Financial boost for Toowoomba TAFE ag training

The Queensland Government has announced a $1.1 million investment for Toowoomba TAFE that will boost its Rural Centre of Excellence into its second stage, firmly place Toowoomba’s TAFE campus on the agricultural training map.

The State Government had established Stage One of the Rural Centre of Excellence with a $8.1 million investment previously and the new money will grow the centre’s ability to provide cutting edge training to more students in the region.

Officially opening the centre’s second stage, Minister for Training and Skills Development Di Farmer said the state of the art facility is helping to prepare Queensland’s workforce for the anticipated growth in the state’s $23.5 billion agricultural industry.

“The Queensland Government is providing specialised training to get more people into more jobs, and we are making sure our industries are supported by people who are trained in the latest facilities and technologies,” Ms Farmer said.

Jobs Queensland predicts agriculture industry jobs in the Darling Downs- Maranoa region will increase by 11.5 per cent from 2020-21 to 2024-25 with a 20,000-strong workforce.

State-wide by 2024-25 it is predicted the industry workforce will grow to more than 87,000 – up 8,700 since 2020-21, and the Queensland Agriculture Industry Workforce Plan 2022-2027 has identified the four priority groups for future employment growth as grazing, horticulture, crops, and aquaculture.

Drop in milk production

Milk production data has been released by Dairy Australia for December 2022 and it shows a continued decline in milk production throughout Australia’s mainland dairy states.

National milk production for December 2022 showed a 6.5 per cent decrease on December 2021, whilst national year-todate was down 7.1 per cent.

Minister for Training and Skills Development Di Farmer checks out the new laboratory at Toowoomba TAFE.

The greatest annual drop has been in Queensland, where production is own by 9.6 per cent .

Shaughn Morgan, Co-CEO at eastAUSmilk said the figures are concerning.’

Mr Morgan said the coming 2022/2023 milk supply agreement negotiations between dairy farmers and processors for a fair and profitable farm-gate price is essential for retention of dairy farmers within the dairy industry and increased milk production.

He said as negotiations begin farmers should review the safeguards provided by the Dairy Mandatory Code since it commenced in 2020.