Are you ready for the next dry spell?

Join us over the next 4 weeks as we continue a series of lunchtime webinars to help farmers make early plans. Topics include:

• Fodder conservation
• Siting and design of a stock containment area
• Animal nutrition and feeding during dry times
• Is your water supply up to scratch?

Attend one or all sessions. To register click here or for more information contact Clem Sturmfels, Land Management Extension Officer on 0429 018 879 or clem.sturmfels@agriculture.vic.gov.au.

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Applications for the 2024 AgriFutures Rural Women’s Award and Acceleration Grant are now open.

If someone you know is making a difference in Australia’s rural and emerging industries, businesses, and communities, encourage them to apply! Applications are open until Wednesday, 25 October 2023.

For more information or to apply visit the AgriFutures website.

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In 2023-24, the Victorian Government has made up to $300,000 of funding available for the Agricultural and Pastoral Society Grants (Program).

The Program is available to support Agricultural and Pastoral Societies to stimulate community involvement across Victoria in activities that promote agriculture.

Grants of up to $10,000 per eligible society are available for eligible projects. Projects that will be considered may include initiatives that:

• promote agricultural production
• provide new, or improved or upgraded facilities for the exhibitions, competitions and displays for arts and craft, and artisan produce, such as upgrading fencing and stables, or areas used for shearing demonstrations and wool exhibits and/or judging of commercial and stud animals
• enhance public amenities at showgrounds such as toilets, seating, and disabled access
• improve essential infrastructure for electricity and water supply
• enhance business management, planning for shows and marketing strategies targeting the broader community
• promote reporting of livestock movements to the National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) database such as the purchase of scanning wands
• enhance biosecurity planning such as a written biosecurity plan, signage, or improved facilities to create separate housing of different species of animals for biosecurity purposes.

Who can apply?
To be eligible to apply, applicants must be either:

• a not-for-profit entity that operates for a purpose related to agriculture, horticulture or pastoral outcomes and/or fostering community involvement in these areas including, for example by, holding regional field days. Entities may include, for example, incorporated associations which are Victorian Agricultural, Pastoral and Horticultural Societies, or
• a peak body involved in providing support to other entities in the area of pastoral activities, agriculture or horticulture including for example Victorian Agricultural Shows Ltd; or
• a registered member of Victorian Agricultural Shows Ltd.

In addition, to be eligible for funding applicants must:

• be an incorporated body, cooperative or association (including business associations); and
• be financially solvent.

Note: Applicants must have fully completed and acquitted projected funded in 2022-23 of the Agricultural and Pastoral Society Grants to receive funding from the current round.

Program guidelines
Prior to applying for funding, applicants should read the grant program guidelines.

Program guidelines (PDF - 212.4 KB)
Program guidelines (WORD - 1.5 MB)

Apply for a grant
The Agricultural and Pastoral Society Grants will close at 11.59 pm on Friday 13 October 2023. Applications can be submitted through the online application form here.

For further information email enquiries to agricultural.grants@agriculture.vic.gov.au.

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Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) has opened registrations for Carbon EDGE pilot workshops to be held across Australia from October to December 2023.

Carbon EDGE is a two-day training program for the red meat industry, providing participants with an understanding of the opportunities for emissions reduction and carbon storage activities in a livestock grazing business.

As a participant, producers will use their own information to develop an action plan for their business as they learn about the practices and technologies that could reduce carbon emissions and improve sustainability and productivity.

The Carbon EDGE pilots will cover:

• key terminology and concepts relating to greenhouse gases (GHG) within the red meat industry
• understanding the greenhouse gas emissions footprint within individual livestock businesses
• in-depth information on the practices to reduce and sequester GHG within a livestock grazing business
• weighing up broad opportunities and risks associated with generating carbon credits
• understanding carbon neutrality and how it aligns to your business goals
• developing a carbon action plan that incorporates practical and achievable strategies to meet your objectives.

Places at these pilot workshops are limited and those interested are encouraged to register early.

For further information or if you are interested in registering, please visit Carbon EDGE.

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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.

The National Centre for Farmer Health is committed to supporting primary producers whose properties, livestock or crops were damaged or lost in the floods and storms through the delivery of initiatives to boost farmer mental health and wellbeing, including:

• A supportive online community through the #BuildingFarmSpirit social media campaign
• Free access to online psychology support delivered by farmer health trained psychologists
• Support for community events providing social connection and mental health promotion opportunities for farmers, farming families and farming communities
• Distribution of mental health resources and support information.

More information is available on the National Centre for Farmer Health website.

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

Are you based in North East Victoria?

Expressions of interest are now open if you would like to be involved in a Lifetime Ewe Management (LTEM) course. This course aims to help setting your ewes up for success and give you the skills and support to make feeding and managing your ewes easier.

Working with groups of 5-7 farmers who meet 6 times in 12
months, your trainer, an experienced sheep consultant, will work
with you to:

• learn how to condition score
• prepare ewes for joining
• manage singles and twin-bearing ewes at different stages of their reproductive cycle
• assess pasture and calculate supplementary feeding rates
• set up lambing paddocks
• form weaning strategies to maximise weaner survival
• set targets for condition score, conception, lamb survival, ewe mortality, lamb growth rate and feed on offer.

If you are based in North-East Victoria, you can register your interest here. If you would like more information about the program, you can contact Dr Kristy Howard of Inspiring Excellence at kristy@inspiringexcellence.com.au or on 0400 282 222.

If this is something that interests you but you are not based in North-East Victoria you are still able to join one of these courses via the following:

• LTEM is delivered on farm and is ideally suited to a small group of 5-7 participants so we encourage you to contact like-minded neighbours and farmers in your local area to form a group
• Once you have a group together contact Bec Malseed of Rural Industries Skill Training at bmalseed@rist.edu.au or on 0407 730 943.

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Victorian sheep producers are being offered free Lucilia cuprina (Australian Sheep Blowfly) Insecticide Resistance Testing as part of a national flystrike survey project funded by Australian Wool Innovation and NSW DPI.

Long-term use and over reliance on just one chemical group for any type of pest control almost always results in resistance if good resistance management plans aren’t in place.

There are only a small number of chemical groups registered for flystrike control and some of the chemical groups that the industry relies upon are no longer as effective because blowflies are developing resistance to them.

NSW DPI will build on an earlier blowfly resistance project, conducted from 2018 – 2020, to determine the effectiveness of each chemical group against field submissions of blowflies. Unfortunately, during this previous project only 11 submissions were viable for testing from Victoria.

Therefore, Victorian producers are being sought to collect maggots off struck sheep, and submit them for testing to determine if resistance is present to Dicyclanil (e.g. Clik), Cyromazine (e.g. Vetrazin), Ivermectin (e.g. Coopers Blowfly and Lice), Spinosad (e.g. Extinosad) and Imidacloprid (e.g. Avenge + Fly). 

In addition, this project will ascertain if cross-resistance between chemical groups is present.

Producers will be provided with maggot collection kits, instructions, a submission sheet and a reply-paid sachet.

The information provided will be de-identified and producers’ details will only be used to provide a general geographical location of the submitting property and for results to be emailed.

For more information and to obtain the maggot collection kits please contact Narelle Sales, Professional Officer (Research), Parasitology and Microbiology at Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute, Menangle, NSW at narelle.sales@dpi.nsw.gov.au or on (02) 4640 6446.
 

Flystrike Management Resources

Sheep producers looking for information on managing flystrike in the lead up to, and during, high risk periods, should check out the below resources. Prevention, monitoring and treatment all play key roles in integrated flystrike management.

AWI Flystrike Extension Program

AWI’s Flystrike Extension Program supports wool growers in improving the lifetime welfare of their sheep, reducing their reliance on mulesing and crutching, optimising chemical use and increasing whole farm profitability through the provision of practical information and tools and access to accredited advisor support.

To access this information, visit the AWI website.

 Flyboss

For more detailed information on flystrike management, including access to interactive decision support tools, visit www.flyboss.com.au.

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Are you between 25 to 35 years old and passionate about the wool industry and want to develop your skills to make a difference in the future?

Established in 2002 by South Australian Stud Merino Breeders Association, Breeding Leadership became a national program through the Australian Association of Stud Merino Breeders in 2004. Funding for this program is now provided by Australian Wool Innovation (AWI).

AWI Breeding Leadership is an excellent opportunity to network with over 20 like-minded people from around Australia. You will get the opportunity to learn from skilled deliverers in the areas of leadership and strategic thinking.

There will also be opportunity for networking with others from the wool industry, as well as field trips to innovative businesses outside the industry.

At the end of Breeding Leadership program, participants will have sound leadership skills that will enable them to become enthusiastic, influential, dynamic and dedicated leaders within the wool industry.

Participants will achieve the following learning outcomes:

• Develop skills and tools to undertake planning and best practice management tasks within their business and industry groups
• Improved knowledge of personality type including core strengths, blind spots and an appreciation of differences that can be embraced to become a successful leader
• Develop tools and processes, including communication and problem solving, to become effective leaders within teams of all sizes and purposes
• Develop an action plan for one leadership role they will take within their business, work role, community or industry.

For more information and to apply click here.

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BetterBeef Networks contact: Darren Hickey, Project Leader 

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

Are you a beef producer in the Ballarat area and looking to join a local producer group to build your skills and knowledge, resulting in improved decision making within your beef business?

The Ballarat Better Beef group is an active group of beef producers, who meet regularly with their group coordinator (Neil James, Agriculture Victoria) to discuss all aspects of beef production. Topics covered by the group include farm safety, impact of seasonal conditions, selling options, biosecurity, soils and pastures.

They are looking for new members to join their group, with small and large businesses and beginners to experienced producers all welcome.

For more information, please contact the group coordinator:
Neil James, Agriculture Victoria at neil.james@agriculture.vic.gov.au or on 0417 353 929.

Victorian producers are you prepared for the next dry period? Agriculture Victoria’s Feeding Livestock website is a great resource for livestock producers to help them prepare for the upcoming dry period. The site includes webinar recordings, technical articles, tools and calculators and short videos. 

Feed budgeting is an important tool to help determine potential pasture deficits or surpluses and assist in matching feed supply and demand.

Feed budgeting allows for better and more timely decisions, such as determining the number of stock you can carry, and for how long, and the likely animal performance for different classes of stock.

They can be prepared a day, a week or several months ahead and separate budgets can be prepared for different mobs or areas of the farm and can help support grazing decisions to alleviate the potential for environmental damage, such as the risk of erosion or plugging.

To construct a feed budget you need to know;

Livestock feed / energy requirements: the amount of supplement and or pasture in kilograms of dry matter (kg DM) or megajoules of metabolisable energy (MJ ME) that the particular classes of stock need, each day, to meet your production targets.

This information allows the feed budget to be interpreted (is there a feed deficit or surplus?) and appropriate action to be taken.

Pasture quantity: the mass of pasture available to your livestock, measured in kg DM/ha

Pasture quality: the feed value of your pasture, measured in digestibility (%) and related to megajoules of metabolisable energy per kilogram of dry matter (ME/kg DM). Protein (%) content of pasture is also another important quality parameter

Pasture growth rate: the rate at which the pasture is likely to be growing over the budgeted time period.

The following tools and resources can help develop feed budgets for any class of stock and production status.

Feed values (energy, protein and fibre) of some common supplements and the feed requirements of a range of livestock classes and how to assess quantity and quality of pasturecan be found in ‘Useful tables’ under the ‘Beef resources’ and ‘Sheep resources’  and 'Pasture Resources' tabs on the Feeding Livestock website.

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