Future Drought Fund · Scaling Success Program
Climate Smart Feedbase
Building resilient dairy farms that deliver more profit, long-term sustainability and thriving landscapes.
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Climate Smart Feedbase is led by Subtropical Dairy in partnership with Queensland Department of Primary Industries, with support through the Australian Government's Future Drought Fund Scaling Success Program.
About the project
Practical solutions for a changing dairy feedbase
Climate Smart Feedbase is an eastern Australian initiative to help dairy businesses strengthen feedbase performance, manage climate risk and improve long-term profitability across Queensland, New South Wales and northern Victoria.
Led by Subtropical Dairy in partnership with Queensland Department of Primary Industries, the project responds to a growing reliance on grain-based forage systems as farmers adapt to drought, changes in irrigation water availability, variable feed prices, pest pressure and the need to maintain cow performance in hot conditions.
Farmers, agronomists, nutrition advisers, researchers and agribusinesses will share insights through farm demonstrations, discussion groups, a Community of Practice and practical resources.
Project modelling indicates that by 2030 more than half of Australia’s milk could be produced by around 1,300 businesses using grain-based forages as a core part of their feedbase. The project connects decisions about agronomy, forage conservation, herd nutrition, supplement purchasing and business risk.
Project delivery: August 2026 – November 2028
Topic library
Explore the Climate Smart Feedbase resources
Browse articles, demonstrations and useful guidance. New outputs will be added as the project progresses.
Resource topic
Soils
Manure, composting and soil testing to support healthier soils and productive crops.
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Forage varieties
Explore grain sorghum, forage sorghum, maize and other crops suited to variable conditions.
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Crop agronomy
Practical cropping decisions, pest and disease management and getting more from each paddock.
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Forage conservation
Make better silage and manage the risks of harvesting, storing and feeding conserved forage.
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Silage nutrient content and diets
Understand feed quality, feed analysis and how forages perform in dairy diets.
Explore resources →Building on earlier success
Building on the Dairy Grains Mentoring project
Delivered from 2021 to 2023, Dairy Grains Mentor reached 400 northern Australian dairy businesses with contemporary information on soil fertility, soil health, composting, crop nutrition and forage production. Fifty participating businesses improved agronomic practices across 1,500 hectares. Climate Smart Feedbase will review what those farms adopted, the benefits achieved and the barriers that remain, then use those lessons to support a wider eastern Australian audience.
The project will also provide an extension pathway for C4Milk research, particularly winter-forage fungicide management, improved forage sorghum genetics and high-forage nutrition strategies that increase margin over feed costs.
What the project will do
From research to practical on-farm decisions
Six activity streams will bring earlier learnings and contemporary research into everyday farm decision-making.
Review past on-farm outcomes
Revisit 15 former Dairy Grains Mentoring farms to identify practices adopted, benefits achieved, barriers and unforeseen outcomes. The findings will guide wider adoption of useful practices.
Build a Community of Practice
A steering committee of farmers and service providers will help build an eastern Australian Community of Practice, supported by online networking and extension. Contact Brad to hear about joining as the community develops.
Use technology in discussion groups
Ten dairy businesses will use satellite imagery, feed analysis and herd nutrition models to compare crop yields, production costs and milk-production potential. Discussion groups will meet four times each year around critical farm decisions.
Demonstrate winter-forage fungicide use
Farm-scale plots will demonstrate preventive fungicide use at stem elongation in winter forages, building on C4Milk research on yield, quality and growing costs.
Examine forage sorghum options
Assess new forage sorghum species and varieties under commercial conditions, comparing yield, quality, milk response, profitability and risk. Demonstrations will also examine harvest stage, processing and diet formulation across lactation stages.
Manage drought-related feed costs
Analyse 30 dairy businesses to quantify exposure to volatile prices for grains, protein meals and by-products. A decision-support tool will help farmers test options to reduce or avoid margin losses when feed prices rise.