Twenty years of the Australasian Dairy Science Symposium: a review

The Australasian Dairy Science Symposium (ADSS, 2007–2024) was established from its precursor the Australian Dairy Science Symposium (2004–2006) in recognition that (1) the Australian and New Zealand dairy sectors faced very similar challenges to their future sustainable development and (2) there was no venue for scientists in the various disciplines that support dairy sector development in both countries to share their research and create opportunities for collaboration. This commissioned review has analysed the content of ~710 papers presented at the 10 symposia with respect to the science and outcome domains that they addressed, and the spread of authorship. The resulting ADSS proceedings and Animal Production Science journal Special Issues provide a rich resource of largely applied scientific knowledge describing how plants, animals and farm systems can be adapted through genetics and management to improve the environmental and economic sustainability of pasture-based dairy systems. ADSS has clearly succeeded in bringing the key science disciplines together and fostering systems research in particular. Despite these successes, only ~8% of contributions were jointly authored by Australian and New Zealand researchers, many of which were invited review papers, indicating limited genuine collaboration between the countries, in turn reflecting a dearth of jointly funded projects/programs. Future symposia should seek ways in which greater trans-Tasman collaboration in Research and Development (R&D) projects/programs addressing common issues facing both countries could be facilitated. ADSS must also guard against becoming an echo-chamber of the transactional cows, grass and systems research that has formed the foundation of all events since 2004. These remain the core pillars of the sector, but change (in e.g. climate, regulation, labour supply and skills, automation) is happening rapidly. Several areas that ADSS organising committees could consider for inclusion in future events are identified, and include the following: inviting more contributions from farmers and sector organisations to bring real-world perspectives and challenge researchers regarding the need, pace and direction of change they perceive as critical in future; re-building focus on science-led practice change and what is required to achieve this; drawing from other biological sectors where new knowledge on basic plant, animal and systems behaviour is emerging from the application of advanced omics and data technologies; and incorporating more fore-sighting presentations from analysts of the potential impacts of global change on local industries and the science that supports them.