DairyFeedbase

DairyFeedbase is one of the dairy industry’s leading innovation programs. It is designed to revolutionise feedbase management on Australian dairy farms.

A joint venture between Dairy Australia, Gardiner Dairy Foundation and Agriculture Victoria, DairyFeedbase was launched in 2018 and uses the latest technology and bioscience to significantly improve on-farm profitability.

The project has the potential to see returns to the industry of $100 million a year in 10 years.

Farmers can expect DairyFeedbase to deliver easy-to-use digital tools and real-time information to improve decision-making in the paddock and strategically allocate feed at an individual cow level.

More information about DairyFeedbase is available on the website or on the DairyFeedbase leaflet.

Learn more about our research projects

DairyFeedbase offers a number of ongoing research programs focused on innovation that can grow and allocate and utilize pastures and feeds and how we can better feed and look after animals at a herd and individual level.

First 100 Days
First 100 Days is an individual cow-level feeding project. The project aims to assist farmers to deliver the right feed for the right cow, to better supplement cows at peak lactation, improve productivity and animal health and identify early metabolic issues.
Farmers can expect:

New approaches to allocating feed at an individual cow level

Improved feed efficiencies to benefit overall farm economic performance

Watch a video to learn more about the First 100 Days project.
Pasture Smarts

The pasture Smarts research program is developing new technologies measuring both dry matter and nutritive characteristics in perennial ryegrass, rapidly, accurately, and consistently across the whole farm with the aim to enable a profitable increase in pasture growth and utilisation at the farm scale. By forecasting pasture growth this will enable better long-term pasture management decisions to be implemented - providing farmers with information for accurate allocation of perennial rye-grass and an easy-to-use tools to predict future pasture accumulation rates.

Watch a video to learn more.
Smart Feeding

The Smart Feeding research program is delivering tools and technologies for the measurement of dry matter intake in individual cows on pasture. Information from commercial farm settings is helping inform farm management strategies enabling more efficient and profitable allocation of pasture and supplementary feed to dairy cattle within a herd. This in turn will lead to optimised nutrient intake and increased milk production.

Watch a video to learn more about the Smart Feeding project.
Feeding Cool Cows

The Feeding Cool Cows projects helps to develop nutritional strategies to reduce heat stress in dairy cows.

Watch a video to learn more about the project.
Future Forage Value Index
Future Forage Value Index is a cultivar selection project which will boost the quality of data within Dairy Australia’s Forage Value Index so farmers can make even better cultivar selection decisions for their farms.

Farmers can expect:

More confident selection of pasture varieties

A focus on varieties with 20% more productivity

Watch a video to learn more about the Forage Value Index Futures project.

For more information on Forage Value index, please visit our dedicated Forage Value Index webpage.