models in general, not only the model in terms of the organization participating, but also the fact that with more than 30 farms, the impact of the of the model as well the practical on farm focus of all the projects, we always try to get to the at the top of the agenda, I suppose, and the whole integration of that model through multiple investors, delivery partners and collaborating organizations, I guess.

00:35:03:19 - 00:35:34:05
Yani 
So that was I mentioned as a top additional benefit for the industry. The second one, and perhaps even more important is the reunion we were able to produce with this model. And we have across all the projects, we had 12 PhDs, nine of them through senior university, two through UTS and one through CSU chartered. And the I mean, amazing students, many of them already finished.

00:35:34:07 - 00:36:18:23
Yani 
The some of them are being retained in dairy and and research and teaching through the University of Sydney. There are some others that will continue to work in hopefully in the area. Two in phase two, some others have taken jobs as well within. So it is really amazing to see these were the drivers of all the research on the ground and, you know, making it happen and the and we are super pleased really with all these young cannons that now are trained to, to really being able to address and the issues and solve the problems that farmers will be facing tomorrow.

00:36:18:23 - 00:36:46:19
Yani 
So, so it's a it's I think it's the, the biggest contribution we have made. And the last one just to say, if you allow me to say the in section of this and hopefully that we were able to to do with the added time, as I said at the beginning with the industry was everything was looking black and farmers were being hit by everything from price to class to files, you name it.

00:36:46:20 - 00:36:56:15
Yani 
So hopefully we were able to to leave a lot of renewable sources, new tools, new ideas for farmer to take a lot more positive view for the future.

00:36:56:16 - 00:37:23:21
Sheena Carter
Yeah. Thanks, Jani. And I think it is absolute testament to the project. Yes, there's all that new research and resources out there and it's added to the, you know, the intellectual power of research in the dairy industry, you know, the coming, coming decades. I think succession within industry, whether it's consultancy, farmers advisory, it's always good to be able to identify opportunities to bring new, talented people into the industry.

00:37:23:21 - 00:37:54:16
Sheena Carter
So that's both PhD students. That's a fantastic outcome. So look, I think we'll wrap up and on behalf of the New South Wales dairy industry, Jani and more broadly the Australian dairy industry, I would really like to congratulate you and the dairy up team, the researchers and the participating farmers for all the fantastic work, this broad body of research and development that is setting up the New South Wales industry and Australian industry into the future.

00:37:54:19 - 00:37:57:18
Sheena Carter
Any final comments you would like to leave us with?

00:37:57:19 - 00:38:23:19
Yani 
Oh, thanks very much Sheena, and definitely pass that on the whole team, including yourself and the the DP daily team. I guess I'd like to finish. Hopefully, hopefully we are leaving a very strong legacy of resources for farmers, and I like to emphasize that the the most important things, in my opinion, is to have a good and relevant information for being better prepared.

00:38:23:19 - 00:38:47:04
Yani 
And that's we we know that farmers will be hit by a low of a condition. This is happening now with external situations, and we have a Nino coming already here. But if I can make an analogy with sailing, which is my what I do for during my three times, and we cannot change the wind, but there is a lot we can do about it.

00:38:47:05 - 00:39:38:08
Yani 
We can reduce, save the mount, we can train the sails, we can change, adjust direction, of course. And the more we know about things, the more knowledge we have, the more we can anticipate and come up with better outcomes. So I guess the the really the whole resources that we leave with very up through all those to the website, the reports, the papers, the concept, etc. it really hopefully will help farmers to go back to the driver's seat for the helm seat in analogy, but I really am really hopeful that this that together with the, you know, the the success of the collaborative model can, can really allow, you know, people coming behind us to,

00:39:38:09 - 00:39:48:20
Yani 
to continue with this path of, you know, sound information, helping farmers to be better prepared and really enhance use of resources.

00:39:48:22 - 00:39:51:10
Sheena Carter
Yeah. Fantastic. Thanks.

00:39:51:12 - 00:40:04:03
Yani 
Stay tuned with the two which will Sally will focus with this continuation of departure and productivity I mentioned before and also animal the two projects in the animal health related to animal health.

00:40:04:05 - 00:40:28:01
Sheena Carter
Excellent. Well thank you, Jani, again, thank you very much for your time. Great to be able to share many of the outcomes from dairy up. And again, encourage listeners to check out the dairy website and dig into a lot of those reports and papers. There's a rich array of information there for everyone. Thanks, Jani. That's all for today's episode of The Business of Dairy.

00:40:28:06 - 00:40:55:22
Sheena Carter
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00:40:55:24 - 00:41:20:07
Sheena Carter
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