B.PAS.0504 - Dieback Matrix Professionals (March-October)

Summary

This project contracted consultants to develop and implement a commonwealth grant agreement for research into pasture dieback. Following an initial emergency response to pasture dieback in 2017, the consultants coordinated the development and implementation of ‘B.PAS.0002 Commonwealth Grant Agreement: Research into pasture dieback’. The grant was a collaborative research program to diagnose, monitor, and treat pasture dieback affecting meat producers in Queensland and New South Wales.

The grant program included short, medium and long-term interventions to minimise the impact of pasture dieback and extension activities to communicate outputs to producers. A pasture dieback coordinator should support implementing the grant program to ensure the various projects’ success.

Objectives

This project was designed to assist further develop the pasture dieback grant project plan. The consultant will also coordinate R&D activities relating to Pasture Dieback in Queensland and New South Wales.

Key findings

Coordination between discrete research and communication actions (by multiple research agencies) was required enabling cause, causal factors and solutions to pasture dieback to be delivered and communicated in a consistent way to producers.

Benefits to industry

The industry benefitted from the hastening grant implementation and development that these consultants allowed. The grant provides a program of work to improve understanding of pasture dieback, an important issue for the industry that causes the death of patches of pasture, reducing productivity.

MLA action

MLA has used the outcomes of component projects from the grant to inform new investments, create and promote adoption material to industry.

Future research

Industry benefited from this grant as research on multiple dimensions of pasture dieback was implemented. Subsequently cause, causal factors and solutions to pasture dieback have been developed. Refining work on causal factors and solutions has progressed.