New Virtual Herding Project announced

Virtual Herding Project

A major project has been established under the Commonwealth Rural R&D for Profit programme, to undertake research and development of the implementation of virtual herding technology across the major livestock industries in Australia.

Overview of the project

The Australian Government’s Rural Research and Development (R&D) for Profit programme is a $200 million competitive grants program with funding available over eight financial years (2014/2015 to 2021/2022).

The project, “Enhancing the profitability and productivity of livestock farming through virtual herding technology”, was funded from 1 July, 2016 by the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources, through the second round of submissions to the Rural R&D for Profit programme. The four year project is a partnership between CSIRO, University of Sydney, University of New England, Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture and The University of Melbourne and involves the dairy, beef, wool and pork industries and their respective RDC’s; Dairy Australia, Meat and Livestock Australia, Australian Wool Innovation and Australian Pork Limited.

Full details on the project are available on the Dairy Australia website here.