Summary
Since 2004, EverGraze has been designing and implementing livestock systems based on the principle 'Right Plant, Right Place, Right Purpose, Right Management' to achieve significant improvements in profit, natural resource management, risk management and lifestyle of farmers. With the Future Farm Industries CRC officially ending in 2014, EverGraze VI (2011-2014) was seen to be important for the development of a legacy which could continue the delivery of EverGraze and provide the foundations for future initiatives. The approach was to develop and deliver regional information packages to achieve (and measure) capacity increases amongst producers, advisers, researchers and agencies to enable practice change and its subsequent impact on farm. The web-based regional packages combine information from component and farm systems research, modelling, demonstration, case studies, fact sheets, tools and training to deliver evidence-based and relevant information to farmers.
This report demonstrates that EverGraze has produced a significant body of work with 573 outputs loaded onto its new website, 300 developed in this phase. Capacity and change targets were achieved with an estimated 2300 to 4400 producers prompted to make changes over between 642,000 and 1.2 million hectares as a result of EverGraze activities. The project reported a very large reach through participation in its activities, recipients of publications, delivery through next users, and through its website. More than 300 advisers are estimated to have achieved capacity gains as a result of the project, with 150 recorded to have used project outputs with clients.
Capacity gains were also reported amongst more than 50 researchers and across state agencies, local natural resource management organisations and research and development corporations. It is estimated from results of an online survey (completed by 267 producers and extrapolated using the population on the EverGraze Client Database) that within the population of the database (2807 producers), 1950 producers have made successful changes to management significantly influenced by EverGraze in the past five years, and impacting around 817,000 ha.
The value (estimated using a 10 year NPV) of changes to grazing management, feedbase, shelter and flushing ewes are estimated at $306 million, and this equates to a benefit:cost on the $33 million research and delivery investment of 9:1. This return does not account for other changes to livestock systems and management, or the future benefits of producer, adviser and organisational capacity gains.
This report provides detail of the project results as well as a detailed account of the EverGraze project experience, lessons and recommendations for future projects.
