Meat & Livestock Australia's (MLA) ongoing investments in adoption continue to deliver impact for producers, with the latest Producer Adoption Outcomes Report finding that these investments delivered $74.3 million in annual net benefits to 10,202 producers in 2023-24.
According to MLA's Program Manager for Adoption, Sally Leigo, the MLA adoption program provides a suite of service offerings including training products, group learning, one-on-one coaching, resources and tools.
"MLA's adoption programs are focused on assisting producers to increase their production, profitability and sustainability," Ms Leigo said.
"These programs are designed to allow producers, supported by a local service providers to explore how to improve their business skills as well as pasture and livestock management through the latest research outcomes, technology, or best management practices.
"The Producer Adoption Outcomes Report outlines the results achieved from producers engaging in these services during 2023–24 and the benefits they received through such involvement."
During 2023-24, landholders participating in adoption initiatives were responsible for more than 219.4M hectares of Australian agricultural land, and managed more than 14.6 million cattle, 9.1 million sheep and 647,950 goats.
MLA's flagship programs for producers include Profitable Grazing Systems (PGS), Producer demonstration sites (PDS), EDGE Network and BredWell Fedwell (BWFW). These programs provide information on key management practices through supported learning packages, peer-to-peer learning and hands-on workshops.
Since 2015, there have been over $1.1 billion worth of total net benefits delivered to Australian red meat and livestock producers who adopted a new practice as a result of participating in a MLA Adoption program.
Profitable Grazing Systems (PGS)
In 2023-2024 the PGS program saw continued growth in engagement and return on investment to producers.
Throughout the year, 441 producers were involved in a PGS group. On average producers involved in PGS experienced a $5.53–7.52/ha average annual net benefit for participating southern producers and $6–26/km2 average annual net benefit for participating northern producers.
A new PGS package was made available in 2023-24 called LevelUp. It is designed to coach producers through how to take the family farm and turn it into the family business, covering topics of strategy, governance, investment and succession planning.
Producer Demonstration Sites (PDS)
The PDS program aims to increase the rate of adoption of key management practices and technologies that improve business profitability, productivity and sustainability.
Following the 2023–24 PDS call for producer-led projects, MLA supported funding for six levy projects and three co-contributor projects. Three additional Integrated R&D PDS projects were contracted during 2023–24 associated with research projects.
Throughout 2023-2023, there were 83 active projects funded through the PDS program. On average, and depending on the area of practice change, producers could expect an additional net benefit of between $2.29 to $5.89/ha annually as a result of their participation in the program.
MLA's EDGE Network (EDGE) gives producers the opportunity to develop skills to improve their livestock enterprises through one to three-day workshops
There are eight courses currently available with two new courses launched during 2023–24: Carbon EDGE and the Southern Rangelands Grazing Fundamentals EDGE.
In 2023-24, 545 producers participated in one of the 48 workshops delivered. For those participating it is estimated that producers receive an annual average benefit of up to $6.21/ha for southern producers and up to $100/km2 for northern producers.
In total this means there has been $43.3M* of total net benefits identified for 2023.
In 2023 MLA revamped the BredWell FedWell (BWFW) workshop to reflect evolving best practice genetics and nutrition management.
BredWell FedWell (BWFW) is a one-day practical workshop on how productivity and profitability can be improved through good breeding and feeding over the livestock production cycle, with a specific focus on profit drivers.
Over the year, 347 producers were engaged across the 19 workshops, who manage almost 1 million hectares of agricultural land. Of those producers, 94% indicated that they would plan to make changes after attending the BWFW workshops.
