P.PSH.1558 - The Gippsland Red Meat Conference 2025

Summary

The 2025 Gippsland Red Meat Conference was delivered to address stagnating productivity, climate variability, and limited access to technical support for red meat producers in Gippsland. The one-day event attracted more than 300 attendees from across Victoria and beyond.

Objectives

The project aimed to:

• engage at least 250 producers and 50 industry stakeholders, with 80% satisfaction
• achieve knowledge gain of MLA tools by at least 75% of participants
• facilitate distribution of three MLA-endorsed tools and encourage 50% of attendees to commit to a practice change
• conduct a post-event evaluation on knowledge transfer and adoption intent.

Key findings

• 300+ attended (83% producers), 90% satisfaction achieved
• more than 75% reported increased understanding of MLA tools
• more than 50% committed to implementing at least one new on-farm practice
• inspirational and peer-led content rated highest; panel sessions rated lowest.

Benefits to industry

• demonstrates that locally tailored, producer-led extension events can effectively drive knowledge transfer and practice change
• reinforces the importance of integrating MLA tools into relevant, accessible formats for regional producers
• provides a model for future event-based knowledge exchange.

MLA action

MLA has made the final report for this project available on the R&D reports section of the website.

Future research

• refine panel session formats and tailor content for specific producer interest areas (e.g. feed management)
• introduce post-event workshops, digital follow-up content (podcasts, videos), and year-round technical support
• redesign surveys to include psychographic profiling and increase response rates via incentives
• conduct long-term impact assessments to evaluate sustained practice change.