Dairy research in Tasmania has been boosted, with new infrastructure at the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture 's Dairy Research Facility enabling large-scale trials to reduce methane emissions while maintaining farm productivity and profitability.
A new supplementary feed facility has been installed at TIA's Dairy Research Facility at Elliott on Tasmania's North-West Coast, jointly funded by the Tasmanian Government, TIA and Fonterra.
"This upgrade transforms our feeding system from a standard commercial set-up to one designed specifically for complex research trials. We now have the capacity to feed four different supplements directly to animals in the dairy during milking," said Dr James Hills, TIA Livestock Production Centre Leader.
"This increased flexibility means we can expand our methane mitigation trials where we feed specific amounts of low-emissions feed additives under various feeding rates.
"We can now test methane-reducing feed additives over longer periods and at a scale that reflects commercial dairy farms, while closely monitoring impacts on cow health and milk production."
The infrastructure upgrade includes a new feed silo, the relocation of two existing feed silos, a feed head in the dairy, a disk mill, small shed, and augers.
Benefits include increased research and teaching capacity, new opportunities for demonstration to industry, improved on-farm efficiencies and reduced running costs.
"Until now, we haven't had the capacity to process grain on the farm and have been reliant on bringing in commercially produced animal feed from the mainland. Processing grain on-site means lower operational costs and new opportunities to source grain from Tasmanian growers," said Andrew Marshall, TDRF Farm Manager.
"Efficiency improvements like this are critical for our farm. We operate as a commercial dairy milking 350 cows, while also supporting complex research trials. We're currently running six mobs that operate as individual farm systems under different treatments, so there are a lot of moving parts. Upgrades like this help us manage that complexity efficiently."
TDRF is nationally recognised as a leading research facility for delivering pasture-based research that focuses on sustainable and profitable dairy production. It is the only facility in Australia set-up to run multi-herd "farmlet" systems of research, allowing farm comparisons under commercial pasture-based conditions.
The latest upgrade follows a major redevelopment in 2022 , jointly funded by the Tasmanian Government and the University of Tasmania. Works included a new 50-bay rotary dairy, a 12.5 megalitre effluent dam, increased irrigation water storage from 24 to 115 megalitres, 11 kilometres of underground irrigation pipeline, and conversion of 32 hectares for irrigated farmlet trials.
The new supplementary feed facility positions TIA to expand its methane mitigation research and continue delivering practical, science-based solutions that strengthen the productivity and sustainability of Tasmania's dairy industry.
