Meat & Livestock Australia’s (MLA) and the Australian Lot Feeders Association have long prided themselves on a strong, constructive partnership of aligned priorities that delivers tangible outcomes for lot feeders. It is this partnership that underpins the new Feedlot Research for Accelerated Adoption (RAAD) Program.
RAAD represents a bold, coordinated investment to accelerate the adoption of shade, shelter, automation, animal health and performance-enhancing technologies across Australian feedlots. With up to $45 million committed over five years via the MLA Donor Company co-investment framework, the program is designed to generate the scale of commercial evidence that lot feeders consistently require before making major operational decisions.
Importantly, RAAD is not a capital grant scheme. Funding contributes to costs associated with conducting the trials and collecting commercially relevant data. This shared-risk approach, enabled through the MLA Donor Company, strengthens both accountability and impact.
The first major investment round focuses on shade and shelter solutions supporting feedlots to trial, test and evaluate structures under real commercial conditions. Eligible feedlots can access significant co funding, research support and the opportunity to demonstrate measurable gains within their business.
What is the Feedlot RAAD Program?
The Feedlot RAAD Program helps lot feeders answer their own R&D questions using rigorous, MLA supported research. Feedlots can propose projects that trial new or improved shade and shelter systems, including novel designs or customised approaches unique to their site.
Participation gives your operation the resources and support needed to:
• Test new infrastructure
• Measure real performance outcomes
• Share findings with industry
• Lead innovation in animal welfare and efficiency.
Who provides the funding?
The program is delivered through the MLA Donor Company (MDC), which:
• Is a wholly owned MLA subsidiary
• Co funds eligible R&D projects under MLA’s Statutory Funding Agreement
• Contributes 50% of total project funding
• Applies an 8% access fee on the feedlots 50% contribution.
How project funding works
This program integrates feedlot production with research and development, enabling a portion of daily operational expenses to be recognised as R&D co investment, supporting access to matching MDC funding.
It offers two participation tiers, each with defined funding levels and research requirements to ensure high quality project delivery. Co funding is shared evenly, with costs split 50/50 between the feedlot and MLA MDC.
Gold Standard – $2.46/head/day - Scientific, randomised controlled research design, and peer review publication.
Silver Standard – $1.97/head/day - Commercially relevant evaluations with simplified requirements.
What's required?
- Provide suitable shade/shelter structure
- Provision of all operational inputs
- Develop a randomised block design study protocol including animal ethics approval
- Supply of cattle for research
- 6 monthly scale checks and calibration
- Provision of all feedlot closeout data including performance, carcase grading and economic
- Statistical analysis
- Final report and peer review publication
- Presentation of results
- Participate in MLA marketing and events related to the RAAD program.
Example: Gold Standard Project Funding
A project with 2,000 head (1,000 covered, 1,000 uncovered) over 730 days (2 years):
- 2,000 head × 730 days × $2.46 = $3,591,600
- MLA contribution (50%): $1,795,800
- Feedlot contribution (50%): $1,795,800
- Feedlot Access Fee (8% of the feedlots contribution): $143,664.
Payments are phased evenly across the two year project.
- Provide suitable shade/shelter structure
- Provision of all operational inputs
- Develop a study protocol including animal ethics approval
- Supply of cattle for research
- 6 monthly scale checks and calibration
- Provision of available feedlot performance and carcase grading
- Economic comparison
- Final report and presentation of results
- Participate in MLA marketing and events related to the RAAD program.
The RAAD program supports any shade or shelter innovation you want to test evaluating cattle performance, health, carcase outcomes and economics, and may also include for example:
- Stocking density and bedding optimisation
- Bunk management and bunk space allocation
- Water use efficiency
- Integration of solar canopies
- Automation incorporation
- Manure nutrient value and effluent management
- Odour management.
If you have an R&D question linked to shade or shelter, RAAD is designed to help you answer it.
✔ Data‑driven insights into performance, animal welfare and economics
✔ Support from MLA’s research team
✔ Contribute to industry knowledge
✔ Demonstrate leadership in performance, welfare and sustainability
✔ Improve competitiveness and profitability.
When reviewing project proposals, priority will be given to those that clearly demonstrate the following:
- Clear and practical goals - clear research objectives and why it matters for the feedlot industry.
- Something new or different - offers new ideas, approaches, or designs, rather than repeating work that has already been done.
- Commercial practicality - Ability to meet objective in a commercial feedlot
- Greatest need for shade or shelter - Higher priority will be given to feedlots that currently have no shade or shelter
- Willingness to share learnings - Willingness to openly share results, lessons learned, and practical insights with other lot feeders, so the whole industry can benefit.
- Submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) - Complete the digital form.
- Expression of Interest Assessment - EOIs will be assessed by an independent committee consisting of industry experts, ALFA, an independent lot feeder, an international feedlot R&D expert and MLA.
You will be contacted by MLA regarding your EOI within 6 weeks of submission. This will be followed by either a phone call, video conference, and/or site visit to assess your EOI and you will be guided by MLA through the next steps from here.
Unfortunately, due to funding constraints and resource limitations, not every submission may be successful.
Have another technology or idea you’d like to explore?
Further rounds of the RAAD initiative will invite project proposals for the ALFA priorities of automation, animal health, productivity, nutrition and sustainability. Please contact us to register your interest in future funding opportunities.
