Tasmania’s Grain Production to be Doubled in Five Years to Keep Pace with Dairy Expansion

Tasmania is on pace to produce 1.1 billion liters of milk per year by 2018, and as the dairy sector expands, demand for supplemental feed grain will boom as well. But even though Tasmania has an optimal climate for grain production and could realize higher yield potential than the mainland, Tasmania imports between 150,000 and 200,000 tons of feed grain per year to supply its dairy industry.

To resolve this issue and reduce imports, a new project funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) called Hyper Grain, is aiming to doubling Tasmania’s grain yields from its current 80,000 tons per year within five years.

Under the scope of the project, producers will import and develop new, higher yielding varieties of wheat and barley, and will integrate more modern production techniques.

"We're doing a search right around the globe looking for the best wheat and barley types suited to our high-yielding environment,” says Keith Pengilley, GRDC Southern Regional Chair, adding that it is key to tailor grain development to suit Tasmania’s dairy industry.

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