To build resilience into their dairy business, some farmers are choosing to transition across to feedpads and contained housing facilities and move away from the more traditional grazing based systems.
These significant investment decisions are being adopted to address a range of farming and regional specific challenges including climate adaptation, water availability, workforce efficiencies, improvement in environmental management, and enhanced animal health and production outcomes.
This has resulted in complex decision-making, planning and infrastructure considerations and not a quick fix solution.
And that’s where Dairy Australia and Agriculture Victoria Dairy Feedpads and Contained Housing National Guidelines fourth edition come to the fore.
The guidelines have been written and peer reviewed by 28 subject matter experts and technical specialists from Australia and the United States and are intended to provide a clear and concise overview of what is required when planning, developing and managing an intensive system.
The guidelines will help:
- assist the dairy industry to make informed decisions with respect to feedpads and contained housing
- raise awareness of industry, government, and community expectations to minimise adverse impact on the environment
- establish a key reference enabling proposals to progress smoothly through development and planning stages relevant for each state
- demonstrate an ongoing commitment to support producers undertake farming system changes.
The review and upgrade of these guidelines was the result of two significant industry events — the national dairy manure summit and the national dairy intensification workshop.
Engagement with farmers and key stakeholders identified the importance and opportunity to strengthen key sections, particularly focusing on financial management, land capability assessment, farm emission, improved engineering designs and a better understanding of state planning and approval processes following the successful establishment of these farm systems across Australia.
These guidelines have been prepared by Agriculture Victoria with the support of Dairy Australia following an extensive consultative process to produce a key reference document informing the development and management of dairy feedpads and contained housing in Australia.
Choosing the most appropriate feeding infrastructure and contained housing for the farm, and its locality, requires understanding the range of potential feeding and housing solutions commonly used in the industry, not just in Australia, but globally.
The guide can be found at https://tinyurl.com/vrw7wpm6