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Producer Innovation Fast-Track program

Producer Innovation Fast-Track was a pilot program to enable producers to be actively involved in driving the innovation agenda. The program was designed to accelerate the development and adoption of innovation and capability that have the potential to significantly improve farm and value chain performance. The program identified industry producer trailblazers and provided expertise, co-funding and support to build their innovation capability. The program is now closed.

Program design

The program supported your aspirations with our expertise. We worked with producers to refine their objectives and identify the resources, expertise and investment required to develop a strategy to see your innovative ideas come to life.

The Producer Innovation Fast-Track customised support package includes access to:

  • a confidential consultation process
  • technical and business expertise and resources
  • the latest R&D and innovations in livestock production
  • supported design of customised business solutions
  • administration and management support
  • networks of like-minded, future-focused producers
  • co-investment funding.

Producer Innovation Fast-Track attracted proposal across three streams:

  • Producer-led accelerated adoption of innovations to improve on-farm performance
  • Producer-led innovations resulting in new products, brands and value chains
  • Producer-led new ventures and start-ups

Way forward

MLA is now a partner in Farmers2Founders to support producer innovation. The program supports participating producers with tools, strategies, and support to develop innovation capabilities.

Case studies

Webinar: Data at your fingertips

Date recorded: 1 July 2019

Like many red meat business owners, you’re probably dealing with multiple computer programs and apps to keep track of what’s happening in your enterprises. If these programs aren’t talking to each other to help you make better decisions, it can be time-consuming and expensive.

The Simpson family of Binginbar Farms, Gollan, NSW, has tackled this challenge head-on. Here we interview producer Nathan Simpson, as well as a representative from Hitachi, to learn what kinds of changes could help to improve your business’s efficiency.

The purpose of the project was to increase efficiencies by identifying and tracking the performance of each lamb on-farm, including Binginbar Farms’ feedlot. Other aspects of farm management included monitoring of soil moisture, trough and tank levels and potential performance from their cropping enterprises as well as many other ‘data points’ which were able to be aggregated up into a central, easy-to-manage dashboard.

Manual data entry has been removed completely and Binginbar Farms are setting up systems to prove their paddock-to-plate story to consumers, thus attracting a premium.