Guy Barnett,Minister for Primary Industries and Water
Twelve recipients will benefit from the $240,000 Dairy Energy Efficiency Program that provides subsidies to assist dairy farmers to reduce their on-farm energy charges.
The $20,000 grants for each dairy farmer will allow them to undertake a professionally conducted energy audit to identify and then purchase infrastructure upgrades to improve energy efficiency and reduce their costs.
The Tasmanian dairy industry is a vitally important part of our agricultural sector and is a key part of our target to increase agricultural production to $10 billion by 2050.
There are nearly 400 dairy farms across the state, milking more than 177,000 cows and producing a record 950 million litres last year.
This is generating nearly $460 million in farm-gate income and employing more than 1,500 people on dairy farms across Tasmania.
The Tasmanian Government is also looking to address the critical shortage of Tasmanian based artificial insemination (AI) technicians.
We have committed $80,000 to fund training to be coordinated by Dairy Tasmania for 40 local AI technicians over the next two years, including the purchase of a model cow to facilitate training.
Initiatives such as these acknowledge how important our dairy industry is for our economy, especially regional communities that rely on the job opportunities generated by the dairy sector.
For more details, go to https://dpipwe.tas.gov.au/agriculture/dairy-energy-efficiency-program
