Evaluation report of the impact of the MLA On-Farm R&D Portfolio

Summary

​This evaluation report was concerned with on-farm, or production, research and extension in the beef industry between 2000-01 and 2007-08.  Investments made by MLA and the state DPIs, are detailed, along with the key activities across three broad clusters or programs focus areas: northern beef, southern beef and feedlots.
Total MLA expenditure amounted to nearly $75 million over this period.  The evaluation approach taken in both the northern and southern beef evaluations is a so called ‘top-down’ approach, where observed total factor productivity for each of
these regions is compared to an overall outcome for productivity in a ‘without RD&E’ scenario.  In each case, assumptions are made concerning the level of productivity gain that would have been achieved without investment in RD&E by MLA and others.  The approach taken for the feedlot program was a series of case studies from a sample of projects or project clusters. The benefits from case studies were primarily productivity savings from lower mortality and compliance costs.  In addition, a scenario was developed to reflect the benefits from better issues management by the industry. This was made under the assumption that the feedlot accreditation plan facilitated the expansion of feedlot capacity.  Without the program, capacity would have remained at 2005 levels.  A requirement of this approach is the attribution of benefits between the key contributors — MLA and primarily the DPIs. Attribution not only recognises inputs of funding but also reflects leverage — where funding by MLA increased expenditure by other contributors.  MLA contributed 15 per cent to outcomes of the Northern and Southern Beef programs, and 100 per cent to the Feedlots program.
Across all contributors, the benefit-cost ratios were found to be positive and significant with an average of 2.5 to 1 across all programs during the evaluation period.  The payoff for the Southern program (3.1 to 1) was higher than for the Northern program (1.9 to 1) because of the underlying assumptions made about the relative contribution of MLA and others to overall TFP outcomes observed.  Overall, the benefit-cost ratio for MLA on-farm beef programs ranges between 2.5 to 1 for the Northern beef program and 4.4 to 1 for the Southern beef program.  The outcome of the Southern program reflects the leverage that MLA has achieved from co-funding particularly from the DPIs and the Beef CRC.  Case studies of selected feedlot projects revealed an average payoff of 3 to 1.  Including the potential benefits from better issues management, the total payoff increases to 8.2 to 1.