Adapting the dairy industry
Most studies relating to adapting agriculture to climate change have focussed on the challenges faced by individual farmers – visit adapting your farm to explore this issue further.
However, the climate change challenges faced by individual farmers can be greatly increased or reduced depending on the action taken by Dairy Australia and the dairy industry. Some activities and challenges for the dairy industry are outlined below.
Policy challenges
The policy challenges for the dairy industry relate to working effectively with Government to develop or harmonise policies in two key areas.
1) Policies that impact on farmers’ abilities to adapt to climate change/variability – these include specific policies designed to assist farmers adapt to climate change, and related policies associated with drought, water allocation, education & training, catchment management and rural restructuring.
2) Policies that designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, as part of Australia’s national effort – this may be via the CPRS, or alternative emissions reduction strategies.
Either way, the dairy industry is a source of greenhouse gas emissions and therefore pressure to reduce them can be expected from Government policy. The National Farmers Federation has developed a strong policy position on agriculture and emissions reduction schemes, and the Dairy Australia has had significant input into it.
Research, development and extension challenges
Dairy Australia’s RD&E focus will need to be broadened to encompass the adaptation challenges faced by dairy farmers, and the greenhouse gas mitigation challenges faced by both dairy farmers and the processing sector.
The initial focus is research to underpin the policy initiatives of the farmer and industry peak bodies, relating to both adaptation and mitigation. Then the focus will shift to:
- Increasing the resilience of current dairy farming systems to a more variable climate, and/or
- Developing new farming systems that are more resilient, and assisting the transitions towards them.
Complementing the focus on adaptation will be research into to reducing the industry’s carbon footprint.
Other RD&E challenges include increasing water use efficiency, improving seasonal forecasts, breeding more resilient pasture species and increased tolerance to heat stress in dairy cows.
Knowledge Challenges
The industry must keep abreast of local, national and international developments in both the science and the policies associated with climate change – maintaining the current close links between the industry and the climate change science community is a key strategy.
Communication Challenges
Research tells us that dairy industry confidence has been dented by the climate change debate (M9 final report) , with a view amongst farmers that “the world is changing faster than my performance is improving”. The research identified the following issues as essential for re-building industry confidence:
- Ensuring the industry is integrated into a common vision – within dairy, across agriculture, the community and government – rather than be seen as operating alone or in conflict
- Clear opportunities for individuals to participate in climate change deliberations
- Transparency within industry processes
- Actions that improve the wider issues of resource security (ie water) rather than just focus on climate change
- Developments in automation of farming tasks that lower production costs and allow expansion without additional labour
- Development of new income streams through alternative use of existing farm resources , which can compensate for the likely costs associated with action to increase resilience and reduce greenhouse gases
- Active debate about climate change in dairy information channels - if non-dairy channels are the only source of climate commentary, confidence will continue to erode
Capability Challenges
The dairy industry needs new skills and capabilities to respond to climate change. Some capabilities can be brought in via strategic alliances (ie climate science and seasonal forecasting) when building specific dairy industry capability is not appropriate.
Other capabilities such as the models and modelling skills that will be essential if the industry is to understand the risks, vulnerabilities, opportunities, threats etc for the range of current dairy farming systems must be included in the industry’s long term capability planning.
Training Challenges
Human capital development was the most frequently cited unmet need identified in climate change research undertaken with dairy farmers (M9 final report).
Ideas to address this issue were generally associated with a vision that would enable industry stakeholders to assess their competencies and plan a program of continuous learning in the years ahead. It was highlighted that many of the learning challenges are not simply technical, but also new ways of thinking about farming in a changing world where we are seeing the introduction of restrictive farming practices on one hand, and a demand for increased food production and food security on the other. A smorgasbord of learning/development opportunities will need to be available as and when required by farmers.
References and resources
Module 9 of the Dairy Australia ‘confidence to grow’ program explored some of the future possibilities and challenges facing the dairy industry from climate change (M9 final report)
The NFF (National Farmers Federation) have developed a policy position on how agriculture should be treated in emissions trading.