The 2012 Australian Dairy Conference is set to be the biggest and best yet!

Welcome

It is a privilege to be chairing the programming committee of the tenth anniversary Australian Dairy Conference. I have been working with a talented and enthusiastic group of dairy farmers spanning four states and a range of production systems, together with some dedicated service providers, to scan the country and indeed the globe to identify speakers and topics that will leave our audience informed, enthused and with a tool kit of ideas and philosophies to take back to their dairy farm businesses.

But further, the Australian Dairy Conference (ADC) Limited board has issued the challenge this year to ensure the tenth anniversary event ‘takes dairy conferencing to a new level’ – and we have relished this mandate – and are proud of the resulting outcomes.

The event has also given the ADC an opportunity for a long-overdue visit to one of the country’s most prolific and intensely populated (not to mention picturesque) dairy regions. There are some 1570 dairy farm businesses within three hours of the conference centre, who together are responsible for nearly 24 per cent of the nation’s milk production and who have a farmgate value of $880 million. This means we are gearing for a large crowd and an opportunity for Gippslanders to welcome the rest of the dairying fraternity to their doorsteps.

In what is being seen as a ‘coming of age’ of the ADC movement, the board has taken the initiative to commission a wideranging study into the market mechanisms that will take the industry forward into the next decade and beyond.

This ADC commissioned body of work will be released exclusively to attendees of the conference and is expected to generate significant discussion and become the foundation of an opportunity for change.

In another move to mark the occasion, the 2012 conference will commence with a tribute to founding ADC director, the late Tom Reid. Australian of the Year, Melbourne-based businessman and philanthropist Simon McKeon will deliver the Tom Reid Oration lecture at the Warragul Arts Centre on the opening evening.

The lecture will be followed by a welcome function and hospitality, ahead of the formal conference opening the following morning at the impressive Lardner Park function centre.

Both the board and the programming committee are particularly proud of the conference agenda – which we see as an ideal combination of high level thinking and practical on farm, take-home information.

We look forward to your attendance and your being part of this celebration.

Ben Geard
Chair, Programming Committee
 

Conference in a nutshell