Fodder for the Future
Murray Dairy are partnering with the grain and fodder industries to deliver six winter forage demonstration sites across the northern Victoria and southern Riverina dairy areas. This project has been funded by the Federal Government under the Murray–Darling Basin Economic Development Program.
The project aims to support dairy businesses at a time when increasing numbers of farms have moved away from relying on perennial pastures and are now growing more winter and summer crops.
Murray Dairy have joined forces with six other organisations to establish trial and demonstration sites that will showcase a range of winter crops and management strategies to maximise yield, quality, and profitability. As well as the site Irrigation Farmers Network trial at Kerang, they are partnering with Agriculture Victoria at Tatura, Birchip Cropping Group at Mitiamo, Melbourne University at Dookie, Southern Growers at Finley and Riverine Plains near Rutherglen.
Irrigation Farmers Network Field Trials
Summer Fodder
Assessing a range of grain & sweet sorghums and maize varieties to see which are the most water efficient forage (silage) producers. We are comparing their performance under different irrigation strategies, from fully irrigated through to low input, long-interval irrigations designed to stress the plants.
Winter Fodder
A cereal and pulse trial are investigating different species, seeding rates and harvest timings to determine the best balance between quantity and quality of fodder production. Crops under investigation include wheat, oats, barley, faba beans field peas and vetch.
Kerang Trial
Farmers Network through the Fodder for the
Future project to conduct demonstration trials
investigating management strategies for
cereals and faba-beans as fodder for dairy
cows.
Sowing Dates
dates and seeding rates for wheat (Cesario)
and oats (Forrester) crops
Faba Beans
(PBA Bendoc) might fit into a dairy farm fodder strategy. Faba-beans are a high yielding and high quality crop that could potentially provide excellent feed for dairy cows.
Project Podcast
Project Videos
Collaborators
