Getting more bang for their buck only makes sense to these Australia and New Zealand groups. Makes sense to me too.
Australian and New Zealand dairy farmers will drive their levy dollars further with their two service organisations agreeing to share research, development and extension activities across the Tasman. Dairy Australia and New Zealand’s Dairy InSight will undertake ‘collaborative activities’ to reduce duplication and provide opportunities for co-ordinated research between the two countries.
Dairy Australia managing director Mike Ginnivan said a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two countries had been under consideration but was accelerated by a supporting resolution at the Australian Dairy Farmers and New Zealand Dairy Farmers meeting in February 2006.
Under the MoU, both organisations would take advantage of opportunities to exchange information, develop new programs and establish a critical mass of funds, people or technology.
“The MoU means that we now have a framework for pre-farmgate collaboration,” Dr Ginnivan said. The Dairy InSight MoU is the second negotiated by Dairy Australia in the last year. “We have a similar MoU with Dairy Management Inc in the United States,” Dr Ginnivan said.