SA MBfP Forums - Raising the Steaks

Summary

The MBfP Raising the Steaks forums were successfully delivered to South Australian beef producers in July 2011. The forums were held in Hahndorf on Wednesday 27th of July and Naracoorte on Thursday 28th July. Total engagement in the forums totalled 125 beef producers and participants. Based only on those participants that completed evaluation forms, we reached producers managing more than 25,000 breeding females and more than 50,000 head of cattle within South Australia. Phil Chalmer and Craig Forsyth, the MBfP Producer Advocates from Western Australia, were both well received when providing their presentations on how they have used the principles of the MBfP program to build viable and innovative beef businesses. Wayne Pitchford, Beef CRC program leader for Feed Efficiency and Maternal Productivity was also well received with his presentation on the influence of genetics and nutrition on maternal productivity. 
 The market update provided by Tim McRae, together with the overview of Phase II of the MBfP program and the benchmarking exercise presented by myself were also valued by the audience. We were fortunate to attract participants from most zones of South Australia, including some from the pastoral areas which was excellent. Unfortunately participation rates were down on our expectations despite our significant coverage and promotion of the events which was strongly supported by our event partners. Market research via telephone calls to producers a week prior to the events indicated a strong knowledge and awareness that the events were taking place. However this didn't convert to the high participation rates that we would have liked to achieve, particularly for Naracoorte. The participants that we did attract however were of a high standard and mostly managed medium to large scale beef enterprises. The participants that the forums attracted engaged well with the speakers and asked lots of well-considered questions.