Demonstration projects for on-farm practical methane management strategies: Victoria

Summary

​The project was established and conducted to support the transition of outcomes of the applied research and development activities in the national RELRP program to the dairy, sheep and beef industries in Victoria.  Six extension activities consisting of 2 service provider meetings, 2 field days at DPI Hamilton and 2 at Terang, attended by a total of 312 participants were conducted during 2010 and 2011.  The majority of attendees (45%) were from the agricultural service and agribusiness sectors, 34% from extension and research and 21% were farmers.  Two field campaigns measuring methane emissions from grazing sheep and lactating dairy cows using OP-FTIR methodology were also conducted with Wollongong University.  The major outcome of the project has been the up-skilling and improved knowledge of agricultural service and agribusiness staff in greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and their mitigation.  This legacy provides an influential foundation for progressively extending this information into the broader sheep, dairy and beef industries and will ultimately influence more farmers than a project of this nature would achieve directly.   ​