Farmers fear Agriculture Victoria is "abandoning" red meat research at its multi-million dollar Hamilton SmartFarm research property as its research capacity is slashed across the industry.
The comments come as the state government claws $3.6 billion in savings by cutting 109 positions from Agriculture Victoria, including 52 positions from the feedbase, animal nutrition performance and soil teams.
Victorian Nationals leader and Opposition agriculture spokesman Peter Walsh said Agriculture Victoria now had less staff than the Department of Premier and Cabinet, which had grown from 370 staff in 2013-14 to 966 by June 30 last year.
The staff cuts have several farming groups concerned the Hamilton research facility would also be on the chopping block, despite millions of dollars having been spent on building the facility.
"There has been a slow burn and deliberate approach by the Victorian government to wind down and wind back the facility at Hamilton over the last 10 years," leading sheepmeat industry representative Tim Leeming, Pigeon Ponds, said.
"The facility is now far from its capability from a staffing and funding point of view, and really turned it from a viable research institute to a vulnerable sales asset."
He said the "short-sighted and disappointing" move was a "heavy blow" to the resilience of the red meat manufacturing industry, which was valued at $4.4 billion annually.
Sources within the department said the facility had been "hamstrung" by a focus on "full cost recovery" of all research and partnerships undertaken at the centre and an exodus of senior research scientists.
"If you're going to innovate you need to invest," Mr Leeming said.
"It's unrealistic to think you can always obtain full cost recovery.
"If you want to grow your industry and its outputs, it's simply naive and irresponsible not to put the resources and energy back into it.
"South-west Victoria has the highest concentration of red meat in the country and [is an] economic leader of all the agricultural commodities in Victoria."
He said the move away from the research would mean the industry was reliant on private-sector research.
"So we will need to ask where is this research coming from and is it pushing innovation or a product?" he said.
Agriculture Victoria has reduced the output of research papers, with departmental annual reports showing peer-reviewed research papers had fallen by 34 per cent in the past decade to 264 in 2020-21.
Dobie farmer and former Grasslands Society of Southern Australia president Charles de Fegely said the SmartFarm was home to groundbreaking research, including the long-term phosphate experiment and Lifetime Wool.
"The phosphate trial provided help to increase the viability, production and profit of producers after the wool market crashed - it's a tragedy there is virtually no research or innovation," Mr de Fegely said.
"With another 40 staff expected to go out of the department, it is whittling down research capabilities which will impact the industry for a very long time."
In 2012, $3.5 million was invested to establish a Red Meat Innovation Centre at the Hamilton site, which included a "state-of-the-art" facility that calculated lamb's feed conversion, lean meat yield and carcase quality.
"It has barely been used," Mr de Fegely said.
"It doesn't matter what the facility is like, if you don't have good staff doing good research, it all falls over.
"Unfortunately the government is not looking forward, it's looking at right now."
South-west Victoria beef and lamb producer Ben Young said the region was losing its capacity to do red meat research.
"The more staffing levels are eroded, particularly in research, the facility's capacity to do this research into the future will be vastly reduced," Mr Young said.
"The centre has a state-of-the-art feed and methane research centre that could be conducting methane reduction and feed conversion work, but is currently extremely under-utilised in a time when methane reduction is front and centre of public concern.
"Considering the great times we are experiencing in the red meat and dairy sectors currently, now would be a good time to invest more in this research that can improve animal health and welfare, increase food security, which the pandemic has brought into sharp focus, and enable us to capitalise on the potential of our high-rainfall region."
Rural Industry Skill Training Centre chief executive Bill Hamill, whose campus is based at the Hamilton site, said the lifetime wool program which started at Hamilton, was delivered to more than 5000 producers from 2003-2006.
"We have had a great relationship with Agriculture Victoria who make their facilities available to us, which we utilise for student training," Mr Hamill said.
"Research can have a huge impact on the industry if it is taken to the producers in a comprehensible way.
"You can look down a corridor here and say there are not too many people but with COVID you need to take into consideration a lot of workplaces have staff off-site."
Agriculture Victoria acting head of research Traci Griffin said Agriculture Victoria had recently destocked Merino breeders after reviewing the livestock mix at the Hamilton SmartFarm and moving toward a maternal composite flock "that more aligns with industry red meat production systems".
"Some of the Merino flock have been sold, with some moved to our Rutherglen site," Ms Griffin said.
"Overall our sheep numbers remain the same."
A state government spokesperson said Agriculture Victoria was a national leader in agriculture research and innovation.
"We are investing more money than ever before in rural and regional Victoria - more than $36 billion since 2015," they said.
"We will always support our farmers and communities and our high-quality, on-ground services will continue."
Annabelle Cleeland
Annabelle Cleeland is a Stock & Land journalist. She has worked at Australian Community Media for more than a decade serving in a number of roles including editor, senior journalist and national sheep & wool writer. She runs a fine Merino wool property with her young family in North-East Victoria.
Annabelle Cleeland is a Stock & Land journalist. She has worked at Australian Community Media for more than a decade serving in a number of roles including editor, senior journalist and national sheep & wool writer. She runs a fine Merino wool property with her young family in North-East Victoria.
