The Giumellis milk 340 cows on the Benger flats and have joined Western Dairy’s DairyCare project run in conjunction with the Department of Water.
They recently had their dairy effluent system reviewed and a plan prepared for improvements to the system.
Western Dairy executive officer Esther Jones, who has managed the Dairy Innovation Day event for 18 consecutive years, said one of its attractions was the opportunity to “get a look inside” a different dairy farm operation each year as the event moved around the State’s dairying areas.
“In the case of the Giumellis, there is a real focus and interest on feedbase and technology and so we will use this as our canvas for building the program of events,” Ms Jones said.
“Their property has also been used as a demonstration plot for a Smarter Irrigation project and there will be a range of activities in this space over the summer that we will report on.”
Ms Jones said one of those would be a look at results of a current planting of Lablab, a high-yielding forage legume more commonly found in tropical farming systems.
“We might only have 150 dairy farms in this State but well over two thirds of those businesses attend an innovation day and they generally come with at least two to three people from every farm,” she said.
“The best thing about that is the opportunity for industry to come together and take pride in its achievements.
“It’s good to celebrate all the things that are innovative about this industry.”
A program of events will be released in early March.
Sponsorship and exhibition inquiries should be directed to Jessica Andony at jessica@westerndairy.com.au.