The Tasmanian dairy industry took the opportunity to advertise its credentials during a farm tour before the Australian Dairy Conference yesterday.
The message was loud and clear: the industry is open for business and looking for new investors, particularly for the farm conversions.
DairyTas chief executive officer Mark Smith said the industry had been growing year on year for the past decade, mainly with more milk from existing farms.
But its ambitious target to grow the industry to 860 million litres would rely on new entrants.
Irrigated dairy was a big opportunity with the Tasmanian Government bringing new schemes on board.
However, he did note that in most cases this water would be most cost effectively used on farms with some existing irrigation.
Last night Australian Dairy Conference president and Deloraine, Tas, farmer Simon Bennett in opening the conference reiterated the message.
“It’s really all happening here in Tasmania,” he said.
“There’s lots of excitement to grow the industry.”
Source: The Australian Dairyfarmer