The Victorian Dairy Innovation Agreement (VDIA) is a collaboration between Gardiner Foundation, Dairy Australia and Agriculture Victoria.
Its role is managed by a board with representatives from the funding partners and employs general manager Clare Hill, and Cindy Morrison.
The VDIA oversees the direction of research and innovation funding through DairyFeedbase and DairyBio projects.
DairyFeedbase focuses on research about cow health and nutrition, herd feeding and forage productivity through soil health and fertility and crop management.
Dairy Feedbase has just begun its second five-year funding cycle and much of the research is undertaken at the SmartFarms at Ellinbank and Horsham.
DairyBio, through a partnership with La Trobe University, is a five-year investment program focused on science to improve pastures and dairy herds.
DairyBio is providing the research pipeline to quantify the value of genetic testing for improved cow and calf health.
Cindy attended the Ellinbank SmartFarm in July, during the open day hosted by Dairy Australia.
Her role with VDIA is to organise researchers and scientists to host webinars and speak on podcasts about their work, and collaborate to distil that information into articles for Dairy Australia publications.
Cindy is also organising conferences for farmers to hear about the results and outcomes of research projects.
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