Professor Mark Powell, from the US Dairy Forage Research Centre in Madison, Wisconsin has spent the past year learning about Australian dairy farming practices.

"Not all of the Australian grazing practices seem logical to me, but the good ideas are very, very good indeed," Professor Powell said.

The research soil scientist visited Australia in 2007-08 as part of the Accounting for Nutrients (A4N) on Dairy Farms project, supported by the Victorian Department of Primary Industries and Dairy Australia.

Prof Powell has just reported back on his experiences across Victoria and other states, visiting dairy farmers and talking to scientists in Australia and New Zealand.

"The standout practices are herd splitting; sending the younger cows to far away paddocks and milking them only once a day and keeping older cows in closer paddocks for twice a day milking," he said.

"I was also intrigued to learn about the practice of agistment, or receiving another's cattle depending on forage availability.

"I found this such a fascinating practice, and so many questions arose: why ship cattle to feed rather feed to cattle?

"If there is excess forage in a location, why not just increase stock numbers, rather than accepting someone else's cattle?

"How does this contribute to dairy industry resilience, especially during this current period of drought?

"One farmer said it was a way to preserve a herd's genetic stock, which took years to build up.

"The flexibility imbedded in agistment seems so interesting to me."