Plans are underway for the Agriculture Victoria2023 BestWool/Best Lamb Conference and dinner to be held in Bendigo in June, in partnership with AWI,. The dinner will be celebrating 25 years of BestWool/Best Lamb network, with the conference on the following day. Further details to come but mark your calendars now.

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As more attention is being paid to the carbon and emission performance of agricultural industries and farms, Agriculture Victoria is providing the tools and resources to help farmers start their emissions reduction journey. 

All food and fibre systems produce some form of greenhouse gas emissions, including: 

• methane is mainly caused by animal digestion and respiration, manure stockpiles, and effluent ponds
• nitrous oxide is mainly from fertilisers, animal manures and denitrification, and
• carbon dioxide comes from fossil fuel-based electricity consumption, diesel and petrol use fertiliser and lime applications, animal manure stockpiles, and effluent ponds. 

The production, manufacture and supply of inputs used on the farm can also contribute to a farm’s overall emissions profile.

The Making cent$ of carbon and emissions on-farm booklet provides practical actions that farm businesses can take now to improve their emissions performance. In many cases, actions to reduce emissions or increase carbon on farms have multiple benefits for farm businesses, such as increasing farm health and profitability. 

The booklet focuses on six action areas where emissions performance can be addressed:

• Energy: increasing efficiency, renewable energy, and emissions reduction
• Nitrogen use efficiency and fertilisers: improving efficiency and saving money
• Healthy soils: to grow food and store carbon
• Livestock: improving performance and reducing energy loss
• Trees: for farm health and sequestration
• Supply chain: preparing for what others are doing.  

These areas help farm businesses take control of their situation and consider options to improve the resource efficiency of their operations. 

Many farmers have already made great resource efficiency improvements, helped by new technologies, practices, and skills and these improvements can also reduce overall emissions. 

A number of other free, practical tools and resources have been developed and are available on the Agriculture Victoria website to help inform industry about weather and climate patterns, carbon emissions, and energy use on farms;   

• the recently updated Soil Carbon Snapshot delivers the latest science around soil carbon and includes links to 70 research references and soil carbon reports relevant to Australian agriculture
• Agriculture Victoria also delivers climate webinars on topics relevant to primary producers and others working in agriculture.  Subscribe to be notified when new webinars become available
• for farmers considering selling carbon credits from their trees or soils, a revised set of Frequently Asked Questions has been developed to help inform business decision-making.

Agriculture Victoria has also commenced the On-Farm Emissions Action Plan Pilot. Over three years the team will work with up to 250 farm businesses across the state to measure their on-farm emissions profile and identify potential actions to manage and reduce emissions while maintaining productivity. 

The On-Farm Emissions Action Plan Pilot is being delivered as part of the Agriculture sector emissions reduction pledge to provide practical information, tools and services to support farmers to understand and reduce emissions.

Stay up to date with the pilot by visiting and bookmarking the On-farm Emissions Action Plan Pilot webpage or express your interest in the program by emailing actionplanpilot@agriculture.vic.gov.au

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Farm debt mediation – because your farm is your business

In Victoria, banks and other creditors must offer to undertake mediation with farmers before they can initiate debt recovery on farm mortgages.

Farm debt mediation is a structured negotiation process where a neutral and independent mediator assists the farmer and the creditor to reach an agreement about current and future debt arrangements.

The service is low cost ($195, per party), confidential, and independent and can help avoid the costs and other consequences of expensive and potentially unnecessary litigation. 

The Victorian Small Business Commission (VSBC) manages all aspects of the Farm Debt Mediation Scheme with aquaculture, forestry, and timber production businesses now also protected.

For more information call the VSBC on 1800 878 964, or enquiries@vsbc.vic.gov.au or visit the Victorian Small Business Commission website. 

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Want to learn more about farm biosecurity?

Complete our free online learning modules to find out how you can help protect Australia’s farms from biosecurity threats such as Foot-and-mouth disease and Lumpy skin disease.

These modules are designed to teach you the risks and impacts these diseases can have on our agriculture sector and what you can do to identify and reduce those risks.

Courses include:

• Foot-and-mouth disease awareness
• Lumpy skin disease awareness
• Come clean, stay clean, go clean – when visiting farms
• Livestock standstill for foot-and-mouth disease.

Access the eLearns on the Agriculture Victoria website.

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Watch the six-part series on fox management on Agriculture Victoria's YouTube channel. Videos range from three to 12 minutes long. 

• Introduction: Pest animal control in Victoria
• Monitoring pest animals in Victoria - make it part of your plan
• Part 1: Fox control in Victoria
• Part 2: Baiting foxes
• Part 3: Fox control in Victoria - canid pest ejectors
• Part 4: Supplementary fox control options in Victoria

The Victorian Government's fox and wild dog bounty has returned for 2023. Agriculture Victoria Biosecurity officers will again operate monthly collection centres across the state from March until October. Visit the Agriculture Victoria website for more information, including collection schedules across the state. 

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A range of support measures are available for flood and storm-affected farmers. Information about these measures can be found on the Agriculture Victoria website. For any urgent animal welfare needs, please contact 136 186.

Has your feed quality been affected by floods or storms?

Did you cut hay or silage later than expected?

How does this year's grain stack up for energy and protein?

Agriculture Victoria is offering feed quality tests to hlep check the quality of your feed sources. There are a limited number of tests available, so we’re encouraging farmers to register now.

After the feed test results have been returned, Agriculture Victoria will host a series of webinars to discuss results and options to keep your stock as productive as possible.

One free feed quality test (NIR)
Agriculture will provide one free feed quality test. Producers are encouraged to undertake additional tests on other key feeds, at their own cost.

Dates:

• Feed tests are available until Tuesday 11 April
• Webinar on Feed Test Results Tuesday 18 April at 7 pm.

To register click here.

Participants will automatically be registered for follow-up webinars.

Topics to be discussed at follow up webinars:

• Feed test result interpretation
• Feeding Livestock website
• Basic ration formulation
• Flood recovery support.

For more information, please contact Toni Dakis, Flood Recovery Officer.
M: 0428 975 728 E: toni.dakis@agriculture.vic.gov.au

For more information on flood and storm recovery programs and resources, visit the Agriculture Victoria website.

Flood and storm affected farmers are eligible to apply for financial support via the current flood recovery grants until 30 April 2023. 

Available grants include:

• Primary Producer Recovery Grants: Up to $75,000 grants to cover the cost of recovery and get businesses up and running again. Note: This replaces the $10,000 Primary Producer Flood Clean–Up, Relief Grants announced on 19 October. Producers that have received a Primary Producer Flood Clean–Up Relief Grant of $10,000 can now apply for up to a further $65,000 under the Primary Producer Recovery Grant, bringing the total to $75,000.
• Rural Landholder Grants: Up to $25,000 grants to cover the costs of disaster impacts for small-scale producers.
• Primary Producer Concessional Loans: Up to $250,000 to restore or replace damaged equipment and infrastructure, or to cover short-term business expenses. This loan has been amended to allow primary producers who suffered a significant loss of income as a direct result of the 2022 Victorian floods and storms but who did not suffer direct damage to assets to apply for a concessional loan of up to $100,000.
• Primary Producer Transport Subsidies: Up to $15,000 to support the transport of emergency fodder or stock drinking water, and the movement of livestock.

To apply for support or for more information visit the Rural Finance website.

Agriculture Victoria is working with Victorian producers and industry to prepare for, respond to and recover from natural disasters (including floods and storms) through delivery of technical information and decision-making support services including:

• grazing, cropping and pasture management
• irrigation and horticulture system rehabilitation
• soil erosion management
• land management
• animal health and nutrition
• farm mapping and planning
• water quality
• weed management. 

Farmers are encouraged to contact the Agriculture Recovery team on 0427 694 185 (Mon - Fri between 8.30 am and 5 pm) or email recovery@agriculture.vic.gov.au

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BWBL Networks contact: Alison Desmond, Project Leader M: 0409 424 274 E: alison.desmond@agriculture.vic.gov.au 

AWI has launched a free, short online course for woolgrowers that takes a look at the importance of wool price risk management and hedging principles. The content covers types of risk, risk management products, strategies and analysis in relation to the wool industry, and shows how a better understanding of these elements can enable an increased uptake of forward contracts and lead to improved market signals.

Access the course on the Woolmark Learning Centre website.

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BetterBeef Networks contact: Darren Hickey, Project Leader 

M: 0457 609 140 E: darren.hickey@agriculture.vic.gov.au

It's not too late to do an assessment of pasture condition and groundcover coming out of summer/early autumn.

Groundcover is a commonly used measurement in pasture assessment. Groundcover is expressed as a percentage of material that can be observed on the surface of the soil and can consist of vegetation (green and dead), leaves and manure. Groundcover is vital for protecting soil from wind and water erosion. Groundcover also reduces run-off. In south-eastern Australia, groundcover of 70 per cent or more is recommended for flat or undulating country, and up to 100 per cent is needed for steeper areas and/or areas which have lighter, more erosion prone soils.

From late summer up to around the autumn break is a great time to assess groundcover for the purposes of determining pasture condition, and therefore how stock will perform on that pasture during autumn and winter. Assessing groundcover should include assessing the quantity of material covering the ground (in kg per hectare) as well as the percentage of groundcover.

The quantity is important because it can affect the ability of pastures to respond to autumn rain. Too much groundcover at this time of year (e.g., under-utilised rank summer pasture), can inhibit autumn pasture growth after rainfall by impacting on the ability of perennial grasses to tiller and grow, and inhibit the ability of sub clover species to germinate. This is because of the reduction in light reaching the ground. Too little groundcover, and too little desirable pasture species, can mean unproductive pasture, and a paddock vulnerable to growth of undesirable/unproductive plant species, as well as a paddock vulnerable to erosion. An unproductive pasture going into autumn and winter can also mean less than optimal growth rates in stock.

Doing an early autumn pasture assessment (including groundcover), prior to the autumn break greatly informs pasture management and improvement/renovation decisions.

There are several tools to assist with pasture assessment. One of the latest methods is Pasture Paramedic, a decision-making tool from Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA). The tool is specifically designed to assess pasture condition, including groundcover from early autumn prior to the break, as well as during spring. This tool can also be used to assess what plants (live perennial grasses) are present. When pastures have been assessed by sampling at several sites across a paddock and recording a score at each site, you will have an overall score for each paddock.  That score will inform the management plan for that paddock:

1. No need to do anything – maintain current management
2. Consider pasture manipulation
3. Consider resowing.

Many service providers in southern Australia have been trained to help producers use the Pasture Paramedic tool to assess pasture condition and make pasture management decisions.

To find out more, visit the MLA website, or contact MLA’s Andrew Morelli at amorelli@mla.com.au or Darren Hickey darren.hickey@agriculture.vic.gov.au to find a service provider in your area.

MLA’s More Beef from Pastures module on pasture growth has several useful guidelines on how to manipulate pasture composition if an assessment of your pastures pre-autumn is telling you to consider pasture manipulation.

Pregnancy testing is one method of monitoring reproductive efficiency and detecting any problems early in the breeding cycle.

The key to profitability for beef breeding enterprises is high reproductive efficiency. This means achieving:

• 95 per cent calves weaned to cows joined
• an average calving interval of 12 months
• a calving spread of 10 weeks or less.

These are all realistic objectives in Victoria. This can be achieved by early detection of pregnant cows. Read more on the Agriculture Victoria website. 

Learn more about autumn grazing management with Fiona Baker, Agriculture Victoria Livestock Extension Officer.

The webinar recording is one-hour long. Watch the recording on the Agriculture Victoria website. 

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