THE state’s dairy industry has been busy collating feedback to determine the best plan for the sector’s future.
SA Dairyfarmers’ Association chief executive officer Andrew Curtis said the goal was to develop a blueprint that would provide a clear pathway for the state’s dairy sector to progress.
“What are the things we can be actively doing in the short to medium term to develop the industry?” he asked.
He said there was long-term strategic planning being done at a national level through Dairy Australia and other national organisations, but SADA was looking to find short-term goals specific to SA and helping build the industry locally.
SADA has held a series of meetings with dairyfarmers across dairy regions to gain feedback on the plans, and Mr Curtis said the next step was to speak with processors about the opportunities for the dairy industry to develop further, with this likely to happen early in the new year.
“We’ve had really good feedback to-date about some of the things that make the SA industry great,” he said. “This includes the range of processors from smaller through to larger ones in SA.”
Mr Curtis said the blueprint was also addressing the challenges of the sector.
“We recognise that for the industry to grow we need some good signals that encourage investment and they need to be there for longer than six months,” he said.
He said areas that needed work included the training and workforce sector, with some of the previous methods of attracting a workforce no longer working as well.
Mr Curtis said there was still opportunity for dairyfarmers to contribute to the development of the blueprint.
“We won’t stop talking to people until we release the plan,” he said.
Mr Curtis said SADA also hoped to have more interaction with some of the industry’s younger dairyfarmers.
“We’ve got a lot of good feedback from some of the established dairyfarmers and we need to ground truth that against the next generation,” he said.