$45m programme in Australia to ‘fast-track feedlot innovation’

A new AUD$45 million programme has been launched in Australia to “fast-track feedlot innovation and adoption”.

Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) has launched the Feedlot Research for Accelerated Adoption Program (RAAD).

This is a five-year investment delivered as a strategic partnership with the Australian Lot Feeders’ Association (ALFA) through the MLA Donor Company (MDC) to “drive commercially-focused innovation across Australia’s feedlot sector”.

The programme will “embed structured research within operating feedlots to generate robust, real-world evidence that can be rapidly shared and adopted across the sector”.

MLA said this approach reflects its “strategic intent to link research and adoption more closely, ensuring innovations are tested at commercial scale and in the production environments where lot feeders need confidence to invest”.

Innovation

According to MLA’s managing director Michael Crowley, the initiative “represents the next step in MLA’s commitment to helping industry adopt innovation faster”.

“This programme has been built to deliver high-quality evidence at commercial scale so lot feeders can adopt with confidence,” Crowley said.

“It is about backing the priorities of industry, focusing on practical research activity and turning strong ideas into proven results that lift animal wellbeing, performance and profitability.”

ALFA worked closely with MLA on establishing the initiative and will continue to work with it to “encourage participation and knowledge sharing”.

Accelerate adopton

ALFA chief executive officer Christian Mulders, said lot feeders “often look for evidence that reflects their own conditions, and RAAD has been designed around that need”.

“RAAD gives feedlot operators a mechanism to conduct research under their own commercial feedlot conditions and evaluate local results before making full-scale investment and adoption decisions.

“We’re very excited about RAAD and believe it will give feedlot operators confidence to accelerate adoption in areas of importance to our industry.”

Programme

The first iteration of the programme will focus on shade and shelter systems, allowing feedlots to evaluate designs suited to their climate, geography and production systems and to measure the associated impacts on performance, health, welfare and economics.

The programme has also been designed to expand into additional priority areas identified by industry.

These include animal health and welfare technologies, automation and labour efficiency, performance optimisation and environmental sustainability.

Participation will be supported through MDC co-funding arrangements that focus investment on research planning, implementation, monitoring, analysis and reporting, while capital decisions remain with feedlot businesses.

Expressions of interest are open for National Feedlot Accreditation Scheme accredited feedlots in Australia who want to participate in the initial tranche of projects.

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