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Current Projects
Western Dairy is the facilitator (and part funder) of a range of industry projects and initiatives.
Our flagship project in 2008 is Dairy Invest – a project designed to drive investment in the WA dairy industry. Dairy Invest has its own dedicated website and we recommend you visit www.dairyinvestwa.com
Dairying for Tomorrow
This national Dairy Australia initiative has very strong regional legs. Dairying for Tomorrow WA is headed up by respected NRM identity Jackie Hasler, who is responsible for coordinating on Western Dairy’s behalf, a range of projects that will foster sustainable dairy farming practices and promote best management of natural resources on dairy farms. Jackie is currently developing a range of projects that will help deliver the dairying for tomorrow objects in WA. Dairying for Tomorrow is the program responsible for the highly successful DairyCatch project.
Contact Jackie Hasler
Tel: + 61 8 9758 4021
Download the Dairy Catch Brochure
Greener Pastures is Western Dairy’s flagship project. This five-year intensive farming systems project will help farmers make smarter use of nutrients, especially nitrogen. A key industry strategy to increase pasture production is the use of nitrogen fertiliser. Nitrogen use on WA dairy farms has increased sixfold between 1990 and 2003 but it appears that much of this extra nitrogen is not being turned into milk. Greener Pastures aims to clearly define the milk production response to nitrogen fertiliser in a pasture system and to demonstrate practical ways to use nitrogen more profitably.
Project Leader: John Lucey ,
Department for Food and Agriculture, WA
E: jlucey@agric.wa.gov.au
Other Projects
Extended Lactation
Western Dairy has contracted Dr Peter Rosher from Cattle Veterinary Services in Busselton to undertake an observational retrospective descriptive analysis of the characteristics of “longer” versus “normal” length lactations in Holstein/Friesians in the WA herd test data set - 1997 to 2007.
Key outcomes and questions to be addressed by this project include:
For bi-seasonal herds:
- What is the fall off in production of solids (milk income) in “carryover” cows (cows with extended lactations)?
For year round herds:
- What is the fall off in production of solids (milk income) in cows with increased “days open” (cows with extended lactations)?
For both systems:
- Are there differences depending on age & season of calving?
- Are there populations of cows with extended lactations that perform differently? For example, comparisons between high literage herds and low literage herds.
Project Leader: Peter Rosher
Contact: Tel 08 9751 2311
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