Consulting officer service receives funding

Consulting officer service receives funding

Dairy InSight has confirmed funding of the dairy industry’s Consulting Officer Service, run by Dexcel, for the 2003/04 season. Together with funding for AgITO, Education Dexcel and Dairy Statistics, Dairy InSight will be investing a total of $7.5 million on behalf of dairy farmers to “information and extension” activities. This represents over 19% of Dairy InSight’s total grants.

Dairy InSight is the industry good funding organisation for the dairy industry funded by dairy farmer investment.

“Funding of the Consulting Officer Service has to be viewed together with funding of science generally, into which we have provided over $9 million.

“The Consulting Officer Service is the key agency of extension and technology transfer and plays a vital role in the dairy industry. Its focus must be on adding value to our science spend by ensuring the take-up of innovation and its integration into the on-farm operation.

“The Consulting Officer Services sits beside other private sector consultants used by farmers. The service needs to be clearly focused in those areas where the market cannot supply services, which is the priority focus for industry good funding. It is a concern to us that some farmers, who perhaps should, don’t use the Consulting Service and we are keen to see usage levels increase,” says Peter Bodeker, chief executive.

AgITO has received $1.2 million for education and training activities related to the dairy industry.

“We have been pleased with the progress AgITO has made in recent months in upgrading and streamlining its offerings to the dairy industry. Development of capability has been a strong theme from dairy farmer consultation and with the expansion of the dairy industry in the last few years, availability of skilled and competent staff has become a priority.

“We are also looking forward to taking an agriculture industry-wide view of human resource development and have had positive discussions with meat, sheep, deer and pip fruit industries on points of co-operation. They are experiencing similar issues to us and we can share the cost of addressing them,” says Peter Bodeker.

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