Dairy 21 Appointment Confirms Focus on Results

For Immediate Release
12 January 2006

Dairy 21 Appointment Confirms Focus on Results

Dairy 21 chairman Graham Fraser views the secondment of AgResearch scientist Dr David McCall as Project Director as an important step in achieving the goals of the New Zealand dairy industry.

“Having David as our Project Director will help ensure the industry priorities that have been identified for development will be observed and that Dairy 21 and the wider industry can be assured of accurate reporting on progress.

“David brings more than 20 years experience in the dairy industry R&D sector to this role, knows the key stakeholders very well, will ensure we use our most capable people in key fields and is a specialist in farm systems and the strategic development of technology. It’s a good mix to lead an impressive team of Dairy 21 co-ordinators.”

Mr Fraser said that while the early emphasis for Dairy 21 had been on securing more appropriate levels of industry research funding from Government its focus was now firmly on identifying the work programme to deliver on the Industry Strategic Framework.

“Our fundamental purpose is to identify what’s needed by the industry and, when identified, deploy the right resources to achieve them. By necessity we moved quickly on the funding to ensure we had our request considered for the next Government funding round. With that in place we’ve now appointed our key people, including our co-ordinators and we’re getting on with the business of working through delivery of the programmes identified in the Strategic Framework.”

Dr McCall said that one of his first priorities would be getting out among the farming groups to create a wider understanding of Dairy 21, endorsement of the industry goals and to pick up feedback on areas that may need closer attention or further development.

“I’ll also be working closely with funders, both from the Government and private sectors, to further expand our presence in R&D.

“We’ve got three project co-ordinators in place and we’ve been working on outlines that will create a bridge from the targets outlined in the Industry’s Strategic Framework to providing the programmes of work necessary to achieve those goals. That includes ways we will measure results so our farmers can see the gains being made.”

Dr McCall said the three priority streams of work for his team, Dieter Adam, Senior Manager at LIC for Innovation and R&D, John Carradus, former CEO of Dexcel and Andrew Watters, Farm Consultant and former Sharemilker of the Year, were in Feed, Farm Systems and the Environment.

“Feed and Environment are the major focus of our involvement with Government and Farm Systems is another priority. That will include integration of existing scientific knowledge into improved farming systems and its extension to ensure on-farm knowledge is passed through the industry.

“We’re already working with Dairy InSight on the Environment programme and I see our organisations also working closely through the other parts of the programme.

“We’re looking for an enduring strategic approach in all three of these areas, programmes that evolve, develop and follow through to producing end results for farmers and don’t have a short-term shelf life.

“Dairy 21 doesn’t believe there is a quick fix solution derived from one-off or ad hoc reviews of programmes in any of these critical areas for dairy farmers. We’re concentrating on putting in place long-term plans to bring about measurable, sustainable growth in productivity with those plans supported by enhanced funding for the necessary R&D.”

ENDS

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