The Future of Australia’s Dairy Industry
Following on from the highly rated ‘Skimming the Cream’ forum in Brisbane on the 9th of February, members of the Young Dairy Network and SubTropical Dairy groups reconvened to consider the impacts of Climate Change on the dairy sector in Australia using the high-impact ‘Accelerated Scenarios process’. The ‘2030 Dairy Scenarios’ brought together the members of the YDN and SubTropical groups using the core issues raised by the almost 100 farmers and industry representatives at the Skimming the Cream forum to consider what changes might emerge in the sector in coming years.
More importantly, the dairy industry representatives building the scenarios were tasked to not only consider what the future might look like given a whole range of competing demands, they also had to generate some key strategic initiatives open to the industry as it adapts to change.
Process facilitator, Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber stated from the outset that ‘…the purpose of exploring the potential futures in more detail and with greater depth is so that we can identify what actions we can take to both mitigate our risks and capture opportunities we can see in the Dairy Industry. Generating these scenarios is tied explicitly to a series of pragmatic ‘robust’ actions that can be undertaken on farms across Australia’.
From over 120 concerns and issues raised at the ‘Skimming the Cream’ forum, members at the two day scenario workshop selected a dozen or so key issues, with two core issues identified: The degree of industry regulation emerging from Government attention to Climate Change; and the level of consumer engagement with traditional dairy products.
These two core ‘drivers of change’ enabled the groups to create four connected though differing views of a potential future dairying landscapes: ‘a world in which there is high government regulation with high consumer engagement with dairy products; a world in which there is minimal government regulation with low consumer engagement with dairy products; a world in which there is high government regulation with low consumer engagement with dairy products; and a world in which there was low government regulation with high engagement with dairy products.
These four ‘potential futures’ provided the opportunity for farmers and industry people to answer the question ‘If this was ‘your lot’ in life as a dairy farmer, what actions would be available to you in order for you to ‘succeed’ at some level?’ The four scenarios and various actions provided some great insights into both the emerging challenges within the industry as well as the options for action available to various parts of the sector.
The results of the scenarios are being rolled out across dairy farming communities from the mid coast of NSW to the upper reaches of QLD. For further information contact Viv McCollum, program coordinator.
For questions related to the Accelerated Scenarios process, contact Marcus Barber
A quick note for the history buffs among us – in this month of August fifty years ago, the first components of the Berlin Wall were constructed with rings of barbed wire severing Berlin into visually distinct west and east Berlin. Russia’s main challenge at that time was the 10,000 or so East Germans each…
Read More >Let me start by saying that my Masters of Science qualification is NOT held in economics and with that said I’m holding an interested person’s perspective toward wanting to know ‘why’ and ‘how’. I have some questions and thoughts about the theory of Supply and Demand and would be happy to have some feedback from…
Read More >Below you’ll find this afternoon’s discussion with ABC Darwin radio in which host Vicki Kerrigan chats with futurist Marcus Barber about the emerging research into lab grown meat as a potential addition to or replacement of, existing livestock farming methods. The program streamed live on 105.7 ABC Darwin this afternoon, discussing the University of…
Read More >Continuing the futures discussions on ABC Darwin Radio, this time with Paul Dale who is filling in for Vicki Kerrigan whilst Vicki is handling the breakfast time slot, we discuss some of the conference sessions at the World Futures Conference here in Vancouver You can listen to the audio stream here and cue this…
Read More >My slides from today’s presentation on ‘Getting You Future Right’ can be found at the link below To those at the session, my apologies for the technical challenges and hope these slides can provide more context for you – contact me if you have any questions. Access the Slides Here
Read More >Here’s the upload of my conversation with Vicki Kerrigan at ABC Radio Darwin. In it I offer the first three of ten steps designed to help you get your future right. In last week’s session I left Vicki with a question to ponder: Is my life headed where I want it to go, and if…
Read More >Futurist Marcus Barber will be joining ABC’s Vicki Kerrigan in Darwin for the first of an ongoing discussion about the future this Wednesday. Each week on Wednesday afternoon’s, Vicki and Marcus will discuss the future of something, how we prepare for the future, what the future looks like for some industries and other related futures…
Read More >The panel session at the National Manufacturing Week 2011 went well though with four of us on the panel, time was quite compressed. Some really good thoughts from Phillip Chindamo from AIG, Damon Cantwell from Deloitte and Erol Harvey from Minifab, delightfully chaired by Sandra George from SEBN at the City of Greater Dandenong. Rather…
Read More >On Thursday I’ll be part of the panel that wraps up the National Manufacturing Week 2011 in Melbourne at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre under the theme of Meeting the challenges of the next generation of manufacturing with a focus on Innovation and Sustainability. It should be an interesting chat as we consider what…
Read More >There’s lots to like about borrowing ideas from other areas especially where those ideas can lead to a significant positive shift. In the link below, Zaid Ali Alsagoff an educational blogging specialist highlights why the Finnish Education system stands as a potential model to embrace. And whilst there are examples of this type of thinking…
Read More >