L.PGS.2118 - PGS State Coordinator

Summary

The adoption of research outcomes to achieve practice change and a measurable improvement in the farm performance of red meat production enterprises has been a major challenge for the sector.

Profitable Grazing Systems (PGS) is seeking to improve the skills of producers and achieve practical change through an innovative supported learning or coaching approach. The uptake of the approach by deliverers has been hampered by a range of internal and external factors. Despite these challenges, later year KPIs were achieved and a platform established for ongoing extension and adoption activities.

Objectives

The overarching objective of the PGS program is to encourage and support red meat producers to improve their management skills to increase profit. The responsibilities of the state coordinators in
achieving this overarching objective were to:

• be the key PGS contact for deliverers within each state
• identify opportunities across the MLA Adoption plan to promote engagement of service providers and producers in PGS, PDS and EDGE and promote the collaborative benefits of these programs
• recruit deliverers and producers for the program
• influence feeder activity design to ensure they are high impact and meet producer needs locally
• manage PGS program quality assurance.

The responsibilities of the NSW state coordinator in achieving this overarching objective were discharged although for various reasons, the KPIs were not always achieved.

Key findings

KPIs were revised throughout the project in appreciation of various challenges including slow initial
uptake by deliverers and the impact of COVID‐19.
In the later years, KPIs were met and exceeded.
Challenges to PGS implementation included:

• External factors
• NSW Drought 2017‐2019
• COVID‐19 2019‐2022

Benefits to industry

Increased recognition of the need for user pays within the industry. Provision of curriculum‐based learning valued by some sectors within the industry. BCA according to the recent report.

MLA action

MLA continues to deliver the Profitable Grazing Systems (PGS) program, supporting participants to have the opportunity to develop and practice skills with small groups of like-minded producers to improve business performance.