European Dairy Cattle Innovation Partnership

Dairy levy bodies in six European countries have signed up to the European Cattle Innovation Partnership (ECIP), the culmination of an initiative by dairy farmer and former Farmers Club chairman Richard Holland. Mr Holland saw an opportunity for levy organisations across Europe to better co-ordinate efforts to tackle priority issues, and make the most of existing research available from other countries.

“Many of the issues facing dairy farming are common across several countries’’ explains Mr Holland. By forming a partnership, we now have a recognised platform where we can share our research and knowledge, to address those issues in a much more efficient way.”

The group has compiled a list of over 200 projects, which will be kept up to date under the new collaboration agreement. The database provides an overview of current activity, as well as identifying projects whose results may be readily translatable to other countries.

DairyCo head of R&D Ray Keatinge says: “The partnership is an excellent opportunity for us to get a better return on our research funds for levy payers. We will be looking at where we can avoid duplication and act more strategically in R&D terms, across a wider geographic area. For example, there are lessons we can take from Danish research into lameness, or from work on manure management in the Netherlands. The distinguishing feature of this group is that it represents the needs of the dairy farmer, and is very much focussed on increasing the impact of applied R&D at farm level.”

During 2012, ECIP will be co ordinated by the Dutch Dairy Board. As ECIP matures, the group will develop proposals targeting additional EU funds, to underpin collaborative research, development and knowledge exchange.