Trust chairman Matthew Richards said the $26.5m project dubbed the Southern Dairy Hub was tailored to southern South Island farming conditions as well as providing a dedicated dairying training facility for staff.
“At present I have to send my staff to a Winton dairy farm for dairy training,” he said.
AgResearch and DairyNZ have agreed to each provide $5m to the project if local farmers and the agriculture sector found $2m.
Funds from an existing leased farm used for research would provide a further $2.5m with the balance coming from bank funding.
The trust was still looking for a suitable property big enough to run up to 800 cows in four herds.
Richards said with Environment Southland and the Otago Regional Council each intending to impose nutrient limits on catchments the initial research would focus on how farmers could achieve them.
Other likely research areas would be cow fertility, cow condition scoring, human resources and health and safety compliance.
The trust will hit the road to update farmers with meetings in Balclutha on Monday, March 2, Gore on March 3, Winton, March 4, and Invercargill on March 5.
