After 10 years of giving back to the dairy industry, the SA Dairy Industry Fund has given 2.1 million to more than 30 projects like the Quad Bike rebate scheme.
SADA Fresh is a little different to any other milk brand because it is owned by the South Australian Dairyfarmers' Association (SADA). We are a not-for-profit organisation and our top priority is representing the interests of the State's dairy farmers.
The milk is produced on South Australian farms. It is processed and bottled in a South Australian processing plant, on our behalf by Lactalis at their Clarence Gardens facility in Adelaide, and it is sold throughout South Australia through Coles Supermarkets
SADA receives 20 cents per litre which goes to a special fund that was established by SADA. The SA Dairy Industry Fund pools this money to finance projects and activities that will help secure the future viability of the industry, and benefit local farmers and their communities.
SADA Fresh is currently available through some 60 Coles supermarkets across South Australia. Because of rapidly increasing public demand and the extraordinary level of support we have received since the brand was launched, SADA is currently exploring other options to make SADA Fresh available to South Australian consumers.
Coles has given us enormous assistance to get the brand off the ground and make it a success. They have been very generous in the way they have worked with SADA and Lactalis to create the brand, get it on the shelves and launch it on the market. It was also important to SADA that we could sell the milk through a major supermarket chain because our intention from the beginning was to offer an attractive and easy alternative to buying discounted home brands. To do that we need to be in the same space.
Now 10 Years on and $2.1 Million has been invested in more than 30 different projects to not only help the local farmers and communities but better the South Australian Dairy industry as a whole.
This is an ongoing project that sees nearly a thousand secondary school students every year across the state introduced to the dairy industry as part of developing the opportunities in dairy as a potential career path for those students. Funding has been offered for three more years.
The Dairy Industry fund board has been prepared to be experimental in their approach. Recently a farmer has had an issue with migratory birds eating too much of his pasture. The board has been working with the farmer and has extended that work to include the trial of using drones to frighten off the birds. The farmer is an organic farmer and wants to protect the birds and his industry’s reputation so he is looking for humane ways with which to move the birds on.
This project is a shared funding initiative between Dairy SA and Industry Fund to help farmers who are doing it tough. The project has been running for a number of years and the fund has committed funding for a further three years to support Rick Hinge’s important work. There is no doubt that Rick’s work with farmers who have been doing it tough has helped many and the feed back surrounding his work has been heart-warming to hear.
The fund has supported the Dairy Industry Museum in Port Elliot in the past and they museum will soon sport a splendid SADA Fresh sign in recognition of the sponsorship. The museum has also received support for $1000 worth of audio visual equipment to enhance their presentation to the public.
This project supports research being done by a company called Dairy Explorer. Dairy Explorer are developing the Pasture Mapper, a pasture measurement and mapping solution for Dairy Farms.
Biochar has been used a feed supplement for Beef and Dairy Cattle in Australia and Europe. To date it has been used as an integrated systems approach to have a secondary benefit on soil and pasture health. Observations and written evidence also suggest that by feeding biochar at less than 1% of intake can provide substantial improvements to the animal health, weight gain, milk quality, carbon sequestration, a reduction in methane outputs and better feed conversion.
This is a project aimed at supporting a start up project in the Limestone Coast to promote the dairy industry and dairy product from that area. The support is to help the proponents develop a business plan which will support the area which has a rich dairy industry.
In conjunction with SADA and Creation Care a research program attempting to establish the introduction of three new species of dung beetle on the Fleurieu.
This was a new and substantial initiative to drive innovations in management of the dairy feedbase. Two student projects are designed to deliver impacts in pasture persistence and allocation of pasture.
Students from schools in SA’s South East region will attend a mini technology field day to explore the innovations and challenges in the dairy industry. Students then conduct an in-school research investigation to invent a new technology or solution to increase milk production or increase efficiency along the supply chain.
Energy costs are a significant impost on viability for all operatives in the dairy sector.
Develop a business continuity tool specifically for dairy farms, enabling farm enterprises to quickly test their preparedness for business disruption through a 15 minute self-assessment and identify options for them to reduce exposure to business continuity breakdown.
A new program that provides on farm support to assist dairy family businesses to identify and adopt proven practices in business and production to improve profitability and productivity.
Measure the effectiveness of cross developing solar arrays and cow comfort on production.