AUSTRALIA’S sheep, goat and beef producers can review Meat & Livestock Australia’s range of completed and in-progress research, development and adoption projects via a new online resource.

MLA said it has released the Stocktake document to create more visibility of the range of projects it has invested in and is investing in on behalf of the red meat industry.

MLA’s RD&A Stocktake 2018-2020 summarises the MLA-funded projects across the Research, Development & Adoption, Integrity Systems Company, and International Marketing R&D portfolios, from June 2018 through to November 2020, providing details of all completed and in-progress projects during the two-and-a-half-year period.

MLA general manager – research, development and adoption, Michael Crowley, said the document was another initiative to improve transparency and accessibility around MLA’s RD&A investments.

“All levy-payers and stakeholders can now access the comprehensive, yet easy-to-read summary of what MLA is investing in and the value it offers to the industry.

“It is also intended to help inform MLA’s consultation with stakeholders and industry bodies, which is conducted to identify future investment areas in RD&A,” Mr Crowley said.

“The document provides a comprehensive record of completed and existing work, and can be used to identify areas where there are significant gaps in R&D and help avoid duplication of research or resources.”

The new document provides basic information on MLA’s RD&A projects and provides hyperlinks to full reports and further information when available. The document groups projects into their relevance for different species — grassfed cattle, grainfed cattle, sheep and lamb, goats, all grassfed species and all red meat species. The projects are then grouped by research area — for example, meat quality, animal production, husbandry and nutrition, genetics — with completed projects listed before in-progress projects.

Mr Crowley said the Stocktake document is the latest in a series of new initiatives from MLA to improve R&D accessibility and transparency in response to stakeholder feedback about the challenges in finding and accessing R&D information.

“The information in this document is designed to be used in conjunction with the R&D search function on the MLA website, launched last year, wherein users can search for terms of interest, such as keyword, region or species,” he said.

The Stocktake document will be updated every six months as projects progress.

Click here to view the new MLA RD&A Stocktake.