Spring is well and truly under way.
Irrigation has started on time in our irrigation districts, helping to make up for a lower-than-average winter rainfall, and the season is holding firm for most of us.
The north-east, however, is still battling tough conditions and we’re hoping for a damp ending to spring everywhere.
It’s a reminder that our ability to grow and store quality fodder really sets us apart when there’s very little in storage elsewhere.
In the July issue I mentioned that Murray Dairy was running a C4Milk Roadshow and dinner in Moama in early August. It turned out to be a great success.
More than 50 farmers came along to take part in the day, sharing ideas and having strong discussions about how to grow better crops suited to dairy, and not just cropping like our cropping neighbours (let’s face it, apart from NDFs, I’m not sure my cropping neighbour knows that 4.30 comes around twice a day).
There was a lot of interest around the C4Milk trial sites.
These are test plots that look at the role of break crops in continuous forage systems and the message was clear: local research really matters, and it is important that we are solving questions that farmers and their advisers are asking.
Murray Dairy has been running forage research projects for our region for more than 10 years, and events like this show how important that research still is.
The C4Milk Roadshow reinforced that past projects like Fodder for the Future are still relevant and important, so we are now working on new ways to share those results too so that more farmers can learn from them.
Related to this, Dairy Australia recently asked for new ideas on forage research.
After speaking extensively to dairy farmers and their advisers, Murray Dairy put in two proposals.
They included one to continue the C4Milk trials for more years so we can better understand break crops over time.
We don’t know the outcome of the submissions yet, but we are excited by what we heard during our conversations.
We have also been having a lot of chats with discussion groups and Dairy Business Network Groups to understand how Murray Dairy can support them, what is important to them, and how we can work together on regional dairy leadership development.
Murray Dairy believes that peer-to-peer networks are very important for ensuring that farmers have a strong support network, as well as access to information and knowledge sharing.
This has been my personal experience in the Southern Riverina and my partners with their DBN.
More widely, the farmers we have been speaking with have shared lots of great ideas for their groups, including ways some need or want to do things differently.
The great thing about peer-to-peer networks is that they are not all the same, and they shouldn’t be.
Lastly, I’d like to thank Fiona Elgin for her outstanding contribution to the Murray Dairy Board.
Fiona has been with us for about 10 months while Amy Fay has been on maternity leave.
Fiona’s skills and experience have helped the board finalise transitioning to new ways of working with Dairy Australia, and I've lost count of the number of farmers and advisers she has spoken to, in our quest for better outcomes for our farmers.
I speak on behalf of the Murray Dairy Board when I say that Fiona has left us all better directors. We wish her all the best.
Rachael Napier is the Murray Dairy chair.