Ten farmers in five states receive grants to grow productivity, profitability and sustainability

This year, eight dairy farmers and two orange growers in five states have received up to $10,000 each in funding to support the implementation of sustainability initiatives for their businesses.

Projects for 2019 Lion Dairy Pride and Lion Orchard Pride Landcare Grants include significant improvements in effluent management, solar installation that includes a plan to use solar power for milk cooling and for an irrigation pump plus a project to significantly save water.

Four of the successful Dairy Pride projects involve solar energy.  Whittaker Farms in Gippsland, Victoria is one example with their project, Milking the Solar System. They’ll be using their grant to install solar panels on the roof of their northeast Dairy Shed and Calf Shed on their main dairy farm which milks 1,000 cows through a modern computerised rotary dairy. 

The Lion Dairy Pride Landcare Grants program forms part of Lion Dairy Pride that offers our farmer partners a unique way to measure, evaluate and improve key areas of sustainability on their farm.

In her grant application, Bree Whittaker stated, “It’s vital that we are proactive in minimising our reliance on brown coal energy and to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. As dairy farmers we are keen to pursue a sustainable approach to dairying, to benefit our productivity and profitability.”

Click to read more about the 2019 Dairy Pride Landcare Grant Recipient projects.

The two Lion Orchard Pride Landcare Grants were awarded to orange growers in New South Wales.

Projects include improving water efficiency through improved water management systems and a project devoted to soil conditioning. Click to read more about these 2019 projects.