Profitable Grazing Systems Off-The-Shelf Supported Learning Packages

Summary

Profitable Grazing Systems is a group-based delivery program, funded by MLA, which drives improved business performance outcomes for participating red meat producers with measurable impacts. The program takes a whole-of-farm business approach to improve business performance and key profit drivers. It enables industry best practice and new research findings to be customised to local environments and farming systems.  

The red meat industry required a new approach to adoption which creates measureable impact on farm business management, productivity and profit. It required a very different approach to those programs previously delivered and some risk, as it challenges traditional delivery extension approaches. Profitable Grazing Systems (PGS) - MLA's PGS has proven to be highly transformational for producers who have engaged in it, and disruptive to program delivery by implementing a commercial approach that will transition industry towards a user pays culture for adoption services.

The vision for the proposed PGS program 

A financially sustainable adoption program aligned to MLA and industry targets that extends MLA R&D outputs and achieves increased producer skills and capability, practice change and whole farm business improvement through increasing producer understanding of:

• Business profit = management capability + evidence + value chain approach

In order to contribute to the MLA and industry targets, the proposed PGS program objectives are:

• To increase the average profitability of participating red meat producers by 2.5% ROAM by improving their skills and capability by 2022.
• Adopting a commercial model which involves user pays for the private good component of the extension activity (generally the delivery), with MLA contributing 30% of the delivery cost of supported leaning projects.
• 5,000 producers attend feeder activities by 2022 with 10 -15% of them participating in a PGS Supported Learning Program (SLP).
• 2800 producers participate in PGS supported learning programs to increase their skills and knowledge by 2022:
  • 75% (of 2800) increase their skills and knowledge above a skills audit score of 75% (competent);
  • 50 deliverers have increased capability to a point where they can deliver effective high quality supported learning programs;
  • Increase the average confidence rating of participating producers to use key skill sets or do key tasks to greater than 8/10;
  • At least 70% of participating producers have made practice changes, which are underpinned by a change in skills.
    
    

This new approach to adoption is based on the premise that increasing the profitability of grazing businesses requires an improvement in skill and management capability of red meat producers. To embed skills requires not only knowing what to do but how to do it, and implementing these new skills and knowledge within a farm business requires a deep understanding of the underlying principles. The most successful approach to embedded upskilling is a supported learning model – where there is opportunity to learn, practice and apply new skills over time with other producers, supported by a coach who is a subject matter expert. A supported learning approach is the primary delivery model for MLA's PGS program.

MLA has taken the opportunity to be a leader in a completely new approach to adoption program delivery and has implemented a program that delivers measurable returns to industry. Using a combination of a supported learning model and an industry good focus on investment MLA is aiming to achieve a much higher return on its investment in adoption. Additional benefits from this approach will be a more highly skilled red meat sector that possess the ability to capitalise on R&D outcomes. Research can focus on increasing the marginal returns to producers and a much higher proportion of producers will be able to capitalise on this research once adopted. A highly skilled producer base will result in a more cost-competitive industry.

The submission of all Monitoring and Evaluation (M & E) data for each PGS activity forms the basis of the final report for PGS activities.

Monitoring and Evaluation tracks performance against objectives and KPIs and aims to demonstrate program impact. It also supports project quality assurance to assist in achieving high quality and high-value delivery with trainers that are committed to continuous improvement. The M & E Plan for PGS sets out key evaluation questions related to Trainers, Producers, Coordination and Enablers.

Knowledge & Skills

Participants are asked a series of questions designed to assess their knowledge and skills, both at the start of the SLP and at its completion. Trainers ask up to ten multiple choice questions, with respondents encouraged to select 'Not sure' if they do not know the correct answer, rather than guessing.

Participants are asked to rate their confidence levels against a series of practices related to the particular curriculum, again both at the start and completion of the SLP. Trainers ask up to ten confidence questions per SLP. The confidence score is rated out of ten, with ten being extremely confident and one being not confident at all.

Participants are asked how often they conduct certain practices related to each curriculum, again both at the start and completion of the SLP. There are up to eighteen practice change questions per SLP and participants are able to select whether they implement those practices 'Never', 'Rarely, 'Sometimes' or as 'Normal Practice'.

Key points

1. To achieve the PGS targets, an increase in participation of service providers is needed.
2. The cost of development of SLP's has been identified as a barrier to service provider engagement in PGS.
3. MLA can stimulate service provider engagement by actively developing a suite of SLPs that are strategically aligned and where the successful implementation of projects covering more than one pillar of the PGS curriculum may be limited.
4. This project will develop 7 SLPs owned by MLA that can be tailored by the private sector for local delivery under the PGS delivery framework - this will attract more Service Providers (and thus participants) to the PGS program.
   
   

Relevant and necessary background

It was identified in 'Profitable Grazing Systems – review of pilot supported learning projects '(Sherriff & Doonan, 2017), MLA may need to have an active role in developing SLPs where service providers don't believe that there is commercial viability in developing their own SLP's or where the successful implementation of projects covering all pillars of the PGS curriculum may be limited.  Where market failure exists, MLA may need to support the development of SLP packages that can be "picked up and delivered" by suitably competent deliverers.  

The development of SLP's by Service Providers adds considerably to the cost of the delivering an SLP and has caused reluctance by many potential service providers to engage with PGS. Currently there are limited numbers of deliverers that can develop SLP's and deliver projects as part of a supported learning program (noted both during the E&A pilot project and Farm 300) since it was identified in the pilot phase that whilst service providers are usually technically competent in their subject area, their capability to develop supported leaning packages and coach skills change is limited.
The implementation of an MLA owned repository of SLP's will attract current and potential SP's such that the deliverer number, reach and impact of PGS activities can increase.  

Discussion

8 service providers responded with 14 supported learning package proposals to an open Terms of Reference for MLA owned SLP's. 7 SLPs will be developed for delivery by the private sector. This is proposed as a once-off activity to enable the private sector to validate the commercial viability of delivering an SLP.  The SLP's to be progressed are: