L.MUP.2000 - MeatUp Forum Coordination 2020 - 2023
| Project start date: | 08 November 2019 |
| Project end date: | 15 June 2024 |
| Publication date: | 12 April 2024 |
| Project status: | In progress |
| Livestock species: | Grass-fed Cattle, Sheep, Goat, Lamb |
| Relevant regions: | Southern Australia |
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Summary
A Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) flagship awareness program to be delivered in southern Australia, the MeatUp forum project commenced in 2020, with events delivered from 2021-2023. MeatUp forums were a series of face-to-face events which were focused on informing producers of the latest red meat research, development and adoption programs relating to livestock production.
Objectives
The objectives of the MeatUp forum coordination project were to:
1. Deliver a program which is producer led and engages key regionally based/local stakeholders. Where possible producers will also take roles in delivery of content within the program.
2. Raise awareness of red meat research, development, and adoption programs with a whole of farm and value chain focus, while delivering a regionally relevant agenda.
3. Demonstrate the value of implementation of a practice or technology, and the cost of not closing the implementation gap.
4. Identify useful and relevant tools and resources that are available to industry.
5. Where possible engage producers to share their skills, experience, and motivation towards achieving goals, including exceptional business performance (sustainability and profitability) with their red meat enterprise/s and demonstrate what is achievable.
6. Create opportunities for participants to engage in a range of topic areas to ensure a whole of farm business approach to build knowledge and assess opportunities.
7. Signpost producers to MLA RD&A activities, programs and projects producers can get involved in to enable them to build knowledge, skills and make meaningful on-farm practice change.
8. Connect individuals and organisations involved in the red meat industry and encourage networking.
Key findings
The MeatUp forum coordination project successfully delivered on all agreed outputs, to achieve all of the project objectives, despite the impact on face-to-face delivery by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sixteen MeatUp forums were delivered during the project, achieving the event delivery target. This included four events in NSW; three in SA; three in WA and six across the Rangelands (1 x SA; 2 x NSW and 3 x Qld). Delivering events throughout 2021, 2022 and 2023 a broad geographic spread across the delivery zone was achieved. Over the life of the project, 1286 participants attended MeatUp forums, of which 918 (71%) were producers. On average, MeatUp forums achieved a satisfaction rating of 8.7/10, with every event exceeding the KPI (>7/10) for satisfaction. In addition to this, overall event value was rated 8.7/10. On average, across all events, 71% of attendees indicated they intend to make a practice change as a result of attending the MeatUp forum (KPI was >50%). Ninety-five percent of participants indicated they learnt something new by attending and 88% had been provided sufficient information to make an intended practice change. Participants gained significant value from concise, targeted, practical and relevant presentations from key subject matter experts. This was, demonstrated by the evaluation data, specifically regarding intent to implement practice change. In addition, the opportunity to network was also highly valued
Benefits to industry
Monitoring and evaluation results demonstrate that MeatUp forum participants grew in skills, knowledge, motivation and confidence, and expressed intent to make changes to their enterprises and seek more information. Participants recognised opportunities to drive productivity profitability by implementing learnings from MeatUp Forums. Participants also became more aware of MLA tools, resources, programs, and opportunities they could engage in. Six to twelve months post event, there is evidence that practice change was implemented, new opportunities identified, practices reinforced and plans for future implementation made if the timing for change wasn’t yet appropriate.
MeatUp forums contributed as a catalyst for on-farm change and within enterprise actions across southern Australia. While the MeatUp forums did not always provide all the information (nor were the sole information source) needed for change in some instances, they did provide a stepping stone, and inspiration for producers to seek out further information, start a conversation or initiate change in their business.
MLA action
Further engagement of the red meat producer target audience, by offering more events in the future, is recommended. This will continue to see them building their skills and knowledge, in addition to increasing their awareness of MLA membership, resources, tools, programs and opportunities offered by MLA which can assist them to sustainability improve the productivity and profitability of their red meat businesses through long term practice change implementation.
Future research
Continued delivery of MeatUp forums in NSW, SA, WA and the rangelands zone of south-west Qld, NSW and South Australia is highly recommended. The project has resulted in a developing network of producers and industry stakeholders who regard MeatUp forums as a high quality, beneficial and relevant event to attend. Returning to locations and venues which have performed well should be considered. In addition to this, identifying new locations which have known strong red meat producer communities is encouraged. This would enable individual event brand development in new geographies and extend reach to more producers.
More information
| Project manager: | Andrew Morelli |
| Contact email: | reports@mla.com.au |
| Primary researcher: | Pinion Advisory Trust |
