Agriculture the hot topic for ABARES
Productivity, efficiency and sustainability were hot topics when the future of agriculture was in the spotlight at the ABARES regional outlook conference in Warragul last week.
The role of technology in improving farm productivity and efficiencies was a major focus of many of the presentations throughout the day.
The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) regional outlook conference featured a number of guest speakers who looked at national and international issues affecting agriculture, climate impacts and productivity now and into the future.
The program was broken into three key themes: investing in primary industries and growing our future; new and innovative approaches to agricultural production; and innovation in financing and value adding.
Mecrus group managing director Barry Richards gave an insight into how the Mecrus group of businesses had developed over the past 20 years and its business plan for expanding its strawberry farm operation in Gippsland.
He said the company began as a service provider but they saw the strengths of mining, resources and agriculture.
Mecrus has two agri-business sectors in its business including Parwan Valley Mushrooms and Berry Sensations.
He said they produced 50,000 kg of mushrooms each week at the Bacchus Marsh facility.
Berry Sensations has operated a research and development operation in Gippsland for five years and has plans to develop a $60 million glasshouse operation on a 12-hectare property, creating 100 jobs.
To develop new varieties and meet consumer demand for strawberries all year round, he said they had to change the growing environment.
“The first-time strawberries were grown all year around was four years ago by us in Gippsland,” Mr Richards said.
Hill End dairy farmer and Nuffield Scholar Aubrey Pellett spoke about the challenge of sustainable dairy farm profitability and where will enhancement come from.
Mr Pellett operates a 210-hectare dairy farm and for 12 months during his Nuffield Scholarship he looked at productivity.
“I had been farming for 15 years and the profit wasn’t where I expected it to be.
“There was always incremental improvement but I couldn’t see any one thing that I could pick up and improve productivity,” he said.
Mr Pellett said he looked closely at labour costs, herd management, increasing homegrown feed and discovered Precision dairy technology.
Joe Jacobs outlined the Ellinbank Smart Farm project being undertaken at the Ellinbank Dairy Centre.
Dr Jacobs spoke about embracing technology for productivity gains.
He said there were so many ag-tech solutions available now that farmers were confused about what to use and what not to use.
He said ag-tech solutions aimed to improve lifestyle, time and profitability, or all three.
But, he said, what most farmers were asking was, “is it value for money.”
Dr Jacobs spoke about technology options for measuring pasture growth and the intake of cows.
The Ellinbank Smart Farm aims to incorporate a range of ag-tech options including grazing technology sensors, fit bit collars to monitor the health and welfare of cows and nitrogen sensors.
“We have an aspirational goal of being the world’s first carbon neutral dairy farm.
“We are still in the early phase. We have plenty of technology in place but it’s bringing it all together,” he said.