Comments from our State Coordinators
Robert Chataway – Department of Primary Industries, Queensland
I'm excited about the project because it is tackling an important issue in a comprehensive manner - and at a national level. I'm pleased to be involved.
Lucy Burkitt – Tasmanian Institute of Agricultural Research
The accounting for nutrients project will revolutionise the way we conduct nutrient budgets for the Australian dairy industry. This new approach will be underpinned with solid science and will provide an invaluable tool to monitor and manage nutrients on dairy farms. We are looking forward to being involved with this national project and can't wait to get started.
David Weaver – Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia
From numerous farm-gate nutrient budgets in WA we know that current farming systems apply nutrients in excess of requirements. Whilst this is partly due to the inherent nature of grazing systems, there are opportunities to utilise nutrients more efficiently by understanding how nutrients are transferred and processed within farms. This knowledge will help to identify focus points where management intervention can improve nutrient use efficiency on dairy farms and provide the framework for applying this to other agricultural industries.
Donna Gibson – Department of Primary Industries, Victoria
Accounting for Nutrients is an exciting and important project for the Australian dairy industry. A key strength is the national collaboration and contributions from players across 6 states of Australia who are working together to better understand nutrient balances on dairy farms while developing the national nutrient budgeting framework.
Nigel Fleming – South Australian Research & Development Institute
We see this project as an important step to maintaining an environmentally sustainable and economically viable dairy industry in South Australia.
Ashley Senn – Department of Primary Industries New South Wales
It's great that this project will cover the wide variety of dairy farming systems which operate across Australia. The dairy industry needs to take environmental considerations seriously, and from the point of view of farm profitability, a good understanding of where nutrients are inadequate or over supplied is also important for dairy business.
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