![Western Dairy research hub staff and contractors. Western Dairy research hub staff and contractors.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-agfeed/2136251.jpg/r0_0_450_300_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Western Australian dairyfarmers will have a direct say in industry research and development priorities with the Department of Agriculture and Food (DAFWA) divesting itself of scientists and dairy research responsibilities.
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Two major DAFWA dairy research projects, investigating herd feeding systems and potassium application rates in the feedbase, have been taken over and will be completed by a collaborative Western Dairy research hub created at Bunbury, WA.
With funding cuts and down-sizing reducing DAFWA's research capabilities, Western Dairy via Dairy Australia agreed to take on the major portion of WA's dairy research and development cost for the next three years to ensure local research continued.
The Bunbury research hub has taken over all dairy-related research in WA and taken on some of the DAFWA scientists who have been conducting it.
Former DAFWA research scientist Ruairi McDonnell has swung over to the hub as one of three full-time employees.
Other DAFWA scientists who have taken redundancy packages as part of current or earlier department down-sizing are being taken up on contract by Western Dairy so the knowledge base is not lost to industry.
Former DAFWA senior research scientist Martin Staines is among them.
He finished up with the department after more than 17 years on Tuesday and was employed by Western Dairy on Wednesday.
A former animal nutrition lecturer at Lincoln University New Zealand and a post-doctoral CSIRO animal health research fellow, Dr Staines's contracted role with Western Dairies is as senior scientist and mentor to junior scientists working for the research hub.
DAFWA colleagues including former dairy team leader John Lucey, Richard Morris and now-independent scientist Mark Rivers have joined him.
A committee has been formed to oversee the hub's operation.
It comprises Dr Rivers, Western Dairy director and South West and Great Southern business owner and company director Brian Piesse, Chris Murphy, Dairy Australia, Terry Burnage, DAFWA, Harvey Fresh general manager Paul Lorimer representing processors and Bill Biggs, South West Catchments Council (SWCC).
Harvey dairyfarmer and former Western Dairy chairman Dale Hanks will become the committee's independent chairman after his term on the Western Dairy board expires in September.
The hub was jointly announced on Wednesday last week by Agriculture and Food Minister Ken Baston and Western Dairy chairman and Boyanup dairyfarmer Vic Rodwell who welcomed the initiative as a way of ensuring WA retained its research capability.
A total of $1.575 million has been committed over three years to establish the hub, with Dairy Australia promising $975,000 and DAFWA $600,000.
No further DAFWA funding is expected but Dairy Australia is understood to have agreed in principal to support the hub financially for five years.
The hub is co-located with Western Dairy's strategic partner, the SWCC which will provide staff member Damien Postma as administrator.
Western Dairy and SWCC have collaborated on project administration for the past three years.
The other hub staff members are dairy industry development specialist Rob La Grange and Western Dairy's Young Dairy Network co-ordinator Jessica Andony, who was taken on as full-time project officer.
Mr La Grange was previously employed by Western Dairy, with DAFWA jointly funding his salary.
Under the funding agreement to establish the hub, half of Mr La Grange's salary over the next three years will come out of DAFWA's $600,000 contribution.
After that Dairy Australia will pay all of his salary.
The hub also has a hot desk for use by research project contractors.
"Essentially we have gone from one desk to four desks and a dedicated area at the South West Catchments Council," Western Dairy executive officer Esther Price said.
"The big thing to come out of this initiative is that dairy farmers, through the Western Dairy annual conference in September, will now have a direct say in the focus and priority of research and development projects important to them.
"Under the previous arrangements with DAFWA they certainly had plenty of influence on the direction of R&D, but now they can have a direct input.
"The results of that research will also come directly back to them, it's a streamlining of the system.
"It has been no secret that with budget cuts DAFWA's capacity to fund research has been on a diminishing plane for about the past five years.
"By establishing the research hub, Western Dairy is putting itself in a position where we can apply for Royalties for Regions funding when it becomes available."
Ms Price said Western Dairy's researchers had access to the Vasse Research Station at Busselton - its Spring Field Day and annual general meeting will be held there on Thursday, September 17.
However, as most dairy research was carried out as "on-farm trials" extensive facilities were not required, Ms Price said.
Mr Rodwell said the WA dairy industry had been "proactive in working with DAFWA to find innovative solutions to DAFWA's changing landscape to "ensure we retain our capacity and highly-valued interaction with the national dairy research, development and extension community".
He said the hub's formation coupled with on-going work to bring WA's three dairy processors together with government and industry to develop an industry partnership agreement on growth.
"We are a small industry but one that has the capacity to collaborate and channel key strategic industry decisions through a single forum and we're putting the framework in place to work in a pre-competitive space with our processors, for the overall benefit of our industry," Mr Rodwell said.
"The challenge is to maintain and then increase the level of spending on RD&E through ensuring we provide a high-value product that is attractive to other potential funding partners."