CALVES. GAINS. PROFITS. LEARN HOW TO DELIVER You are invited to attend a free one hour seminar by internationally renowned cattle reproduction authority, Professor Gabriel Bo from Cordoba, Argentina. Learn how local and international dairy farmers have been inducing anoestrus cows to cycle. See how to eliminate the need for heat detection and achieve a tighter calving pattern through oestrus synchronisation. Professor Bo will be answering questions from the audience. Hear this fascinating speaker at: Shepparton ......Monday ... 11 April 2011 Tasmania .........Friday ...... 15 April 2011 Warrnambool ....Monday ... 18 April 2011 AS SEATS ARE LIMITED PLEASE REGISTER ON 1800 678 368 THESE FREE SEMINARS ARE MADE POSSIBLE BY BAYER ANIMAL HEALTH AND BIONICHE ANIMAL HEALTH A/ASIA, DISTRIBUTORS AND MANUFACTURERS OF CUE MATE AND FERTILITY REGULATORS. ISSUE 14: MAY 2011 Larger Kuhn feeder PAGE 33 Feed pad expansion PAGE 25 NFF outlines food security plans PAGE 8 Carbon tax offset scheme farcical PAGES 6-7 WOULD YOU COVER THIS IN TREES?
Transcript
CALVES. GAINS. PROFITS.
LEARN HOW TO DELIVER You are invited to attend a free one hour seminar by internationally renowned cattle reproduction authority, Professor Gabriel Bo from Cordoba, Argentina.Learn how local and international dairy farmers have been inducing anoestrus cows to cycle. See how to eliminate the need for heat detection and achieve a tighter calving pattern through oestrus synchronisation. Professor Bo will be answering questions from the audience.
AS SEATS ARE LIMITED PLEASE REGISTER ON 1800 678 368
THESE FREE SEMINARS ARE MADE POSSIBLE BY BAYER ANIMAL HEALTH AND BIONICHE ANIMAL HEALTH A/ASIA, DISTRIBUTORS AND MANUFACTURERS OF CUE MATE AND FERTILITY REGULATORS.
Bega Cheese execu-tive chairman Barry Irvin says the com-pany’s public listing could raise $375m.
18
Western Victorian farmers Adam and Natalie Roberts were named Em-ployers of the Year.
20
Dean Thorpe admits he farms on virtual beach sand on the SA coast.
22
INTEREST RATE rises – foreshadowed for later in the year – could adversely affect Australia’s competiveness in the international market place and place pressure on opening farmgate prices.
Although the Australian dollar continues to set new trading records, smashing through the US$1.10 barrier this month, the latest hike in the Australian exchange rate remains in line with most other major currencies – including the Euro.
However, Dairy Australia analyst Joanne Bills says rising interest rates could increase the at-tractiveness of the Australian dollar relative to other currencies.
“This would put us out of step with other dairy exporters and importing countries. It would have an effect on Australia’s competitive-
ness and be of greater concern.”The international market has been relatively
stable for much of the past year, and remains tightly balanced. International milk prices in Fonterra’s fortnightly auction – the globalDair-yTrade (gDT) trade weighted index – rose 0.1% in early May. The average winning price rose to $US4293 from US$US4280 a fortnight ago. That followed a fall of 2.4% in April and a fall of 8.2% in mid-March.
Despite those declines, prices remained at el-evated levels.
Bills says while the high Australian dollar does impact the final farmgate price negative-ly, the current situation is preferable to one in which our currency is much stronger than our competitors or customers.
“With a reasonably stable international mar-
ket, the weak US dollar will serve to hold up in-ternational dairy commodity prices,” she says.
Looking forward, Bills says the current uncertainty surrounding the US economy, and currency markets in particular, may require a more cautious approach to early sea-son prices.
“Company hedging strategies will be impor-tant in minimizing the impact of further rises.”
While expectations of increased supply may see commodity prices soften slightly in coming months, Bills says strong demand is likely to ab-sorb projected increases in export availability.
“While a lower Aussie dollar would give us all more comfort heading into next season, a stable international market outlook should still provide good returns - as long as our currency doesn’t get too far ahead of the pack.”
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Interest rate rise could hurt prices
Rounding up the cows on Brian Tessmann’s property in Queensland South Burnett district. Page 4.
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DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // MAY 20114 DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // MAY 2011 5
NEWSNEWS
CONSUMER ADVOCACY group Choice and the Austral-ian Food and Grocery Council support the Queensland Dairy-farmers Organisation’s call for a supermarket ombudsman.
The call comes as part of the Senate Economic Committee’s inquiry into discount milk pric-ing.
The QDO lodged 10 recom-mendations to the Senate Eco-nomics Committee last month, including:• Establishing a mandatory
Australian Drinking Milk Code of Conduct to deal with the complex relationship be-tween farmers, processors,
distributors and retailers.• Appointing a commissioner
to head the Australian Drink-ing Milk Code of Conduct.
• Having the government amend the legislation to strengthen the anti-compet-itive price discrimination provisions and to introduce a competition and sustainabil-ity ‘effects test’.Choice and the AFGC say
a supermarket ombudsmen would create “transparency and fairness” along the supply chain.
AFGC CEO Kate Carnell says there is an urgent need for a su-permarket ombudsman.
“The ombudsman would en-sure regulators enforced their rules,” Carnell says.
Choice CEO Nick Stace ques-tioned whether recent actions from the major supermarkets are a sign of genuine competi-tion or a short-term strategy that may erode competition
further and see price rises in the future.
The Committee was sup-posed to release its finding last month. However, it sought an extension of its reporting date and will now release an interim finding on May 20.
It will then collect and assess
further information and exam-ine developments in the dairy industry as they occur for its fi-nal report, which will be tabled by October 1.
The Committee received 151 submissions in addition to its public hearings.
Chair, Senator Alan Eggle-ston, says the committee was aware of the public interest in the findings, but also had to bal-ance this with the quality of the analysis.
“Many of the issues which are the subject of this inquiry require ongoing scrutiny. There are complex interactions be-tween farmers, processors and
retailers; and short-term effects may differ significantly from medium-term effects.”
The committee also only re-ceived Coles’ responses to their questions on notice the day before it was due to table its re-port.
It did issue one interim find-ing, calling on the Government to table a formal response to the Senate Economic Commit-tee’s report: Milking it for all it’s worth—competition and pric-ing in the Australian dairy in-dustry by May 13, which will be a year after it was tabled.
There has been no response from the Government to date.
MARKET FAILURE is threatening to trigger another wave of farmers exiting the northern dairy indus-try.
Farmers are disillusioned that the milk price is distorted and not reflecting the reality of supply and demand, says Queensland Dairy-farmers’ Organisation President Brian Tessmann.
The farmgate price is under downward pressure from super-market discounting at a time when milk is in short supply in the after-math of disastrous flooding and extreme weather events.
“Milk cheques for many dairy farmers have already dropped in Queensland due to the milk price war, despite claims to the contrary by Coles,” Tessmann says. “A lot of farmers have been holding on, hoping for an improved price sig-nal in the new financial year.”
He says with the market in fact going the other way, a lot of people will be seriously considering their future and farmer morale is at a very low ebb.
“We’ve lost our manufacturing base in Queensland and are totally reliant on the fresh market. Our in-dustry has been reduced to about 600 farms, scattered in small pock-ets around the State.”
If the northern dairy industry suffers further contraction, proc-essors will have the added expense
of shipping milk from southern regions where there is no great surplus, especially on a year-round basis.
Tessmann says the QDO is ad-vocating an inquiry into the milk discounting war by the Australian Competition and Consumer Com-mission.
“We believe there also needs to be a mandatory Code of Conduct for drinking milk in Australia to deal with the complex relationship between farmers, processors, dis-tributors and retailers.
“It needs to be headed by a Com-missioner with the power to apply a sustainability test to any contract
within the supply chain. The Com-missioner will need to be able to direct mediation and also to arbi-trate.”
Tessmann says collective bar-gaining by farm supply groups also needs to be strengthened.
He says farmers are extremely frustrated at the slow pace of ac-tion by government with the in-terim report of the Senate Inquiry released on April 20 just adding to delays.
“We understand that the Sen-ate has an extremely difficult task with this inquiry – especially with Coles only responding to questions on notice a day before the interim report was due.
“However farmers, especially in Queensland, are being really hurt by the milk price war and the long-er the delay in getting any action, the greater the impact.”
Tessmann says comments by Woolworths CEO Michael Lus-combe that his company will not be the first to move its milk prices upwards highlighted the urgency for the Government to act.
“Clearly there is a standoff be-tween the major retailers. And dairy farmers are the ones caught in the crossfire.”
He urges consumers concerned about the supermarket pricing tactics to buy processor branded milk.
NSW SOUTH Coast dairy farmers, from Gerringong to Bodalla and the South-ern Highlands, have placed over 100 signs on roadside paddocks and farm gates to raise com-munity awareness about the detrimental impact the Coles discount milk campaign is having on the dairy industry and the community.
Local farmer David Boyd says farmers in the Illawarra, Shoalhaven, South Coast and South-ern
Highlands are united in fighting to save the dairy industry from Coles’ attack.
“We are asking consumers to help us to remain sustainable by buying branded milk,” Boyd says.
“Farmers in the south coast believe that the Australian Government and the ACCC have both failed by allowing Coles to continue to abuse its market power.
“Coles is not the saviour of the Austral-ian consumer. What shoppers save today they will be paying for in the future.”
Boyd says Coles’ short-term marketing campaign will lead to long-term collateral dam-age and will impact NSW farmers directly as fresh milk is devalued, proces-sors are squeezed, farm gate prices are dropped and the ability to produce fresh milk daily becomes unaffordable and unsus-tainable.
Boyd says the number of signs along the south coast aim to show how widespread the effects of this marketing ploy will be.
“Farmers can persevere through some extremely tough times – drought, fire, flood, GFCs and rising commodity prices – but this marketing ploy threatens the survival of our dairy farmers and our industry in the region.”
More support for milk ombudsman
NSW farmers show their pain
The Senate Economics Committee received a response from Coles the day before it was due to table its report.
Pressure mounts on northern farmers
NATIONAL FOODS will purchase more milk at a tier one price from Dairy Farmers Milk Co-op-erative suppliers in Victoria and SA next year, but significantly less in Queensland and NSW.
DMFC chairman Ian Zandstra says con-tracted supply falls of 4 million litres in Far North Queensland and 38m litres in South East Queensland were due to National Foods losing the contract to supply Woolworths’ private la-bel drinking milk contract last September.
The fall of 33m litres in NSW is due to factory closures by National Foods.
In total, National Foods will purchase 870 million litres (with a 10% variance either way) from DFMC suppliers at a tier one price.
Zandstra said National Foods faces a chal-lenging consumer market, making negotia-tions pretty tough.
“The negotiation process was drawn out over several months and included two sessions with an independent mediator.
“Nonetheless, both sides stuck at it and we have been able to achieve what the board con-siders is a mutually beneficial commercial out-come.”
In summary, National Foods will purchase 51m litres from Far North Queensland, 95m from South East Queensland, 149m litres from north Victoria/Riverina (10m litres more than last year), 177m litres from Western Victoria/Mt Gambier (same), 67m litres from central SA (3m more) and 333m litres from NSW – subject to the retention of their Woolworths contract.
National Foods will bid for the NSW Wool-worths contract, which expires on August 30,
but should they fail to win it DMFC has agreed on a new deal.
Contingency measures include working with National Foods and third parties to find a high-value home for the impacted milk volumes.
National Foods general manager milk pro-curement, Murray Jeffrey, says the agreement is a good result for a long-term and sustainable milk business.
“It is critical our business has the right amount of milk for our manufacturing needs, especially in the Northern States where excess milk has plagued the ability of manufacturers to return profits in these states.
“National Foods has worked extremely hard to mitigate the impacts on-farm for contract realignments.”
In Far North Queensland, National Foods has secured agreement to co-pack 9 million li-tres of milk for Parmalat’s private label contract with Woolworths, which means the contract has been decreased by just 4 million litres.
“We recognise that whilst changes to the AFD are positive in some states. Both South East Queensland and NSW volume decreases will have a bigger impact and we will be work-ing closely with our supply groups to manage these outcomes,” Jeffrey says.
A NEW US levy on dairy imports could add as much as $20/t to Australian exports, according to Dairy Australia.
All dairy exports to the US, from August 1, will attract a new levy imposed by US dairy farmers but opposed by global exporters. The levy of 10c/cwt (45.5kg) on all dairy-based imports into the US will help pay for dairy research and consumption.
After 10 years lobbying by the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), the final ruling was released last month by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).
It levies cheese and butter products, and dry ingredients such as casein and milk protein concentrates.
The National Dairy Board will collect the money for nutrition research, consumer education, ‘issues management’ and building demand for dairy consumption.
Murray Goulburn spokesman Robert Poole told Dairy News Australia the co-operative is disappointed by the US Government’s decision to apply the Dairy Import Assessment Levy.
“Although the cost of this levy to MG is relatively low, these additional costs of doing business soon add up and impact our capacity to pass returns on to our dairy farmer-shareholders,” Poole says.
Dairy Australia Trade and Strategy Manager, Chris Phillips, says
the quota is not WTO compliant.
“It’s an unfair tax be-cause our access is restrict-ed on quota. The levy will be spent on promotion but if consumption increases we can’t capitalise.”
He says the levy reduces the profitability of selling to the US, but strong world demand meant there were many other options avail-able.
“It’s a negative, but it’s not going to change the world. It’s more about the principle of people impos-ing these restrictions as other countries may adopt it.”
Fonterra agrees, saying the decision sets a prec-edent when most countries are looking to open trade barriers.
“It is particularly hard to understand when the US itself is a net exporter of dairy products, and the third-largest dairy exporter in the world, and has more to gain from re-moving trade impediments than from imposing them,” a Fonterra spokesman said.
The International Dairy Foods Association, representing processors, is concerned how other countries will respond.
“We trade with 150 countries and continually advocate for open markets and trade policies that comply with international laws,” IDFA president Con-nie Tipton says.
“This international tax does not help expand our US dairy export markets and has been widely opposed by our trading partners.”
GIPPSLAND-BASED BURRA Foods announced its third step-up for the season last month, raising its price for milk solids by 12c/kg – bringing its annual weighted average price to $5.25/kg of milk solids.
The increase includes a 7c/kg increase for butterfat and 17c/kg rise for protein.
“We are seeing global commodity prices coming back and showing signs of easing, so we are keeping our eye on that,” says Burra Foods com-mercial manager Dale O’Neill. “We expect another step-up later this year or early next year.”
Meantime, Warrnambool Cheese and Butter have also lifted its milk
price to $5.40/kg of milk solids. This represents a lift of 20c/kg for pro-tein and 10c/kg for butterfat and will be paid retrospectively for milk sup-plied from the beginning of the financial year.
“Dairy supply and demand fundamentals remain sound and in recent months we have seen continued stability in dairy prices,” WCB CEO Dav-id Lord says.
It is the second step-up for WCB suppliers this year and an increase from January’s price of $5.25/kg of milk solids.
The rise in milk payments is in line with Dairy Australia’s prediction in February of an average of $5.30-$5.50/kg of milk solids this season.
US levy could add $20/t to exports
Nat Foods buys more milk in south, less in north
Burra, WCB raise pricesQDO president Brian Tessmann
DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // MAY 20116 DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // MAY 2011 7
NEWS carboN tax: NEWS
THE FEDERAL Government will help facilitate the sale of carbon credits on domestic and international markets un-der its Carbon Farming Initiative.
When announcing the scheme, Prime Minister Julia Gil-lard said there is currently no uniform way for farmers and landholders to generate carbon credits to sell into interna-tional markets.
Under the CFI, the Government will legislate rules for the recognition of carbon credits that can then be sold on domestic or international markets. This means farmers will know in advance exactly what they need to do to gen-erate credits that are internationally recognised and avail-able for trading.
Under the scheme, Gillard says farmers will be able to enter into agreements with businesses to plant a certain number of hectares of trees on less productive parts of a farm. Over time, as the forest matures and stores more pol-lution, credits will be issued then verified by a new inde-pendent regulator.
Once verified, these credits could be sold into domestic or international markets. Buyers could include Australian companies wanting to offset their emissions.
Gillard says the market will determine the price of the credits, but international credits have sold for up to $20/t over the past 18 months. The PM says the Government will provide farmers, landholders and forestry growers with the tools to understand how to generate carbon credits.
NSW Nationals Senator Fiona Nash says the CFI threat-ens prime agricultural land.
“I am very concerned that we’ll see a shift in land use for the worse, with prime agricultural land being replaced with forestry,” she says.
“What’s to stop a multi-national company from buy-ing up productive farmland and planting trees to offset its emissions and boost its environmental credentials? There is scant detail on how these threats will be managed. In
THE PROPOSED Carbon Farming Initiative will not benefit dairy farmers, ac-cording to a Dairy Australia submission to the Govern-ment.
The submission says the proposed CFI legislation should be enhanced to en-able higher levels of partici-pation by Australian dairy farmers. It says this could be done without weaken-ing the integrity standards set in the proposal.
The submission says dairy farmers will not ben-efit under the proposed CFI because:• The high value of dairy
land (about $12,000-$17,500/ha) makes carbon sink planting prohibitive, except on ar-eas that are too steep for grazing or are adjacent to riparian areas. On most dairy farms, these areas have already been reveg-etated.
• Flaring of methane is also likely to be cost pro-hibitive except for a few total mixed ration dairy farmers.
• Soil carbon sequestra-tion is also unlikely to be an option.However, broadening
the integrity standards to include the concept of emissions avoided (per unit of output) credits would create opportunities for a far greater number of dairy farmers to contribute.
Emissions avoided (per unit of output) credits will require a producer to gen-erate the same unit of prod-uct at an agreed reduction in emissions intensity.
Dairy industry abate-ment strategies are already available that if imple-mented could reduce emis-sions intensity per unit of product by 15-22%. These include feeding oils in sum-mer, nitrification inhibitors and feed optimisation.
However, under the pro-posed guidelines of the CFI, these abatement strategies that reduce the emissions per unit of product can in-crease productivity and may result in increased profit.
The guidelines suggest such practices will be in-eligible as they may result in material increases in agricultural productivity or business profitability, and if there is additional pro-duction on the farm, this may be seen as creating ad-ditional emissions.
CFI no help to dairy farmers
fact, there is scant detail on how this program will work.” Nash says her concerns have been confirmed by a CSIRO
report’s findings, saying food production areas within the lower Murray Darling Basin could be replaced with trees.
“The CSIRO report shows a dramatic change in land use from agriculture to c̀arbon sinks’ of trees in the Murray-Darling, starting at just an $11 carbon price,” she says.
“What worries me the most is the Labor government will use the scheme to justify the inclusion of agriculture in a carbon tax.
“The CFI contains more questions than answers.”
CFI favours tree plantationsThe Carbon Farming Initiative could see prime farm land planted in trees.
AUSTRALIA’S LARGEST dairy proc-essor, Murray Goulburn, says a carbon tax will cost it millions – which will be passed back to its suppliers.
Spokesman Robert Poole says the co-operative cannot significantly cut its emissions because producing long life and powdered milk is very power intensive.
“A carbon tax in Australia doesn’t in-fluence the world market price,” Poole says. “As everyone should know milk prices in Australia are predominantly driven by that.
He says the price in the international dairy market, including Australia, isn’t going to change because of a carbon tax.
“Therefore any costs that it (the car-
bon tax) imposes we have to wear and that means our farmers have to wear them.”
United Dairyfarmers of Victoria President Chris Griffin says Poole’s comments echo its concerns on how a carbon tax will impact negatively on farmers, through inputs and process-ing, regardless of agriculture’s exclu-sion from direct charges under the tax.
“While direct emissions from agri-culture remain excluded from the car-bon tax, the indirect costs on our busi-nesses will be substantial,” Griffin says. “The dairy industry is hugely reliant on base-load electricity – particularly in the processing of dairy products for export.
“Victorian farmers have no way to pass on the additional costs Mr Poole is talking about and are not flagged to re-ceive compensation under the tax.
Griffin says, like other industries, the dairy sector’s concerns are heightened by the lack of detail being released by the government.
“Additional information, such as
the rate at which the tax will operate, would at least inject some certainty into the debate and allow farmers to better prepare.
“Calculations by our organisation indicate that a $20 carbon price would cost the dairy industry over $45 million per annum. This would work out to a $5000 charge for each Australian dairy farm per year.”
A promise to exclude the agriculture sector’s emissions will be short-lived claims NSW Farmers’ Association Pres-ident Charles Armstrong.
“Recent comments from Professor Garnaut have indicated the exclusion will only be in place until the com-plexities of any scheme are resolved,”
Armstrong says. “However, the cost of producing food will increase regardless of whether agricultural emissions are excluded.”
He cites the Australian Farm Insti-tute estimates that the farm sector will see a 9% decrease in farm cash margins as a result of higher fuel, electricity, fer-tiliser, transport and processing costs.
“The Gillard Government has recog-nised a need to compensate consumers who will be forced to pay more for ba-sics such as electricity, but has failed to recognise farmers would be in the same boat.
“There hasn’t been any consideration about how farmers would cope with a massive jump in input costs.”
Tax will cost MG millions
AS HEAD of the National Farmers Federation, Jock Laurie will represent Australian farmers in negotiations with the Federal Government on its proposed carbon tax.
Laurie has already drawn criticism from NFF’s members – the state-based farmer representative groups – for not opposing the carbon tax outright, as they have done.
However, Laurie says condemning the carbon tax outright would hinder negotiations with the crossbenchers in the Federal Parliament who are critical to Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s attempts to launch the carbon tax by July 1, 2012.
Laurie says the NFF will oppose any proposal that places the competitive position of farmers at risk.
“The NFF’s members have been rightly voicing farmer’s dismay over the impacts of a carbon price on their ability to compete on international and domestic markets, even with agriculture’s direct emissions being excluded from the scheme,” he says.
“The reality is that a carbon price works by sending a signal to consumers to reduce their usage of energy and energy-dependent products such as fuel, fertiliser and machinery – all vital inputs to farming businesses.
Laurie says compensation for
low to middle income households will not cover these additional energy costs for businesses, leaving farmers, as price takers in the market place and feeling exposed.
“The NFF realises that to date, scant details have emerged about the Government’s carbon tax design, particularly surrounding the critical issues of transport fuels and food processing.
“For many farmers, options to reduce their exposure to these energy related costs or to attain offsets are limited or non-existent.
“We will work with the Government in good faith to mitigate the risks from these and other issues, but this does not detract from our position that we will not support any policy that hurts Australian farm businesses.”
Laurie says it is frustrating that anybody that questions the proposed carbon tax is immediately labelled a climate change denier.
“The fact is, that agriculture has been more active in this space than probably any other industry in Australia. Go back and have a look
at how we’ve changed our farming practices, which is all about storing carbon and moisture retention, over the past 20 years.
Laurie says as an industry farmers have done more than most. However, if they even question the fact that carbon tax could potentially be an issue, then they are labelled as deniers.
“Our industry has probably done more in this field than any other group. Have a look at all the other industry sectors, have a look at the Australian community as a whole, and tell me the big changes they’ve made in the way they live or do business, to store carbon and make productivity better,” he says. “It’s never recognised. Not at any point have I heard someone say those farmers in the last 20 years have actually been at the forefront and they’ve done a good job.”
Speak softly, but carry a big stick
THE GOVERNMENT, GREENS and independent MPs are working on details of the carbon tax, to start in July 2012 ahead of a full emissions trade scheme, and the levels of compensation for industry and households.
The Government wants a fixed price on carbon for three to five years, before moving to a full emissions trading scheme, under its plan to cut emissions by 5% of year 2000 levels by 2020, and to help fight global warming.
Treasury documents, released in April, said a $30 a tonne price on carbon would add between $11 and $16 to weekly household bills, or push up prices by between 1-1.5%.
The Government’s key climate adviser, Ross Garnaut, has suggested a starting price of
between $20 and $30 a tonne.The Government has promised
generous compensation to export-exposed industries and to householders who face higher costs, but has yet to detail any assistance.
Meanwhile, the opposition Liberal Party and big business have run a strong campaign against the carbon price, and the country’s powerful trade union movement – which is allied to Gillard’s government – has also warned it would oppose the plan if it leads to job losses.
How it works
“For many farmers, options to reduce their exposure to these energy related costs or to attain offsets are limited or non-existent.”
DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // MAY 20118 DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // MAY 2011 9
food SEcurity: NEWSNEWS: food SEcurity
NATIONAL FARMERS Federation president Jock Laurie has called on the Federal Government to think of Australian food production first when implementing all future policy.
Laurie says a policy vacuum is seeing prime agricultural land turned into housing estates and mining and this has to stop.
“If you go into NSW and Queens-land, there is coal seam gas mining in many areas.
“In the Liverpool Plains, NSW – some of the best farming country in Australia without a doubt – that could be put into mining,” he says. “You just sit down and scratch your head and wonder where we’re going.
“What’s the policy? What’s the Federal Government’s desire to destroy good agricultural land?”
Laurie says all future policies per-taining to the Murray-Darling Basin, the proposed carbon tax, research and development, the mining-agri-culture interface, and the growth of peri-urban areas, should be devised with food production in mind.
“We have to set our goal first and ensure those policies we bring in, don’t damage the main goal – which is all about producing food.”
Laurie says nobody knows what impact current policy work on the MDB, the carbon tax, R&D, mining and urban expansion will have on food production.
He’s also concerned a piece-meal approach seems to have been taken instead of a holistic approach.
“We have to get (politicians and policy makers) to think they need to set the goals to begin with, then turn around and work out how to put them together.”
Policy must address not only Australian, but world food require-ments, in 2050, when the world population is expected to grow to 9 billion people.
He says an analysis of how much food is required could then provide a benchmark for food production policy.
“We produce enough food now to feed between 60-70 million people so some may say food production is not an issue. People say we can re-
duce food production to concentrate on the environment, but if we don’t provide food for the world, someone else will.
“Don’t we want to be in that posi-tion? We are in the ideal position to supply food throughout Asia.”
Laurie says two examples of poor policy could significantly damage Australia’s competitiveness in world food production.
“The carbon tax is one of those
pieces of legislation that if we don’t get right, we’ll add another layer of cost to production that other agri-cultural sectors around the world don’t have.
“We are also deeply concerned by the draft recommendations of the Productivity Commission’s review of the Rural Research and Develop-ment Corporations (RDC) that point towards a dramatic reduction in funding for agricultural research.
He says the NFF is adamant that innovation from research and devel-opment plays a vital role in boosting production and sustainability in agriculture.
“The Government must avoid a piecemeal approach to reforming rural research and development that looks to pick off funding for various research delivery mechanisms in isolation.
“That kind of scatter gun ap-proach will not lead to the best outcomes for Government policy or the best on-the-ground outcomes for farmers.
“Instead,” Laurie says, “a coordi-nated response is needed that looks across research delivery in the rural sector and identifies where stream-lining can best occur.”
THE QUEENSLAND Gov-ernment is taking the first steps down the long road of developing a food policy for the State.
The first Dialogue for Action Forum, chaired by Agriculture Minister Tim Mulherin, was held last month and stakehold-ers from the farm gate, processing and retail sec-tors attended.
Queensland Farmers Federation president Gary Sansom also attended the meeting and says the Government requires a vi-sion statement and policy framework that reflects the significant importance of a viable and expanding ag-ricultural production and food processing sector.
“It must provide a refer-ence point against which all other policies being de-veloped – directly or indi-rectly – must be judged that are likely to impact on food production in Queens-land,” Sansom says.
“Essentially it is rather like the need to do a regula-tory impact statement only it relates to policy including both those policies that are supportive and those that have the potential to ad-
versely impact.”He says there is a blue-
print for coal seam gas and given its significance there should be a blueprint for agriculture.
“It would be an excellent outcome if a future food policy acted as an umbrella policy that ensured posi-
tive outcomes for the myr-iad of other challenges that confront farmers.”
The Queensland and NSW State Governments have both started the proc-ess of protecting prime ag-ricultural land from min-ing.
The new NSW govern-ment has started a process under which there will be land use plans for certain affected areas, while the Queensland government has released a series of maps that outline what the government calls strategic cropping land, which it pro-
poses to be kept off limits to mining.
The Queensland maps trigger further assessment to see if the land is strategic cropping land.
Mining projects can be stopped if they are proven to be on strategic cropping land and they permanently
alienate the land.
This SCL leg-islation is the main efforts to resolve the im-passe, and as part of the pub-lic debate over the legislation,
the Queensland Resources Council undertook a study of the potential of the Dar-ling Downs for both mining and agriculture.
The study projected the future value of the two industries per annum by 2020, based on 2009-10 prices, and claimed that the value of mining would be a little over $16bn, while agriculture would be worth $2.2bn.
The QRC also claims that in 2020 the mining output of the Darling Downs re-gion could deliver the state $1bn in royalties.
Food Production first priority: NFF
A policy vacuum is seeing prime land turned into housing estates and mining land.
There are now land use plans for certain areas of NSW and Qld.
Qld develops food policyNew rules will prevent prime agricultural land in NSW and Qld from being mined.
POPULATION PROJEC-TIONS indicate the world needs to produce an ad-ditional 70 million tonnes of food each year and Australia has the ability to become a key player in helping address that shortfall.
This startling figure was revealed at last month’s National Sustainable Food Summit in Melbourne.
More than 300 del-egates, including pri-mary producers and Dairy Australia, attended the inaugural summit. Its aim was to share ideas that could inform a vision for Australia’s food system in 2030; to examine the challenges and constraints of the current food system, and explore opportuni-ties for change that would support a transformation to a resilient, adaptable and sustainable food system.
Speakers included Julian Cribb, author of The Coming Famine; NFF president Jock Laurie; Professor Richard Hames of the Asian Foresight Institute; and Australian Food and Grocery Council CEO Kate Carnell.
Delegates were asked whether they could assume Australia’s food production system is resilient in the face of compounding future challenges, including population growth, resource limits, land degradation and climate change.
They were told the cur-rent food system in Aus-tralia is characterised by an unsustainable reliance on emission-intensive fos-sil fuels in both production and distribution. In a world of rising energy prices, diminishing resources and a price on carbon, a system heavily reliant on oil for fuel and fertiliser will also result in higher food prices.
Population projections indicate the world needs to produce an additional 70 million tonnes of food per year – more than the cur-rent total annual output of Australia.
If the demands for more food are not met, more people go hungry. Lack of access to affordable food threatens political stability and promotes unrest, in-cluding increased numbers of refugees and war.
THE WORLD’S population is projected to surge past 9 bil-lion before 2050 and then reach 10.1 billion by the end of the century – if current fertility rates continue at expected levels, according to United Nations figures.
Most of the increase will come from so-called “high fer-tility countries,” mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, but also in some nations in Asia, Oceania and Latin America.
The 2010 Revision of World Population Prospects, pre-pared by the Population Division at the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), shows that a small variation in fertility could lead to major long-term differ-ences in the size of the global population.
Based on the medium projection, the number of people in the world – currently close to 7 billion – should pass 8 billion in 2023, 9 billion by 2041 and then 10 billion at some point after 2081.
But a small increase in fertility could mean a global pop-ulation of as much as 15.8 billion by 2100, while a small de-crease could result in an eventual overall decline in popu-lation to 6.2 billion by the end of the century.
Hania Zlotnik, director of the Population Division, says the populations of many countries are ageing and will con-tinue to do so as their fertility rates decline.
The population of countries classed as low-fertility or intermediate-fertility – including China, Russia and many countries in Europe – will peak well before the end of the century.
Life expectancy is expected to rise across all categories of countries, particularly as better treatment for HIV/AIDS cuts early deaths in many sub-Saharan African countries. Global life expectancy is projected to increase from 68 years to 81 by the years 2095 to 2100.
Zlotnik says the world population will surpass 7 billion at some point later this year.
Australia could become world leader in food production
Therefore, food insecurity in the world – particularly the Asia-Pacific region – threatens Australia’s own security.
Australia must value its own food security and recognise its interconnect-edness to global systems.
Delegates were told Australia is a wealthy country, currently
producing more food than it needs and that it should play a key role in building a sustainable and resilient food system – both locally and globally.
Australia should aim to become a world leader in sustainable, low-input agriculture, exporting sustainably produced, high-quality food and
sharing expertise and knowhow with the world – particularly its experience of food production under climate variability and climate change.
It also should lever-age Australian expertise globally, influencing the international food agenda and linking to global initia-tives.
Delegates were told with the development of a coordinated approach to food production and security in cities and regional towns, Australia can set itself up as a world leader in peri-urban and urban food production. This will free-up public land for agriculture and incorporate water
recycling and varied production techniques into buildings and urban developments.
The Australian food sector should be sup-ported to incorporate life-cycle analysis across supply chains to identify opportunities for improved resource efficiency, cost ef-ficiency and productivity.
Population to reach 10 billion
DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // MAY 201110 DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // MAY 2011 11
NEWS NEWS
FARMERS ALONG flood plains north of Kerang, particu-larly Benjeroop and Murrabit West, will be given the op-portunity to sell their properties to the state government as part of a $12 million voluntary buyback scheme.
Victorian Minister for Water, Agriculture and Food Se-curity, Peter Walsh, recently announced plans to reinstate the flood plain around parts of the Loddon and Little Mur-ray Rivers in areas north of Kerang.
Walsh says a local steering committee made up of stake-holders will look at what areas qualify for active flood plain management money, which will be a substantial element of the overall amount of $21 million pledged for rural flood assistance.
The Minister says this money will be used to either buy properties from those who want to voluntarily sell and re-locate somewhere else, reconfiguring the flood courses on that particular land, or to pay farmers who are prepared
to give up land to be-come part of a flood path.
In the latter case, compensation for the change in value of their property will be offered – with a covenant placed over the land to be a des-ignated flood path in the future.
The voluntary pro-gram will begin on July 1 and run for 12 months; buybacks will be managed by the Rural Finance Corporation. The number of properties that may be involved has yet to be assessed.
“There is a flood study for that area done in the mid ‘80s that has never been implemented, and a number of people talked about the fact that the flood paths need to be opened up,” Walsh says.
Once the changes are made to the land, in a way that is agreed to by the community, the Minister says the land in question will most likely be placed back on the market – but with flood covenants over the land where there will be des-ignated flood paths.
He says in the future this land would most likely be broad acre or dry land grazing, so when there is a flood ‘there is somewhere for the water to go’.
Walsh says it is essential to develop a long-term plan that will protect communities such as Benjeroop and Kerang by
IT WILL be next spring before many of the state’s dairy farmers will begin to get back on their feet after this summer’s floods, according to Queensland Dairyfarmers’ Organisation President Brian Tessmann.
Weather events have disrupted milk production across most dairying regions, affecting almost every dairy farmer in Queensland.
“Farm infrastructure has been badly knocked about, feed systems disrupted and herd health has suffered,” Tessmann says.
“There is a milk shortage as farmers struggle to make quota and get their cell counts back down.”
Tessmann has experienced the impact first hand at Coolabunia, in the South Burnett district, where he milks 150 cows in partnership with his brother Gary. His family has been dairying in the region since 1897.
After more than a decade of severe drought – with even stock
drinking water in short supply – their property has experienced a wave of flood events.
Since a small flood in March 2010, their fertile creek flats have been inundated four more times leading up to the colossal rains in January with water cascading off the hills wiping out crops and infrastructure.
“The losses have added to everyone’s feed costs and with milk incomes under pressure the QDO has never been so busy fielding calls for assistance from people who need help to recover.”
The Queensland Farmers Federation has been calling dairy farmers to ascertain the extent of the damage. QFF policy officer Brad Pfeffer says farmers are experiencing ongoing mastitis and other herd health issues and are overwhelmed with the
scale of repairs.“They have lost a lot
of confidence, which has been compounded by the milk price war,” Pfeffer says.
Rain has eased in southern Queensland after a wet summer and early autumn, although it continues in Far North Queensland.
Farmers are eligible for Government grants of $5000 and $20,000 – although many have proven reluctant to access the $20,000 grant, which requires the money to be spent first.
“Farmers don’t want to spend the money on a contractor then get their claim knocked back. The QDO has put on staff to help farmers navigate through the paperwork to access loans,” Tessmann says.
“The Government has also put on flood recovery officers to help farmers.”
Qld farmers battle mastitis, milk loss
Infrastructure losses have added to everyone’s feed costs.
The Victorian Government has committed $12 million to the voluntary buy-back scheme.
Govt will buy nth Vic farms on flood plains
ensuring floodwaters have somewhere to go in future events.
“We now know that many of the properties which flooded in January have been built on an active flood plain, which has severely diminished property values,” he says.
Victorian dairy farmers located in flood plains are eligible to sell their properties to the Government.
US DAIRY farmers are backing a proposal to lower the na-tional somatic cell count standard in a bid to increase ac-cess to European markets.
Under the plan, cell counts would be lowered to 400,000 cells/ml of milk in 2014, which would align US standards with EU SCC standards.
The US National Mastitis Council says the EU wants all farm milk used in US exports to member countries to hold to the same SCC standard as EU producers.
It says annual losses in net milk income/cow from sub-clinical mastitis are about $US200/year.
“For every clinical case of mastitis in a herd, there are likely 15-40 cases of subclinical mastitis and these cases may be responsible for up to 70% of production losses.”
The council believes lowering its SCC standard will in-crease access to European markets, encourage producers
US seeks greater EU accessto remove inferior animals, improve farm management practices and increase the quality of US milk.
“This may enable the US to be more competitive in other foreign markets as well,” the council says.
But it cautions the move should be made carefully and in phases – so as not to inhibit US price competiveness or further strain dairy producers and supporting agencies.
The biennial National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments is expected to endorse the proposal and send it to the US Food and Drug Administration for sign-off.
National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) president Jerry Kozak says it has not – until now –supported efforts to reduce SCC standards. But he says now is the time to reduce those limits, over three years, to more closely align the US with world standards.
He points out national SCC averages are already in the range of 227,000, so the impact of this change would be felt mainly by the 11% of producers who sometimes exceed a 400,000 limit.
“A three-year phase-in would give farms that may be at risk of non-compliance the opportunity to make manage-ment changes so they are not vulnerable,” Kozak says. “And let’s face it; this new threshold is the future for domestic milk supplies and the international market.
“We have to demonstrate a commitment to make chang-es for the better, because this way the terms of change is under our control.”
This may enable the US to be more competitive in other foreign markets.
FLOODING IN Tasmania last month has caused milk losses as bridges and roads have been washed out.
Properties on the island’s east coast flooded twice in a fortnight after torrential rain, with up to 150mm falling in one night. Many of these properties were also flooded after unprecedented rainfall events in January.
The floods caused at least $200,000 of damage to Rushy Lagoon farmer Rodney Moore’s property. Moore also had to tip out 75,000 litres of milk because of the inability of Fonterra tankers to access his property because of damaged infrastructure.
Fonterra will reimburse him for the milk, but the floods caused extensive damage to his irrigation system.
The State and Federal Governments made disaster assistance available to Tasmanian farmers who were flooded in January, but farms which have been flooded several times since aren’t eligible for the grants.
The Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association say this latest flooding shows the need for better
support.Rains have also
swamped the autumn harvest and are now significantly affecting dairy and other animal sectors. TFGA chief executive Jan Davis says there is no provision, state or federal, to compensate farmers for accumulating losses through a particularly bad season.
“So we can have one flood or one cyclone and some farmers may get some assistance, but when it just keeps raining – as it has since January here – we are stymied after the first round of assistance,” Davis says.
“This has to be rectified. It is unrealistic to say that assistance has to be linked to one particular climatic event.
She says the torrential rains in January, March and now April show just how seriously an already bad situation can deteriorate.
The floods also caused 30% of the state’s potato crop to be washed away. Meanwhile, farmers are still waiting for the water to subside to plant winter crops.
Tas floods cause milk losses
US cell count standards will be aligned with EU standards by 2014.
AN INVESTIGATION has been launched into fresh milk pricing in New Zealand.
However, unlike Australia, the investi-gation is to determine whether milk prices are too high!
Milk in New Zealand currently retails from between NZ$2.10 to $NZ2.40 a litre.
Dairy industry leaders see no need for an inquiry into milk prices, saying the rise in domestic retail prices is linked to global markets paying near-record prices. They say the consumer backlash has been fuelled by politicians and urban media.
This has led to suggestions the dairy industry should have spoken up publicly to counter consumer concerns about milk prices.
Fonterra CEO Andrew Ferrier says he can’t see a need for the inquiry because the system of pricing milk is clear.
“Anyone is welcome to look into the sys-tem. It’s clear what the system is,” Ferrier says. “When looking at the issue of local milk prices, one has to look at milk prices over time. Milk prices always track the world market and at times when they go up consumers feel the squeeze.
“But generally when world prices go up you see margins going down on the processing and selling of liquid milk and that’s what you’re seeing now.”
New Zealand’s Commerce Commission, which would conduct any inquiry, is cur-rently examining the case for an inquiry. No timing has been referred too. Only two pricing inquiries in NZ have been conduct-ed previously – one into gas distribution and the other into airports.
The commission says with milk there are potentially three market levels to in-vestigate: supply of raw milk to processors, manufacture and supply of milk products, and retailing of milk products. It will re-view the operation of each of these levels and consider whether it should hold an inquiry.
Professor Jacqueline Rowarth, Massey University, NZ, has criticised the inquiry, saying milk in New Zealand is cheap and represents good value for money.
Ferrier says Fonterra has reduced its margins down to buffer the high cycle of the dairy market.
“But the reality is it’s a cyclical market. The world is buying dairy products on that market and New Zealand is no different from anyone else in the world. Sometimes dairy products will be more affordable and sometimes less affordable.”
Ferrier says it’s not the role of the Gov-ernment to subsidise an agricultural prod-uct, rather, they should work to free up international trade, which will create an environment with less volatility and more stable prices.
DairyNZ CEO Tim Mackle says some people in New Zealand are suffering in the present recession and economic environ-ment. He says any price increase makes life hard for consumers, but the issue is straight forward – a reflection of interna-tional markets.
The Fonterra Shareholders Council says some of the calls for the inquiry have come from competing processors, all or part-overseas-owned.
UK FARMER organisation, National Farmers Union is encouraging dairy farmers to lobby their MPs and milk buyers to ensure fairer milk contract terms.
They are also calling for an end to unfair commercial practices in the dairy supply chain.
NFU dairy board chair-man Mansel Raymond says the UK dairy market is not working and farmers are losing out.
“The British dairy indus-try should possess many advantages ranging from growing demand to efficient milk producers and a good climate for producing milk.
“Yet the industry lurches from crisis to crisis and has suffered over a decade of under-investment and low profitability.”
He says undoubtedly the biggest problem is the one-
sided milk contracts farm-ers are obliged to sign with milk buyers.
“These contracts offer lit-tle to no certainty or clarity on the way milk prices are calculated, they lock dairy farmers in for long notice periods of up to eighteen months, provide no ability to supply milk to any other buyer, and have no exit clauses to get out of a con-tract if the price drops to an unsustainable level.”
The European Commis-sion says it recognises that contractual relationships between milk producers and purchasers are funda-mental to ensuring fairness in the dairy supply chain. It has come forward with a package of measures, which include improvements to milk contracts.
Raymond says this could make a real difference to the
way dairy farmers sell their milk and negotiate with milk buyers.
“There are some excit-ing proposals on the table which would strengthen dairy farmers’ position in the food chain and intro-duce new minimum stand-ards for milk contracts across the EU.
“It is vital that farmers call on their MPs and dairy companies to take action now to eliminate unfair commercial practices and improve milk contracts.
He says a ‘do nothing’ ap-proach will see dairy farm-ers continue to be deprived of their fair share of profits in the food chain.
“This will lead to under-investment, lower milk pro-duction and will mean that dairy farmers continue to leave industry at an alarm-ing rate.
Too dear! NZ milk price investigated
UK farmers demand supply chain reform
DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // MAY 201114 DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // MAY 2011 15
NEWS NEWS
gail henshaW
BORN-AND-BRED IRISH dairy farmer Brian Reidy is passionate about succes-sion and land transfer. The 2009 Peter Daly Nuffield Scholarship winner visited New Zealand, Australia and the US to study the subject.
Reidy (31) grew up dairy farming in Sligo, western Ireland. After a farming ap-prenticeship at Agricultur-al College Multy Farnham, County Westmeath, he returned 11 years ago to the family farm.
“Peter Daly was a forward thinking farmer,” says Reidy. “The Peter Daly Trust was set up by a group of Irish dairy farmers fol-lowing his death.”
Scholarship winners get $23,000, then have 18 months to travel, research and gain information about their chosen topic, meeting as many farming/agricul-tural people as possible. He or she must ultimately deliver a paper on their subject.
“Generally people choose a topic they are passionate about,” says Reidy. “For me that was succession and land transfer, because land succession and the transference of land is a huge problem in Ireland. I realised there are similar problems around the world.
“In Ireland only 7% of farmers are aged less than 35; five years ago it was 13%, and worryingly 50%
of our farmers are over 60.“Little is being done to
address this problem; it’s like there is a big white elephant in the room, yet everyone is ignoring it.”
In December 2009 the scholarship enabled Reidy and his wife Caroline to travel to Australia and New Zealand looking at how dairy farmers manage succession, the transfer of land, and how each country encourages future farmers.
“I had always wanted to visit New Zealand and Australia because of their proactive approach to land transfer and I had built
great relationships with Nuffield scholars from these countries.”
In Victoria, Australia, they met Paul and Lisa Mumford who farm 450 Jersey cows, having taken over the farm from his parents.
“Here began my learning about the huge importance of openness among farm-ing families,” Reidy says.
“Openness and transpar-ency is critical in succes-sion planning, especially
as there is always so much relationship history be-tween siblings.
“It is paramount all members of a family get around the table, and lay plans for succession on the table. Everyone’s views need to be heard, who gets what needs to be decided and agreed upon, and the transfer must be planned. Without this openness and transparency things are likely to implode.”
The Reidys last year visited Trevor and Stacey Munsoon in Canterbury. He had come to New Zea-land from Ireland 10 years
before.“He started
his working life in New Zealand as a dairy farm worker and built a dairying career from scratch, work-ing his way up to assistant farm manager then manager.
“Today Trevor is 50:50 sharemilk-ing a 670 cross breed herd and continuing to build equity.”
They then met Wendy and Lyndsay Marshall at their holiday home at Rotorua.
Reidy says the Peter Daly Nuffield Scholarship has opened doors, introduced him to people and given him access to information he would never otherwise have had.
“On a personal level I
can recommend being a Nuffield Scholar; it’s been brilliant.”
When awarded the scholarship he felt empow-ered, believing he could make a world-changing difference.
“I don’t know now if I can do much about changing the situation, but I will be writing a strongly worded paper. There is a huge prob-lem in Ireland, and there are not enough people com-ing into farming. I will be making recommendations on a personal level.
“I learned a lot about how farming businesses are run. The New Zealand approach, in particular, grabbed me.
“Couples work together, husband and wife or part-ners; I haven’t really seen that the way I saw it in New Zealand.
“I was taken with the simplicity of how New Zea-land and Australian farms operate on grass. [And in both countries] lifestyle and work/life balance is critical to dairying success; it was a key factor on all the farms I visited.
“In Ireland land succes-sion and transfer are not really happening and it’s a huge issue. Land transfer and succession can get complicated because of dif-ferent social and historical links.
“My belief is land transfer to farmers should happen when they’re in their 20s or early 30s, when they are at their peak.”
Brian and Caroline Reidy on their farm in Sligo, western Ireland.
Seeking succession planninganswers Down Under
“In Ireland only 7% of farmers are aged less than 35; five years ago it was 13%, and worryingly 50% of our farmers are over 60.”
WEST AUSTRALIAN chemical company 4Farmers has applied for an emergency registration of zinc phosphide to control expected mice plagues across the country.
The company’s application to the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority has so far received the support of the Victorian Farmers Federation. If approved by the APVMA, access to the zinc phosphide – like other agricultural chemicals – would be available to appropriately accredited farmers with Agricultural Chemical Users Permits.
VFF Grains Group President Andrew Weidemann says the Australian east coast grain belt faced a significant mice plague with farms in South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland expected to be hit hard over the coming months.
“The extent of the expected plague, combined with the fact that there are only two providers of mice control chemicals in Australia, may result in both significant shortages in
chemicals as well as high costs for grain producers,” Weidemann says. “The high costs of existing bait and shortages in supply resulted in ineffective treatment of last year’s plague which has only exacerbated the problem this year.”
He says the application to APVMA seeks to register a zinc phosphide product that will allow farmers to treat their own seed and effectively produce their own mice bait.
“The point of applying for an Emergency Use Permit is to ensure there is adequate supply and that it is affordable for farmers to access and treat this plague effectively. “
Existing treatments costs about $10/kg applied at a rate of 1kg/ha, meaning a cost of $10/ha per application; whereas if approved the new chemical could result in costs being reduced to about $2/ha.
“This is a significant saving to the farmer which should result in more effective treatment and control,” Weidemann adds. “Farmers have great difficulty in accessing this chemical due to its lack of affordability, supply, and suppliers.”
INTRODUCING A Green Clean-ing system on dairy farms will pay for itself after three years, a recent Future Ready Dairy Farms (FRDS) project demonstration day at Wangoom, Vic, has been told.
The systems, which have been introduced on only a few farms in south-west Victoria, will eventu-ally lead to an average net benefit of $6000 a year.
Gabriel Hakim, from AgVet Projects, says while the machines cost more to buy the savings will quickly overtake this initial outlay.
Long-term savings include a 70% reduction in electricity to heat water, 60% cut in water used for cleaning, and 10-30% less chemicals used for cleaning. The system will also help to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 46.6 tonnes a year.
AgVet Projects is conducting an energy audit of Pine Hill Dairy at Wangoom where the FRDS field day was held on April 20. Farm owner Alistair Adams says only preliminary results of the audit are available, but they were look-
ing good. “It is early days but the prelimi-
nary data indicates it has definite-ly been beneficial,” Adams says.
He has introduced the system as a long-term cost, energy and la-bour saving initiative.
“So far it is working on all three counts.”
Meanwhile, Hakim says about 35% of Pine Hill Dairy’s dairy en-ergy costs came from the milk cooling process.
“Milk cooling and water heat-ing are the big users of energy in the dairy, so if you want to make an impact that’s where you’ve got to focus.”
He says the Green Cleaning sys-tems are more energy efficient than conventional cleaning systems be-cause they use lower temperatures (about 50 degrees, down from 85), re-use cleaning solutions and uti-lise renewable energy for heating.
“It’s a no-brainer,” Hakim says. “Once you get your head around the numbers it is clearly worth-while both for the environment and economically.
“It will cost about $20,000 more to install, but after about three years you start to see the savings take over. If you look at the total cost of ownership over 10 years you’ll save about $60,000.”
Hakim says milk quality and plant hygiene are not affected by the changes.
“You can clean quite effectively with lower temperatures. Qual-ity is maintained, it’s not an issue. These are not like the home-made systems that were around 15 to 20 years ago.”
He says further developments are planned.
“Ideally we would like to see the system work from as low as 30 de-grees once the chemistry catches up with our aims.”
The Green Cleaning project is being managed by AgVet Projects on behalf of GippsDairy, and is supported by the Victorian Gov-ernment’s Sustainability Fund and the Gardiner Foundation. It includes major Australian dairy equipment and chemical suppliers as project partners.
Confidence fuels machinery salesAGRICULTURAL EQUIPMENT and machinery sales – often seen as a ba-rometer of confidence levels – have re-bounded this year.
Following a lull after the Government’s investment allowance grant expired and testing weather conditions, Australia’s largest lender to the agri sector – NAB Agribusiness – has seen a 10% surge in asset finance this year, compared with the first quarter of 2010.
NAB Agribusiness general manager
Khan Horne says this reflects a general improvement in farmers’ financial returns and optimism for the 2011 season.
“Despite rain damaging last year’s winter crop and ongoing drought in Western Australia, this year agribusi-nesses have already sought more than $158 million in asset finance for agri-cultural equipment from NAB Agribus-iness alone,” Horne says.
He says improved production condi-tions, high commodity prices and the
strong Australian dollar reducing input costs have put farmers in a strong posi-tion to upgrade their machinery and equipment.
“We’re expecting even more capital expenditure activity in the lead up to the end of financial year and encour-age customers to seek advice from their accountants and bankers well before June 30 to set up terms and repayment schedules that best suit their business.”
Horne says avoiding a repeat of last year’s harvest, when many farmers
were left with grain in the field, is also driving sales.
“Farmers were left waiting on con-tractors when they were held-up on previous jobs due to weather conditions and we believe many farmers are look-ing at buying their own equipment to ensure more control over the timing of significant activities,” Horne says.
But he says it is important to realise that buying equipment outright is not the only option.
“Farmers should consider leasing
and hire purchase as well as borrowing, and determine which is the most tax ef-fective strategy for their business and cash flow.
“It’s also essential to explore the pros and cons of locking in interest rates pri-or to delivery, hedging currency move-ments and matching payment cycles against cashflow.
“For many operations this could also mean prioritising debt reduction, top-ping up superannuation and contribut-ing to Farm Management Deposits.”
Green Cleaning saves $6000/year Zinc control for mice
Gabriel Hakim of AgVet demonstrating how the new Green Cleaning System operates.
DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // MAY 201116
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DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // MAY 2011 17
EDITORIAL
MILKING IT...
aNimal hEalth
THERE IS a mounting chorus of dis-sent against the Federal Government’s carbon tax.
This is reaching levels comparable to those we saw in 2009 and 2010, when the policy contributed to the downfall of an Opposition leader and a Prime Minister and the debate was about an emissions trading scheme.
As wide as the criticism of the carbon tax has become, I can only speak for the farm sector when I say that Queensland rural industries have very deep con-cerns about the current direction of this policy.
Farmers are practical people and they can generally accept when diffi-cult reforms are necessary and in the long-term best interests of the nation. But so far, the Government has failed to provide a credible argument that the carbon tax is a necessary reform for the future.
Farmers are equally sceptical about suggestions that difficult reform au-tomatically translates into necessary reform.
Dealing with the weather every day,
farmers accept that they are exposed to climate variability and climate change. But we also think that if we are going to tax Australia’s carbon-dependent industries – of which we have many – then we want to be able to see what this is going to do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and global warming.
We haven’t been shown that. Argu-ments about ‘leading the world’ only fuel the suspicion that Canberra has become disconnected from the realities of regional areas and has overinflated Australia’s importance – when com-pared to the emissions of developing economies such as China and India. Especially when Australia only contrib-utes less than 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
The Australian Government is there to look after Australia’s national inter-ests. If we need to do our part in reduc-ing global emissions, then we need to see a global effort – not a unilateral one.
The farm sector is rightly concerned about the flow-on ef-fects of a carbon tax.
Recent media reports state that Treasury has mod-elled that a $30/t carbon price would cost households $800 per year. House-holds are being told they will be com-pensated through the scheme; but what
about farm businesses? Even if direct farm emissions are excluded from be-ing taxed, the indirect costs stand to be huge.
If it costs an extra $800 per year to run a home, I dread to think how much more it would cost to run poultry sheds, or a dairy, or a network of electric irrigation pumps on farm.
While the Carbon Farming Initiative is being sold as the solution to farmers’ concerns about increased costs, there
is still very little detail about how it will work and how practical it will be. Cer-tainly the jury is still out on soil carbon sequestration as a means of offsetting costs.
Beyond the farm gate, when you con-sider the energy inputs required in food processing, the carbon tax would place huge cost pressure on the entire food value chain.
Kate Carnell, CEO of the Australian Food and Grocery Council, confirmed that the carbon tax would make Aus-tralian products less competitive and cost jobs.
I am also concerned by another pre-liminary CSIRO study indicating that a $36/t carbon price would see farmland in the Murray Darling Basin planted to trees. If it became economically attrac-tive to plant trees on productive farm land then our ability to grow fresh food close to consumers would be crippled and local consumers will find them-selves paying for food to be imported or at the very least transported vast dis-tances to market – ironically burning carbon all the way.
Any greenhouse gas reduction in-centives need to work with existing land use and encourage low emission farming systems that incorporate trees into economically strong farming busi-nesses.
The carbon forests legislation clearly needs to be changed to recognise mul-tiple, small plantings on riparian zones for example – rather than simply pro-vide incentives for large scale foresta-tion often on cropping land.
Ultimately, farmers are prepared to do their part when it comes to sensi-ble climate change policy, but we need an outcome that does not impact upon farm viability and profitability. Above all, it must not jeopardise Australia’s ability to produce quality food and fibre at competitive prices.
Gary Sansom is president of the Queensland Farmers Federation.
Scepticism mounts on carbon tax
There is still very little detail about how the Carbon Farming Initiative will work.
gary sansom
A CSIRO study says a $36/t carbon price would see farmland in the Murray Darling Basin planted to trees.
Roll up the sleevesAT THE recent media lunch featuring National Farmers Federation president Jock Laurie, Victorian Farmers Federation Deputy President Meg Parkinson proudly stated her organisation had already opposed the proposed carbon tax and wanted to know why the NFF hadn’t done likewise.
Laurie won most of the crowd over when he said the NFF actually had to work with the independents, integral to any deal Prime Minister Gillard gets up, to get the best deal for farmers.
Essentially he was saying: Do you want to posture or do you want to roll the sleeves up,
work with people and get the best outcome possible?
Pragmatic and sensible – two qualities we don’t see a lot of in Canberra.
Playing them at their own gameLAURIE ALSO told the Rural Press Club of Victoria lunch that the NFF, and farmers, would be quickly painted as “climate change deniers” if they came out and flatly opposed the carbon tax. He said he didn’t understand the science behind climate change, but the government has decided a carbon tax must be established and the NFF has to work with them to get the best outcome.
Other industry advocates wanting the best outcome for their industries will spin their
message as best they can and farmers must do the same.
Laurie described the carbon tax as a tax on food production and this is a message farm groups should ensure is repeated through the media at every chance.
Nats load the gunYOU KNOW the Nationals are back in power when the first budget of a new Coalition Government includes a feral pest bounty. In the Victorian Government’s first budget, since being elected last November, and for the first time since 2003, a fox bounty has been introduced.
Bag yourself a fox and earn $10; bag yourself a wild dog and claim $50.
Victorian farmers can only
hope these sensible solutions to problems in agriculture continue on bigger items over the Government’s term.
Blame it on the cowsETHIOPIA SACKED its national soccer team’s British coach Iffy Onuora one month after a 4-0 thrashing by Nigeria in an African nations Cup qualifier.
An Ethiopian spokesman says Onuora was relieved of his position on “disciplinary grounds”.
Apparently Onuora told the media he had to clear a herd of cows off a pitch for the team to train.
“I’m not aware of a single training pitch where you find cows,” the official said indignantly.
Horsing around on a cowWHEN REGINA Mayer’s parents dashed her hopes of getting a horse, the resource-ful 15-year-old didn’t sit sulking in her room.
Instead, she turned to a cow called Luna to make her riding dreams come true. Hours of training, treats, cajoling and caressing paid off.
The two now regularly take long rides in the southern German countryside, and jump a makeshift hurdle of beer crates and painted logs.
It all began two years ago, shortly after Luna was born on the Mayers’ farm at Laufen, minutes from the Austrian border. At first, during walks in the woods, Luna wore a halter. Then Mayer slowly got her cow used to human contact and riding equipment.
Now they’re soul mates, spending afternoons together when school is out.
Govt must look big pictureTHERE’S NEVER been a more important time for the Federal Government to look at the big picture when preparing policy.
This big picture includes: climate change; emissions trading; food production; exports; R&D; the Murray-Darling Basin and the environment.
And yet these areas are all being addressed separately.Carbon trading is at the forefront of the current Federal Gov-
ernment’s mind. It wants to implement legislation next year come hell or high water.
How will it do it? By adding bits and pieces from those needed to pass it
through the lower house and the Senate.Prime Minister Gillard does not have an ideal working en-
vironment, reliant on the independents. But would she carry more clout if she showed a vision for the country that would benefit future generations?
That would be real leadership, something missing in Can-berra from both parties.
Hard work now could secure food production and a healthy environment, while underpinning export growth when a growing world population needs us.
It requires a holistic approach and the strength to change the current political direction of responding to polling and trying to please everyone. Instead of making a comment to meet the needs of the 24 hour news cycle, the Government must look long-term to see what food production is required in 40 years and the best way to achieve it.
If the environment needs more water, then invest in R&D to find the best way to deliver sustainable production for each megalitre.
Climate change policy should also be made in terms of how to limit impact on food production. If it requires further R&D, invest now as part of a holistic approach – not down the track in a piece-meal fashion.
Decisions like these will also improve Australia’s economy. Australian farmers currently produce enough food to feed
70 million people. That demand is only going to increase as the population is expected to grown from six billion to nine billion people by 2050.
There is not enough food to feed the world now, let alone in 40 years. Good policy must be made to ensure Australian farmers can continue to do what they do best, produce the best quality food in the world.
Prime agricultural land can no longer be sacrificed for hous-ing estates or mining for short-term profit. Farmers must be recognised for their contribution and provided the support to do what they do best.
We all know the world is going to need more food - the Gov-ernment needs to start planning for that now.
DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // MAY 201118 DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // MAY 2011 19
agribuSiNESS agribuSiNESS
AS THE current season draws to a close, many farmers in southern Australia will be turn-ing their thoughts toward the 2011/12 season and the opening price announcement.
The international market has been relatively stable for much of the past year and remains tightly balanced. While expec-tations of increased supply may see commodity prices soften slightly in coming months, strong demand is likely to absorb pro-jected increases in export availability.
So the outlook is pretty positive – right? The other key driver of farmgate price in
southern Australia is the exchange rate, and it seems capable of spoiling the party. The dollar hit US$1.10 early this month – a record high for our currency.
This latest jump has been widely reported in the media, with overseas travellers rejoicing and exporters lamenting. However, it’s impor-tant to understand what is prompting this un-precedented rise in the Aussie dollar.
In fact, this latest peak has little to do with
the Australian dollar’s strength and much more to do with the general weakness of the US economy and currency. The latest hike in the Australian exchange rate is more or less in line with most other major cur-rencies - including the Euro. The currency of our major market in Japan has also strengthened.
This is important as currency movements are part of the story behind the his-torically high US dollar dairy commodity prices we are currently seeing. With the currencies of all supplier countries rising, exporters will be seeking stronger US prices to maintain returns in their local currency. At the same time, im-porters have a greater capacity to pay for im-ported goods at a given US dollar price.
While the high Australian dollar does impact the final farmgate price negatively, the current situation is preferable to one in which our cur-rency is much stronger than our competitors or customers. With a reasonably stable interna-tional market, the weak US dollar will serve to hold up international dairy commodity prices.
Looking forward, the current uncertainty surrounding the US economy, and currency markets in particular, may require a more cau-tious approach to early season prices.
Company hedging strategies will be important in minimizing the impact of further rises. If the interest rate rises foreshadowed for later in the year come about, this could increase the attractiveness of the Australian dollar relative to other currencies – and put us out of step with other dairy exporters and importing countries.
This would have an effect on Australia’s competitiveness and be of greater concern.
While we will continue to monitor currency movements, the current situation highlights the need to understand what is driving these movements and how others in the internation-al market are being affected.
While a lower Aussie dollar would give us all more comfort heading into next season, a sta-ble international market outlook should still provide good returns – as long as our currency doesn’t get too far ahead of the pack.
Joanne Bills is Dairy Australia’s Manager - Strategy and Knowledge.
Kerry ryan
OPTIMISM FROM fore-casts of strong product prices in the primary sec-tor contrasts starkly with the human and economic consequences of local and international events. These happenings are certain to fuel volatility in our farm-ing and wider economy.
Farming businesses need to be wary of jubilation – or, worse, complacency – as milk, meat and fibre prices rise to record levels.
Market uncertainty driven by economic fallout from earthquakes, food safety concerns and politi-cal unrest in oil producing countries has potential to flow through to cost struc-tures. Assessing business prospects solely on income risks inadequate response to cost pressures and pos-sible challenges from inter-est rates.
For these reasons, I challenge those in agri-business to focus less on product prices and more on profit margins. I have experienced a number of business cycles where premature declarations of victory-based buoyant product prices have result-ed in missed profit oppor-tunities.
International milk prices look particularly strong at present. As in the past these will almost certainly be accompanied by up-ward pressure on key input prices. Unplanned or un-justified exposure to feed, fertiliser and energy costs can quickly erode trading outcomes.
Priority must be for farming operations to focus on their competi-tive advantage and apply maximum effort to areas within their control. The first focus area must be to optimise the profit per-formance of pasture based systems.
Successful farms work to capitalise on their natural advantage. They maximise the benefits of reliable rain-fall or irrigation water, a temperate climate and abil-ity to grow significant feed.
These can be manipu-lated to generate tighter control of operating costs and protect profit outlook. Taking the easy option of simply buying feed to fill deficits and generate pro-duction (often for the sake of it) will not allow farmers to capture opportunity.
Challenging climatic
conditions and improving product prices have re-sulted in much higher use of purchased feed in many operations this season. This is severely impacting margins. My preliminary analysis of clients’ 2011 financial results suggests costs are running 10-20% higher than budgeted.
Other high risk cost ar-eas are where payments are made for services based on percentage of revenue rather than being linked to profit margin. In par-ticular, sharemilking con-tracts need to be managed proactively. Unless these are monitored to ensure a sustainable result there is a risk they will lose contact with the economic realities the business faces.
I have recently seen farm owners who bought feed to protect production hand over much of the benefit to sharemilkers who may not have shared in this cost. This is particularly the case where share farming agree-ments are predominantly for labour and don’t share the wider production costs.
It is also important to closely monitor the trends of interest rates.
The economic shock of international and local ad-verse events is still being absorbed by markets. Giv-en this comes right behind the global financial crisis, it is likely reduced ability for banks to access funds and impact of international credit ratings will come into sharper focus.
Current lower floating interest rates may be help-ing many cash flows at present. However, locking down a proportion of debt to eliminate exposure to in-terest spikes may be timely, especially for those still working hard to consoli-date their balance sheets.
Celebrating product prices is only one side of the equation. It is essential there is an equivalent focus on assessing the benefits of farm inputs so the cost price margin remains bal-anced.
Kerry Ryan is a New Zea-land based agribusiness consultant.
Focus must switch to profit margins
Raging Aussie dollar could spoil the party
global impactjoaNNE billS
Celebrating product prices is only one side of the equation.
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ricK Bayne
ONE OF Australia’s oldest and largest dairy companies is tipping increased financial strength for shareholders and more devel-opment opportunities after it is publicly listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in July.
Shareholders of Bega Cheese Limited, Australia’s fourth largest dairy company, have approved a constitutional change to allow an Initial Public Offering, with pre-dictions that they stand to benefit from an influx of capital. Analysts have tipped the float to be worth around $375 million and say it could stimulate substantial invest-ment in the Bega region.
Bega Cheese is working with its advis-ers and aims to have its prospectus lodged with ASIC before the end of May and to close the offer at the end of June – to enable a listing in early July.
In overwhelmingly approving the float with about 90% support, the company’s 150 farmer-shareholders have also acted to protect Bega’s local identity. Sharehold-ing restrictions will be in place for at least five years, with options for a five year extension – and a majority of direc-tors will be farmer sup-pliers.
Shares will be capped so that no share-holding can be greater than 5% and a mini-mum of four dairy farmers will fill the eight board positions.
Bega follows Warrnambool Cheese and Butter as another major player in the Aus-tralian dairy field to be publicly listed. Ex-ecutive chairman Barry Irvin says the de-cision to list on the ASX was an important day in Bega Cheese’s history.
Irvin says the listing will create a new level of financial strength for existing shareholders and “position Bega Cheese for opportunities that will inevitably come from further industry rationalisation and the ever growing international dairy mar-ket place”.
Bega has annual revenue in excess of $800 million, key customers in dairy gi-ants Fonterra and Kraft and a substantial export business into Asia and the Middle East. Irvin says the float will strengthen Bega’s ability to respond quickly to devel-opment opportunities.
“We had gone as far as we could by using bank debt,” he says. “There are no specific opportunities identified at this stage, but we will now be better positioned to move
when they do come along.”Irvin believes most existing Bega share-
holders will stay and use their cashed-up status to reinvest in their businesses.
“The initial reaction is they will stay and are very excited by this opportunity.
“We believe many shareholders will re-invest the money back into their business. They will be more financially secure and more likely to invest or expand, or look at succession planning.”
He says it will give shareholders the opportunity to realise the value of their shares if they wish to take advantage of that.
“It will improve their financial strength and we believe improve the local economy.”
Bega plans to retain all its production facilities and could use the extra funds to improve infrastructure or look at new mar-kets.
“We see this as the right time to make the move,” Irvin says. “There are limited numbers of food companies listed on the exchange, but there is increased interest in global food security and we believe there
will be more opportunities and a period of growth.”
Irvin says the “local flavour” of Bega will be retained.
“We will be a listed entity and will have shareholders not from our region, but we have safeguards in place to protect the bal-ance and focus of our local culture.”
Deputy chairman and local farmer Max Roberts says the co-operative structure has served Bega well, but has “run out of its useful life”.
“Bega has always had a philosophy of creating wealth for its shareholders and this is a continuation of that philosophy,” Roberts says. “It will be a tremendous re-lease of value that has been built up over the past decade.
“It will be an enormous boost to the balance sheet for shareholders and we believe it will stimulate significant growth in the region. It has been very pleasing to see such a resounding positive vote for the listing.”
Roberts says structures are in place to keep local ownership of Bega.
“A sale was never an option. As much as you can guarantee such a thing, we believe the shareholder cap and board structure
will ensure local ownership continues.”Bega Cheese’s corporate adviser David
Williams, of Kidder Williams, says the company is still considering the quantum of the raising but was close to making a de-cision.
“Monies raised will be used for debt re-duction,” he says.
Williams says it is too early to speculate about potential share values.
“It will be a significant liquidity event for the region and will help Bega to be better prepared financially to respond to any ra-tionalisation of the market.
“It will be a wealth provider for share-holders. Some might take the opportunity to exit the industry, but most will stick with it and use that money to reinvest.”
In the past decade, Bega Cheese has grown to be the fourth largest dairy op-eration in Australia, and the largest cheese “cut and pack” operation in the Southern Hemisphere.
Bega employs nearly 1400 people at its NSW operations and at plants in Coburg, Tatura and Strathmerton in Victoria. In the year ending 30 June 2010, EBITDA was about $55m and revenue was $829m.
Bega float could raise $375 million
Shares will be capped so that no shareholding can be greater than 5% and four dairy farmers will fill the eight board positions.
FONTERRA NEW Zealand has recorded its highest ever month for exports with 229,000 tonnes of its dairy products leav-ing New Zealand shores in March.
Gary Romano, Managing Director of Fonterra Trade & Operations, says the record shipments are the result of contin-ued growth in global demand for high qual-ity dairy products from New Zealand.
“Our supply chain team were effectively closing the door on an export container every 2.6 minutes. That’s equivalent to 560 containers a day.”
“As a result of this effort we expect the
record month will inject around $1.2 billion into the New Zealand economy,” he says.
While it was a tough start to the dairy-ing season with drought, floods and snow storms, recent warm wet weather has boosted dairy production in New Zealand.
“But the real driver for the export record is the ongoing strong demand from China, South East Asia and the Middle East,” Ro-mano says.
“In these regions, we are seeing the emergence of the middleclass with more discretionary income and a desire for more nutritious foods. Dairy fits the bill.”
Asian demand fuels record NZ exports
Bega executive chairman Barry Irvin says the company had expanded as far as possible by using bank debt.
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DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // MAY 201120 DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // MAY 2011 21
maNagEmENtmaNagEmENt
ricK Bayne
ADAM AND Natalie Roberts like to look at dairy farming from both sides of the employment equation.
As share farmers they see themselves as employees, but when it comes to the day-to-day running of the farm they are also employers.
And they’re good employers, too.
They were recently named Employers of the Year at the Great South West Dairy Awards, with judges praising their posi-tive work culture and excellent communication with staff.
The Roberts employ two full-time staff members and two part-timers on their farm near Camperdown in south-west Vic-toria. They put communication and trust high on their agenda in fostering good working relation-ships.
“Trust is a big part of it, we leave the guys with a big respon-sibility when Natalie and I leave the farm,” Adam says. “If we go away we have a lot of trust in them. They certainly have the expertise and experience to earn that trust.”
Both Adam and Natalie hail from dairy farming back-grounds and now share-farm their 320ha property in a share arrangement with Natalie’s fa-ther – Denis Place – and grand-mother, Norah.
With three children aged be-tween nine weeks and 3 ½ years, there are now four generations of the Place family linked to the land. Adam was raised on a dairy farm at Brucknell, further south towards the Great Ocean Road.
The Roberts started their share arrangement in 2004 with a 34% share of the farm business and progressed to a 50-50 split about three years ago. From July this year they will enter a leasing agreement.
“That will give us 100% con-trol over all the operations and expenditure,” Natalie says.
“The next step will hopefully be to buy the place, but you have to build up equity over time be-fore you can do that,” Adam adds.
Herd manager Colin Maslin has worked with the Roberts family since the share farming agreement started. Justin Mason joined more recently and under-takes maintenance, repair and tractor duties.
Milking 550 cows keeps them all busy, but Adam says he main-tains a “calm and approachable approach” to being an employer.
“We take a low-key approach, don’t get too carried away with anything,” he says. “We try to look at things from the employ-ee’s point of view. Because we’re share farmers we’re effectively employees as well, so we can see both points of view. It gives us a good perspective.”
Adam says you need to under-stand the needs of employees as individuals and try to accommo-date them as best you can.
While they are praised as em-ployers, the Roberts are equally quick to point out the role played by their employees in maintain-ing a successful farm.
“We’re lucky that we’ve got confidence in our guys so we can step back and let them do their thing,” Adam says.
That is part of an important philosophy adopted by Adam and Natalie in giving employees responsibility for their area of work.
“If you don’t have some feeling of ownership for your work how can you be motivated?” Adam asks.
While there is daily communi-cation on the farm, there are also more formal annual staff ap-praisals and monthly meetings.
“The appraisals are handy to sit back and review things. At our monthly meetings we review
what has happened over the last month and also look forward to what is coming up.
“They’re really a road map of what is happening. People don’t want to have surprises so it’s good to talk about things in ad-vance.”
Good ideas come from good communication.
“We’ve just installed a new yard blaster system,” Adam says.
“It came up at a meeting that it took an hour to clean the yard and so we got the blaster. Now it takes 15 minutes.”
The Roberts adopted the re-view and meeting system after Adam completed a People in Dairy course, and they encour-age others to follow in their foot-steps.
“It’s a good way to learn how bigger players in dairying
and other industries are doing things,” he says.
The course also espoused the importance of occupational health and safety which has flowed into the farm’s outlook.
“Good OH&S is essential not only to protect yourself but most importantly to have a safe work-ing environment for everyone,” Adam says.
Natalie had some work time off the farm as a professional hairdresser, but is now busy on the property maintaining the books and raising their three young children.
Adam tried his hand at artifi-cial insemination for 12 months and undertook a two-year farm exchange in Ireland “which was where I got my passion for grow-
ing grass and making milk”.They are now committed to a
future in the dairy industry.“It has its ups and downs, but
if you level it out over five years you generally make a good liv-ing,” Adam says.
“You’ve got to ride out the tough times and make the most of the good times. You need a fair vision of what is ahead but we see huge growth potential.”
The award judges praised Adam and Natalie’s HR and OH&S compliance, and also highlighted their employee de-velopment, regular performance reviews, training, customised operational procedures, and of-fering a flexible work environ-ment with a strong work-life balance.
Who: Adam and Natalie Roberts WhErE: Camperdown What: Employers of the Year
Employee investment pays off
Natalie and Adam Roberts, with children Grace and Harvey, were named Employers of the Year at the Great South West Dairy Awards.
IT CAN only be described as an amazing season.
Regular rainfall has seen the best pasture growth for many areas in recent memory. As we head into winter the obvious down-side of all this rain and its impact on soil moisture levels will start to become more of a management challenge. What can we do to effectively manage these conditions and minimize the negative impact it can have on pastures, stock performance and on our staff team?
As with any manage-ment issue the time spent planning strategies ahead of time will help signifi-cantly when winter and wet conditions arrive. So what are the key areas we can look to manage when conditions get wet?
PasturesThe impact on pastures is clear, in wet conditions it becomes easy to ‘make a mess’ and damage pas-tures, soil structure, gate ways and access to trough water. To minimize poten-tial damage to pastures it is useful to identify feeding areas, where supplement can be fed without causing significant damage to the paddock, this could include a suitable hilly paddock or using feeding areas along an old lane, a wooded area etc.
Plan suitable standoff ar-eas if you need to have cows removed from pasture to save damage. Access to wa-ter and room to lie down is important.
One of the challenges in
winter and early spring is that pastures are grazed on a longer rotation length, meaning having stock on a smaller allocation of graz-ing area each day and lift-ing the grazing intensity.
When grazing condi-tions are good, consider giving cows more supple-ments and less pasture as they will utilize them much better. So when conditions do deteriorate you can af-ford to allocate a little more pasture to cows and reduce their grazing intensity a little rather than having to feed even higher amounts of supplements.
StockThe wet winter’s impact on cows can be very chal-lenging, especially for cows that are milked through the winter and spend a lot of time walking on lanes and on concrete yard areas.
Pay attention to main-tenance of laneways, es-pecially the first 100-200 metres into and out of the dairy. Ideally maintenance and preparation work should be completed before really wet conditions arrive – as working on laneways once damage has occurred can become very difficult.
Ensure water can drain off the lanes and top up
some of the exit surface to help cows flow.
Walk down your lanes in thin soled shoes and feel for problem stones which will cause issues for your cows. If you can feel them through your feet, we know cows will feel the impact far more significantly.
The use of products like bark, sand, rubber belts, or rolled out hay bales can be useful to help keep cows moving and provide a ‘safe’ area for them to walk through if conditions aren’t suitable to put down
your normal laneway ma-terial.
Talk with your vet about possible strategies to en-sure good hoof health and the right treatment when cows do get affected. Pre-vention strategies could include foot bath products through to feed additives to harden the hoof.
Have a planned manage-ment strategy for any cows that do develop sore feet. Ensure they are removed from the main herd im-mediately and grazed in a nearby area.
Work through these is-sues with staff, so any one of your team will indentify cows early and minimize the long term impacts. Consider keeping some pasture ‘up your sleeve’ near the dairy so you can allocate good levels of pas-ture to problem cows.
When allocating sup-plements to cows, take an accurate assessment of supplement and pasture wastage.
It is not uncommon to see 20-50% supplement wastage in tough weather
conditions. This impacts the cows not only in their energy intakes, but also that they may be left ‘hun-gry’ and more likely to roam around the paddock and do more damage.
For those joining cows through the winter, con-sider the impact of wet con-ditions on your bulls and ensure you have enough bull power to manage when bulls have sore feet as well.StaffKeep talking to staff about these issues.
Having their input into
prevention strategies will mean a higher level of engagement when the issues do arise. Keep a close eye on staff rosters and time off to keep you and your team fresh. When conditions are cold and wet, be flexible with what non-essential tasks need to be completed.
Gavin McClay is a dairy business consultant based in Victoria. He can be con-tacted on 0425 825 288, [email protected] or via his website at www.gavinmcclay.com.au
farmiNg focuSgaviN mcclay
A NEW online calculator will help dryland farmers cal-culate their annual water balance by determining the amount of water they use and how much can be stored on their property.
Farmers need a bucket and stopwatch to measure flow rates. By entering the details into an online table, the web-site will then calculate the requirements for stock drinking water, dairy shed wash down, household and garden needs – as well as water needed for spraying, cleaning equipment, cleaning feed pads and fire fighting.
It also calculates dam volumes, water available from catchment run-off and the amount of water that can be harvested from rooftops.
The web-based tool was developed by the Department of Primary Industries Victoria (DPIV) and supported by Dairy Australia.
DPIV dairy extension officer Benita Kelsall says the amount of water that can be harvested from rooftops can be considerable and tends to surprise people.
“The amount of water animals’ drink is another sur-prise,” she says. “People don’t realise how much stock drink and it’s often a big amount.”
Access the farm water calculator at: www.new.dpi.vic.gov.au/agriculture/farming-management/soil-water/solu-tions/calculator
Online water management tool
Plan ahead to restrict winter damage
DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // MAY 201122 DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // MAY 2011 23
maNagEmENtmaNagEmENt
colin menzies
DEAN THORPE admits he farms on “vir-tual beach sand” right on the coast at Men-ingie, SA – but it’s sand that sees amazing growth rates when cattle graze on pastures there, especially lucerne and veldt.
Thorpe says it’s probably the best coun-try in the state for growing out cattle.
And plenty of others agree, including the Pacitti family, of Misty Brae Holsteins, who send all their heifers from six months of age to the property before returning to the herd. They swear those heifers couldn’t get a better start.
However, it’s not high carrying capacity land.
“On irrigation country they talk about 10 cows to the acre, we run 10 acres to the cow,” Thorpe jokes.
To complicate matters, the country is “non-wetting sand” or sandy soil that re-
pels water, leading to inconsistent mois-ture in the topsoil and severely limiting the germination of crops and pastures. It also requires the addition of some trace ele-ments.
“In summer time you can make a hole with your hand, fill it up with water and it will sit there for a long while – then it just disappears and it’s bone dry underneath,” Thorpe says.
“All the upper south-east has got non-wetting sand on it. We’ve just learned to work it when it’s wet and then seed it – as it’s the only way we can get it to germinate.”
Thorpe says they use a “Mallee mix” or “scrub mix” fertiliser, which contains not just nitrogen and phosphorous, but also zinc and other trace elements. This is also used when they renovate lucerne pad-docks.
It sounds like tough country, but Dean, his wife Bev and their son Jarrad, have a successful dairying venture (Balara Hol-
steins) on 690ha of dryland farm. They also have another two run-off blocks of almost 800 hectares nearby that are also used to raise beef.
This area near the Coorong benefited from the nearby opening up of the 90-Mile Desert by the AMP Society in the 1950s, when CSIRO research showed just what could be done with trace elements and a reliable water supply.
Not that the Thorpes have anything like reliable water provision. Two years ago they received half the annual average rain-fall of 450mm. Last year it was double.
Previously, the Thorpes accessed a pri-vate water scheme from nearby Lake Al-bert for stock and dairy use, but the lake dried out so radically and became so saline during the drought that it couldn’t be used.
“At places it [Lake Albert] went out one and a half kilometres. In the town of Men-ingie it was probably out six or seven hun-dred metres from the shore,” Thorpe says.
Now, with more water entering the Mur-ray, Lake Alexandrina is full and the Mur-ray mouth and Coorong are looking pretty healthy again.
He says the SA Government “had given up on Lake Albert” three years ago when they built a “bund” separating it from Lake Alexandrina. The idea was to allow more water to get to the Murray mouth by sacri-ficing Lake Albert.
No-one anticipated there would be so much water flowing down the Murray, so 70m of the bund at Narrung had to be re-moved to allow the flood water to flow into Lake Albert. It was nearly back to normal within a week
Thorpe says that even now with Lake Albert almost full, there are still pockets of salinity. The fresh and salt water haven’t yet mixed properly.
“It will still go from 4000 to 14,000 [ppm] in a day, but it’s gradually mixing in and we’ll be back to using it shortly.”
Of the properties in the Meningie area with irrigation entitlements, none has had water in more than three years. Even now, with water in abundance, those who still have their entitlements are only on a 67% allocation. Those who sold off their water entitlements saw their land values plum-met.
Meningie was once a large dairying area. At one stage it produced a third of the state’s milk. Now there are only a handful of dairies and you suspect it’s only the clev-er ones with big hearts that remain.
For the Thorpes, it wasn’t their land val-ue that dropped, but their net worth when two years ago they were effectively receiv-ing 20 cents a litre for their milk at the end of a drought.
With a herd that peaks at 180 milkers, it wasn’t worth feeding them to the maxi-mum and production dropped. Worse, be-fore the price slump, they had committed to a new 16-a-side, double-up dairy with auto ID and drafting. When work began they were receiving around 50¢ a litre for their milk. Half-way through construction the milk price had dropped to 20¢.
Now with the drought over and better farmgate prices, the Thorpes are feeding more to the herd and Balara Holsteins is back to the 9000-litre mark – supplying Warrnambool Cheese and Butter.
Their silage is all home grown, though hay and grain are bought in. The grain is mostly fed in the bail with a wheat/bar-ley/canola mineral pellet – while a mixed ration of cereal hay, silage, potatoes and brewers’ grain is fed on the feed pad.
“It’s whatever we can get,” Thorpe says.He says this season has been exceptional
with the herd being unable to keep up with the “foot-high” lucerne growth.
“It’s actually getting away from us be-cause it’s starting to flower.”
Around 80% of the Balara herd is clas-sified.
“Eventually, they are all classified. We don’t do them all as heifers at this stage because we couldn’t afford to do it all, it’s been too tight.”
Thorpe says he has to ensure the cows have good feet and legs, because they walk more than three km through sand every day. Otherwise, it’s just a sound herd mem-ber he’s after. He uses the “upper end” of available sires; Shottle, Beacon and Denzel are some.
This article first appeared in the Austral-ian Holstein Journal. Reproduced with per-mission.
Sand and salt air belie productive farmland
Who: The Thorpe family WhErE: Meningie What: “Beach sand” farming
Dean Thorpe says the country on the coast at Meningie, SA, is probably the best in the state for growing out cattle.
ricK Bayne
MOST FARMERS would be happy with having a herd ranked in the top 20 in Aus-tralia, but not Bryan and Joanne Dickson.
Their herd is currently ranked 18th on ASI (APR), but the Terang farmers have their sights firmly set on making the top 10. And they are making constant adjustments to their farm-ing practices to ensure they continue to climb up the ranks, with top quality soil a key ingredient in their success.
They have made big in-roads on the top 10 in the past two years, rising from being in the 80s to number 37 and then breaking into the top 20.
“We would love to make the top 10, that’s our tar-get,” Bryan Dickson says – adding he doesn’t expect the final ascent to be easy.
The Australian Sur-vival Index (Australian Profit Ranking) is the main breeding index for Aus-tralian dairy sires. The APR reflects traits that influence net farm profit-ability, including milk, fat and protein yields and non-production traits such as longevity, fertility, masti-tis resistance, live weight, temperament, and milking speed.
While the Dicksons have a strong emphasis on qual-ity, they are also building up quantity.
In 2011-12 they aim to run 1050 cows, with 725 from their home farm and 325 from a recently pur-chased property at Glen-fyne.
The Dickson family has farmed the Ayrford Road property since 1989, when Graeme and Shirley Dick-son moved from near Bac-chus Marsh with their three sons – Bryan, Neil and Chris.
At the time, it was a 202ha farm, running 240 cows in a 32 unit internal rotary dairy. The herd steadily increased to 420 cows during the late 90s and leases and other farms were purchased, with Bryan managing the home farm in a family partner-ship.
In 2002, a new 60-unit outside rotary dairy was built and the following year Bryan and Joanne pur-chased the neighbouring 121ha farm and began leas-ing the home farm from Graeme and Shirley.
Bryan’s ambition to crack the top 10 in herd ranking kicked in at the same time,
and he adopted a “breed-ing, feeding and weeding” philosophy to help him get there.
“Breeding with good bulls is at the top of my list,” he says. “We keep using top bulls and then we look at maintaining good soils for good feeding and getting rid of the poor performing cows.”
The farm’s successful soil maintenance program was highlighted at a ‘Re-ducing Soil Acidity through Liming and Nutrient Best Practice’ field day on April 5, sponsored by Caring for Our Country and project managed by Glenelg Hop-kins CMA and WestVic Dairy.
A one-metre deep soil pit was excavated to show the different composition of the soil at different depth. The main farm had soil issues dating back to the 1990s, with soil tests showing Olsen P levels as low as 4.
In 2000 the whole farm was soil tested with Olsen P levels as high as 68. The intensive soil testing pro-gram continues – with 10 to 12 sample paddocks tested each year.
“We’re probably still us-ing about the same amount of fertiliser as we did 10 years ago, but we’re more strategic in where we use it and only put it where it’s needed,” Dickson says.
Urea is used strategi-cally across the whole farm with no PKS applied on the higher testing paddocks. A rotation system has been adopted for spreading lime at 2.5 tonnes per hectare over about a third on the farm each year.
With their fertiliser use following an environmen-tally-friendly course, the Dicksons are also doing their bit to improve their surroundings with regular and continuing planting of native shelterbelts and creek fencing. They also take care to protect the nutrients in their soil to promote a healthy growing environment.
“We have a 60-day rotation and try not to overgraze over summer,” Dickson says. “In autumn and early winter we have a 45-day rotation. We try to graze as close as possible to the 3 leaf, because 50% of the ryegrass growth is between two and three leaf stage.
“We use effluent exten-sively over summer which helps us cut down on ferti-liser.”
Dickson says he is closely watching the outcome of
the use of compost on oth-er farms before deciding if he would venture into that area. Pastures have been renovated and the farm had developed a feed pad, which has helped protect
the paddocks.“It cost a bit to set up but
it pays off. It helps us to avoid pugging.”
The farm hasn’t been do-ing summer crops for years.
“We don’t do crops – I
don’t think they are cost ef-fective for us. I think it’s bet-ter to leave them alone and let the carbon and organic matter build up in the soil. We’ve been getting good re-sults with our system.”
Those results include to-tal milk production of 6.25 million litres on the home farm in the last financial year – at an average of 9330 litres per cow, butterfat: 234,369 kg with an average 350kg per cow, and protein 210,196 kg for an average 314kg per cow.
Soil repair fuels breeding program
Joanne and Bryan Dickson with Bryan’s father, Graeme.
Who: Bryan and Joanne Dickson WhErE: Terang What: Soil Acidity
DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // MAY 201124 DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // MAY 2011 25
aNimal hEalthmaNagEmENt
ABS AUSTRALIA’S bull, Indijks Babylon, continues his run in the top Holstein spot in the most recent Australian Breeding Values Profit – Australian proven proof run.
The UK-bred bull was the first Oman son to be proven in Australia.
Indijks Babylon has an Australian Profit Ranking (APR) of 289 with 76% reliability.
ABS Australia Dairy Product Manager and Sire Analyst, Russell Manton, says Babylon’s ratings for cell count, lon-gevity and fertility make him stand out, and he has the added bonus of being suitable for heifer matings as well.
“This Oman son offers the all-round package, produc-ing easy-care cows that get back in calf. He has the added bonus of being an outcross sire that is also calving ease,” Manton says.
Second and third place in this Holstein run have been claimed by Genetics Australia with Kaarmona Caleb and Manna Farm Del Santo.
AgriGene bull, Sandblast knocked Valerian from the top position in the Jersey proof run – a position he’s held since April 2007.
Bred in Australia by Noel Furze, Sandblast has an APR of 299 with 73% reliability.
Sandblast is a Flowerpower son with added strength and capacity from nine generations of EX and VHC cows. Sand-blast is 49 points ahead of the second-placed bull on the Jersey APR rankings, ABS’s Elton, and is also the highest Jersey bull in the breed for ASI and protein kilograms – and equal number-one for temperament and likeability.
In the red breeds, Genetics Australia’s bull Arbbobdown (or Loden Bob) retained his number one position with an APR of 226 and 80% reliability.
For all the latest ABVs, go to the Good Bulls Guide at: www.adhis.com.au
Babylon on top
CLIMATE VARIBILITY is creating an environment where dairy farmers can grow opportunistic crops – or “catch crops” – to meet feed shortages, according to PGG Wrightson Seeds Development Manager Rob Salmon
“All producers want a re-liability of fodder supply,” Salmon says. “However, effectively achieving this comes down to a range of interplaying factors in-cluding seasonality, peren-niality, pasture composi-
tion, protein/carbohydrate balance, pest management, soil moisture, water avail-ability and utilisation, soil temperatures and so much more.”
He says options for an early break can be vastly different to those used in a late break.
“Therefore, making the most of a particular set of circumstances means an opportunistic brassica; cereal or annual ryegrass catch crop can fill a gap at a time of the year
when pressure on feed production can be at its highest.”
Salmon demonstrated a range of winter fodders, including cereals and brassicas, from the PGG Wrightson Seeds research program at a recent field day.
“Southern Green ryecorn has been one of the stars of the show,” he says. “Our trials have dem-onstrated that Southern Green planted as a catch crop provides quick feed in
autumn, but can also pro-vide large quantities of feed in mid winter.
“We’ve also found that Southern Green excels
from a late sowing. If plant-ed later it doesn’t want to bolt.”
Trials also show that when it is mixed with rye-
grass, a synergy effect oc-curs in the first cut, and the benefits of ryegrass flow into the spring/summer.
Salmon says annual rye-grass can play an important role in a winter feed plan.
“Most annual ryegrasses are very competitive at producing winter feed,” he explains. “However, the differences become evident when they move into repro-ductive growth in spring.”
He says while some va-rieties focus on reproduc-tion and burn out after they have headed, others have an ability to grow new tillers after heading and move back into vegetative growth.
“This adds value for the producer by moving back into leafy growth after a spring hay/silage and spreads the fixed costs of planting over a longer season and more grazing days.”
Salmon says forage oats also have an important place in winter feed sys-
tems, as producers have flexibility and options. He says oats are a proven and well accepted fodder crop because they are such con-sistent performers.
“For instance, Coo-ee forage oats are a fine-stemmed, late maturing type with a relatively low growing point. It’s a rapid grower with a good early yield that is suited to dual purpose grazing and hay/silage.”
Salmon says the research findings demonstrate that nothing beats forage brassicas as a catch crop if there is an early break.
“They smashed every-thing. The findings show that following an early break, Appin leafy turnip produced more dry matter than everything else in the trial.
“Forage brassica have very fast growth rates in warm soils. However, growth rates are slower when soil temperatures drop later in the autumn.”
Catch crops can cover feed shortagesWinteroo oats on the left and Southern Green forage ryecorn on the right, 45 days after planting. Southern Green’s ability to provide quick feed is obvious, as it’s ready for a first graze, but the Winteroo oats would be damaged if grazed at this early stage.
ricK Bayne
SINCE SOUTHERN Riverina dairy farmers Rob and Gai Singleton moved to the area in 1994 they have developed a strong appreciation for the value of cow comfort in their dairying operation.
The Singletons moved 1260km south from Coffs Har-bour to the Blighty area in southern New South Wales in search of a drier climate. They left behind mud-soaked paddocks that had to cope with 1750mm of rain every year, to start farming the relatively dry lands of Blighty where the annual average rainfall 350mm is supplemented by ir-rigation.
“With the heavy rain around Coffs Harbour there was an inability to grow decent feed,” Rob Singleton says. “Here we have a drier climate and we can control things with ir-rigation.”
However, it was the welfare of their animals and the op-portunity for growth that put the sealer on the move. Study tours to USA in 2007 and 2009 confirmed their belief that cow comfort needed to be their number one priority.
“I hate seeing cows slop around in mud. Cow comfort is our number one priority. You have to look after the herd and it will look after you.”
Singleton believes that not only does catering to the needs and comforts of cows pay off in improved produc-tion, it also helps the industry in general.
“It sets the right image for the industry if we are doing the right thing by our animals.”
The Singletons arrived at their Blighty property, Kenara, with 150 dairy cows, but have since expanded their farm size and increased their herd to more than 750, with plans for further growth to top the 1000 mark.
“We will go as far as our management system will al-low,” Singleton says.
The current 669ha farm uses about 200ha milking area, a further 150ha irri-gated and the remainder is dry land produc-tion.
The herd is about 60% Holsteins and 40% Jerseys.
“Our aim is to produce more milk and to achieve that we need to make sure our in-frastructure is right.”
Part of that ambition has been fulfilled by expanding the farm base to allow more home-grown feed and thus less reliance on outside supplements.
The installation of a feed pad in 1998 has been another key to the farm’s feeding suc-cess.
“The feed pad was fairly basic at the start with shade provided by trees and feed in troughs.”
Since then it has expanded substantially, adding two more feeding pens with four square metres of corrugated iron shade per cow and about 50 square metres of loafing
area per cow.“You don’t need them to be over-crowded; you try to give
them what they need,” Singleton says.“We’ve built the pens to hold 300-350
cows but will look to add pens if we need to grow. The feed pad has been an important part of our system.”
The Singletons manage the feed pad on a daily basis over summer. The cows are fed total mixed rations from November through to April. The remainder of the year they are fed ryegrass pastures and small amounts of forage supplements. The ration consists of wheat, canola, lupin, lucerne and ryegrass silage.
“Getting a handle on feeding was one of our main priorities when we came here,” Singleton says.
“We aim at a balanced ration – feed qual-ity is critical.”
Getting the irrigation right was another high priority.
“We got the irrigation laid out as quickly as possible when we came in (the farm had been previously used for grazing and sheep). All of the water is re-used and re-cir-culated on the farm.
Cow comfort critical to expansion
“We have about 320ha of laser level irrigation but only use what is needed. We want to make sure we’re not inter-fering with the environment.”
The farm has an 1829-megalitre water entitlement and in 2010 produced about 6.5 million litres and 500,000kg of milk solids and is aiming to further expand production.
A veteran of more than 30 years in the dairy industry, Rob Singleton estimates per cow milk production has virtually doubled during those three decades, which he attributes mostly to improved cow management and im-proved feeding.
“There have been a lot of positive changes over time. I like the industry; it has been good for us.”
Who: Rob and Gai Singleton WhErE: Blighty What: Expansion through feed pad
Rob and Gai Singleton moved from Coffs Harbour to Blighty in part to improve their herd health.
DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // MAY 201126
aNimal hEalth
Peter Floyd
REMEMBER GLADYS Reid? She was the woman who in the 1970s insisted dosing stock with zinc would protect them against facial eczema.
She was a registered nurse and so had medical knowledge and she had done a lot of experiment-ing with livestock. Nevertheless, she and her views were rubbished by the science establishment of the day.
“Where’s the evidence?” they asked, knowing there was
no scientific evidence because nobody had done the work.
I was a part of that. I remember chairing a meeting at Te Aroha, New Zealand, at which Gladys stood, way up the back, and told us about her experiences. I tried to get her to sit down and keep quiet but she refused.
Talking with her later that afternoon I realised she had put a lot of effort into her work and there could be something in it. We all know science eventually proved her correct. (Reid died in August 2006).
Today we have a parallel in the
debate about soil carbon and biological farming. The pastoral science community appears convinced the only way to build up soil organic matter is to pour on the phosphate and nitrogen, and that many pasture soils are already ‘saturated’ with carbon and will not absorb any more.
The idea biological farming techniques – using dolomite, seaweed extracts, compost and bio-inoculants – can increase soil carbon and improve plant and animal health is said to be ridiculous. Where is the evidence? they ask.
I’m pleased to say the evidence is accumulating, as I discovered in February at the international Soil Carbon Sequestration Stakeholder Workshop in Sydney. There the latest research in soil carbon was presented to farming and agribusiness representatives.
It was preceded by a three-day summit of soil scientists from North America, Europe and Australia and one from New Zealand.
Scientific opinion is starting to acknowledge the value of a more ‘biological’ approach to soil management and security. The change in mindset is caused by greater understanding of the role of microbes in providing a bridge between plants and soil particles and the ability and willingness to measure soil carbon deeper within the soil profile.
Measuring soil carbon is providing evidence
some farm management practices can increase topsoil depth and subsoil non-labile carbon even in carbon-rich soils. On pastoral farms these practices include:• Reliance on permanent,
multi-species pastures.• Avoidance of pugging
and cultivation.• Increased grazing
residuals.• Reduced production
pressure with focus on sustainability and profitability.
• Changed fertiliser regime to avoid soluble P and N and focus on balancing soil minerals.
• The measurement of soil carbon annually and the demonstration of cause and effect are starting to give the biological approach more credibility. eCogent seeks to
enhance profitability by sustainable production, and this focus led us to examine soil carbon in depth. If you can measure it you can manage it, and many eCogent members are doing that.
For four years we have developed a practical measurement system and our experience so far indicates that, with the right management, a steady increase in soil carbon is possible and could result in carbon credits.
Fortunately the Australians are onto it.
Somewhere Gladys is nodding ruefully and smiling.
Peter Floyd is the managing director of eCogent.
‘Biological farming builds soil carbon’
It took a ‘non-scientist’ to jog the researchers into looking at zinc as a facial eczema preventative.Gladys Reid
Measurement of soil carbon annually and the demonstration of cause and effect are starting to give the biological approach more credibility.
morgan hoBin
WET CONDITIONS over the past few months have been useful in sustaining pastures over the summer, but they have not been as kind to fod-der such as hay and silage.
There is a good chance that the feed in the yard has retained some of the moisture from the rainy days or it has absorbed some of the soil moisture.
Hay bales that have a moisture content of 14–15% can promote mould growth. As mould grows, heat is produced, which can result in a dramatic loss of dry matter and total digestible nutrient (TDN).
This translates into a loss of carbohydrates and a binding of proteins, which ultimately de-creases the nutritive value of the fodder. There are a number of moulds that are commonly found in hay, but Aspergillus, Fusarium and Penicillium are of most concern, as they can produce mycotoxins that can dramatically af-fect livestock production.
Mycotoxins are chemicals that are produced by certain species of moulds and they are toxic to animals.
Visible mouldy fodder may or may not con-tain mycotoxins, but mycotoxins can be found in feed that does not have any visible mould. Mycotoxins can have a limited effect on animal
performance, but they can also be extremely dangerous.
In dairy cattle, mycotoxins are most likely to contribute to chronic problems including a higher prevalence of disease, poor reproductive performance and less than optimal milk pro-duction.
The main effects that can occur if an animal has ingested feed containing mycotoxins are:• Intake reduction or feed refusal.
• Reduced nutrient absorption and impaired metabolism, reduced production, lower fer-tility, lethargy and increased morbidity.
• Alterations in the endocrine and exocrine systems.
• Suppression of the immune system, which predisposes livestock to many diseases and may increase milk somatic cell count. A sup-pressed immune system may also cause lack of response to medications and failure of vac-cine programs.
• Cellular death causing organ damage.The rumen tends to protect an animal from
acute toxicity, due to its ability to destroy a large portion of most mycotoxins. However, this deg-radation can mask the acute symptoms which can result in undetected chronic problems such as those effects listed above.
Determining if and what type of mycotoxin is present in fodder can be difficult, but some for-age labs do have a mycotoxin test. However, one
of the best methods to determine if the feed contains mycotoxins is to remove the suspect fodder from the diet and see if the animal’s symptoms disappear.
There are a number of feeding strate-gies that can reduce the effects of myco-toxins, including additives that “bind” the toxins; feeding optimal levels of nutrients, especially antioxidants; and sufficient levels of effective fibre to
stimulate robust rumen fermentation. While all of these will help in the breakdown
of the mycotoxin, they should be discussed with a nutritionist beforehand. Reducing the inci-dence and concentration of mycotoxins in feed can be done simply by being diligent in field and storage practices.
Morgan Hobin is a Dairy Extension Officer in SA with the Dairy Services Branch, made possi-ble through a partnership between DPI Victoria, PIRSA and Dairy Australia.
Managing moulds and mycotoxins
DPI PASTURE and Fodder Con-servation Specialist Frank Mickan is warning dairy farmers not to underestimate the effects of a wet winter on pastures and production.
Mickan says young farmers, in particular, who are used to operat-ing in the dry conditions prevalent during the past decade, should talk to experienced farmers who had to combat mud in the very wet win-ters of 1995 and 1996.
“The minute cows start to pug a paddock, remove them, there is no point in leaving them in any longer, as intakes won’t increase much,” Mickan says. “The pugging will worsen, and pasture production and quality will suffer.
“There will be even less pasture next rotation and, if still wet, the problem will be drastically com-pounded.
Mickan says problems associ-ated with wet conditions include wrecked laneways, lame cows, mastitis, cows calving in the mud, skinny cows for re-mating and high levels of hand feeding.
He provided the following check list to help farmers overcome the wet winter:• Ensure existing spoon and open
surface drains are cleaned out (sprayed or graded) to ensure speedy water removal.
• Ensure ends of sub-surface pipe drainage are clear of blockages. Allow at least 24 to 48 hours af-ter the end of the rain event be-fore grazing to allow the pipes to drain the top 30cm of the soil profile and regain its strength.
• Repair sunken areas around water troughs and gateways, al-lowing the filling to pack down before it becomes too wet.
• After a short grazing, use a tem-
porary stand-off site to feed-out fodder: unused roadways, sand banks or old quarries are suit-able sites. Segregate laneways to hold cows in small groups, stopping them walking back and forth.
• Install a purpose-built stand-off area that is accessible in all weather. Run-off should not en-
ter creeks, waterways, or ground water. Consider properly con-structed drainage under the temporary site, a very permeable cover such as wood chips, saw-dust or rice hulls. Get in early as these will be in short supply and prices will rise.
• To prolong a sacrifice paddock, consider strip grazing the pad-
dock. If the feed-out cart has a side delivery system, drop feed under wire to stop cows fouling feed.
• If you have small or large square bales of hay, drop the hay out several days ahead, in favourable weather, to limit tractor travel.
• Some beef farmers are under-stocked due to the very high cost of replacements. Offer to im-prove their pastures by putting cattle on for short-term agist-ment or lease land, especially if the land is next door and can be milked off.
Seek advice on rare wet winter
Hay bales that have a moisture content of 14-15% can promote mould growth.
Young farmers use to operating in the dry should talk to experienced farmers.
Cows should be removed from a paddock the minute it starts to pug.
DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // MAY 201128 DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // MAY 2011 29
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neil Keating
A PROMINENT New Zealand hoof health specialist says stress and poor nutrition are the greatest causes of lameness in dairy cattle.
Fred Hoekstra’s Veehof Dairy Serv-ices worked on 12,000 cows’ hooves last year in New Zealand. He says re-search conducted by his company (see story below) says the underlying issue of lameness is laminitis - a disease of the digital laminae of the hoof - and its causes.
“Laminitis is symptomatic of an un-derlying disease affecting the live tissue in a cow’s claw,” Hoekstra says. “That disease has two causes: stress from bad
handling in sheds, and diet which does not promote hoof health.
“Stress in cows results from dairy workers’ yelling at them and pushing them in yard.
“The diet issue is, essentially, that you can’t feed for optimum hoof health in the context of wanting higher pro-duction.
He says a healthy hoof diet would in-clude a lot of ‘stalky’ material, but that wouldn’t get the farmer much milk.
“Pasture-based diets do not produce perfectly healthy cows. We need more research into diet.”
Hoekstra’s view on the cause of lame-ness is proving controversial in New Zealand as it challenges the more com-monly held theories.
“I’m not trying to prove others wrong, but to get to the truth of this,” he says. “We’ve done some research and we will keep doing it. More farmers are now ac-cepting what we’re saying.”
After 16 years of hoof care in NZ – underpinned by his Diploma of Pro-fessional Training in Bovine Pedicure from Holland – Hoekstra is beginning to make waves about bovine lameness.
Attending the recent international Lameness in Ruminants conference in Rotorua, NZ, left him with a whiff of academic egotism in his nostrils – the result of running his experience up against the science establishment’s thinking about causes of lameness.
“Most people haven’t a clue what pre-ventative or curative hoof trimming is
about,” he says. “They tend to lift the foot, see a problem – perhaps see pus or blood emerge – then they think they’ve got it.’
He says but just as you can’t buy a dentist chair and gear and set up as a dentist, similarly you can’t without training assume expertise in hoof trim-ming.
“The way things are (regarding lame-ness) is different from how the experts say they are.”
Hoekstra came to New Zealand 20 years ago after formal studying dairy-ing in Holland then working briefly on dairy farms there. He came to NZ to find greater opportunity and began working in dairying.
With little expertise in hoof care in
NZ at the time, he returned to Holland, took the hoof care diploma course, then came back and “took the plunge”, set-ting up his business.
“Four years working on farms around New Zealand showed me farmers didn’t know enough about trimming hooves.
He says they got away with less-than-ideal trimming because soft pasture conforms to the shape of a cow’s hoof (the outer claw is larger than the inner) so differential weight bearing is not critical.
“Contrast this with Europe where most cows stand much of the year on hard surfaces.”
Hoekstra says this changing because of the country’s move to feed pads and cow housing.
Stress, poor nutrition cause lameness
Survey shows lameness causes, incidence
neil Keating
A SURVEY of New Zealand dairy farmers reveals herd management practices that appear to influence lame-ness, says Fred Hoekstra, of Veehof Dairy Services, New Zealand.
The survey was part of a study testing the relation-ship between dietary fibre and lameness. The survey in Canterbury was done by nutritionist Wybe Ku-perus, veterinarian Helwi Tacoma, Fred Hoekstra and research assistant Marius-Hans Troost, of Lincoln University.
Kuperus says 342 ques-tionnaires were sent out and, based on 108 replies, a relationship appears likely between how cows are han-dled on the way to the dairy and the incidence of feet problems.
Cows pushed along, on the track and in the yard, showed increased lame-ness. Cows having to walk further than 1km to a dairy shed also showed higher incidence of feet problems.
The message seems to be “no hurry, no worry,” Kupe-rus says.
About 43% of herds were always allowed to walk to the dairy at their own pace, and this group showed less lameness than the 57% of herds not allowed to walk at their own pace.
In the group always al-lowed to walk at their own pace, 56.5% had a lameness incidence of zero to 5%, 37% had an incidence of 6-15%, and 6.5% of herds suffered more than 15% of the herd lame.
When cows were not always allowed to walk at
their own pace, 24.6% of the herds had zero to 5% lameness, but 62.3% fell into the 6-15% lameness category, and 13.1% had at least 15% of the herd lame.
Higher use of a back-ing gate to push cows into sheds also appears to in-crease feet problems. In herds where the backing gate was moved at least 10 times, 24% had at least 15% of the herd lame.
If the backing gate was moved less than 10 times, 5% of the herds suffered at least 15% lameness, and 43% had an incidence of zero to 5% lameness in the herd. Survey figures also showed that walking less than 1km to the dairy was associated with less lame-ness. This may be because more walking increases the chance of mechanical dam-age and increases the likeli-hood of human impatience in bringing in the herd. Oth-er factors which became ap-parent in the survey:• Cows in small herds are
less vulnerable to lame-ness.
• Herds with more over-seas Holstein-Friesian genetics may be more vulnerable to high inci-dence of lameness.
• Herds fed grain recorded more lameness.
• Herds walking on tracks• with a high crown (over
50cm height difference between middle of the track and side) had less lameness compared with herds walking on tracks with lower crowns.
• Herds fed brassica seem more vulnerable to lame-ness; Southland herds fed brassica showed in-creased lameness during spring.
MANY FARMERS are thinking about drying off – as spring-calved cows get close to the end of their lactations.
For some herds, the re-turn of muddy conditions at, and around, calving last year, and throughout this lactation has meant that some herd cell counts are the highest they have been in many years.
The old rough rule of thumb is that for every 100,000 bulk cell count, that means around 10% of quarters are infected. So herds with a 250,000 cell count have roughly 1 in 4 quarters carrying an intramammary infection.
Antibiotic dry cow therapy represents the best chance to cure many sub-clinical mastitis infections.
Over the years, I have been constantly bemused by the dry cow treatment choices made by farmers purely on price, with little or no consideration for what is actually required. There are many things to consider when selecting your dry cow treatment program and price should be just about the last considera-tion rather than the first.
Firstly, while we can get a rough idea of prevalence of infection by bulk cell count, individual cell counts (ICC) are a more useful tool to identify which cows, and how many, are infected.
Performing a whole herd ICC will also allow us to select which cows are the best candidates for milk culturing. Milk cultures should be an integral part in selecting the most ap-propriate dry cow product, optimum length of dry pe-riod and possibly also help with culling decisions.
I never cease to be amazed at the samples that some people submit for milk cultures. I’ve seen samples in vegemite jars and with floating chunks of faeces. These samples are worthless at best and misleading at worst.
To collect the best qual-ity samples, it is essential to ask your vet for advice or assistance. The teats must be thoroughly cleaned and
disinfected and the sample collected carefully into a sterile container. Samples should be refrigerated im-mediately and submitted for testing ASAP.
Once we have culture results from the highest 10% of the herd we’ll have a pretty good idea of the mastitis pathogens which are present in the herd. An alternative to this ap-proach is a new test which actually detects the DNA of bacteria in a bulk milk sample. This test is very simple and no doubt will become a valuable tool for vets and herd owners, when determining which dry cow therapy is best.
Armed with the knowl-edge of which mastitis bugs are present, we then will determine the best dry cow strategies taking
things like the length of the dry period and level of production at dry off, likelihood of environmen-tal challenge at calving and whether the cattle will be trucked or transported at or soon after dry off into account.
Different bugs have different expected “cure” rates and the understand-ing of this will greatly affect the choice of antibi-otic, or even whether treat-ment is the best option.
Combination dry cow therapy using an antibiotic dry cow therapy and a teat sealant is a strategy that has a lot of merit in some circumstances. This is a great option for cows that are at high risk of leaking milk post dry off.
Like most things relating to your herd’s health, your local dairy vet is your best source of information, advice and therapies to ensure a safe, effective dry period, and a thoroughly great start to the next lactation.
Rob Bonanno is president of the Australian Cattle Veterinarians Association and a director of the Shep-parton Veterinary Clinic.
aNimal hEalthrob boNaNNo
Don’t let price dictate dry cow treatment
I never cease to be amazed at the samples that some people submit for milk cultures.
There are many things to consider when selecting your dry cow treatment program and price should be the last consideration, rather than the first.
DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // MAY 201130 DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // MAY 2011 31
machiNEry & productSmachiNEry & productS
GREG PEDDLE is a self-confessed machin-ery enthusiast - and that’s not surprising.
After growing up on the family farm on the outskirts of Yarram in east Gippsland, he headed off to do a mo-tor mechanic appren-ticeship and worked for the local Holden dealer for 4½ years.
Peddle came home when he was 21 to share-farm with his parents milk-ing 185 cows. They made 14,000 bales in that first year. And Greg says that it nearly killed him carting them in. As a result a round baler turned up soon and the contracting started.
Peddle and his wife, Kim, eventu-ally bought all the cows and took over the management of the property.
They run through an expansive list of John Deere tractors and round balers that they have owned over the years, and have built up a strong relationship with their local dealer, Windmill Ag at Meeniyan.
Kim even has her own JD 5090R with a front-end-loader to manage the calf-feeding tasks.
They now have 210ha on the main property plus 165ha on another block ‘over the road’, and recently expanded into a further 200ha that is 1.4 kilometres away as the crow flies,
but six kilometres by road. When fully developed they will have 400ha under irrigation.
“We bought that property for se-curity and we are developing it so that we can grow all our own feed,” Peddle says. “It has two pivot irriga-tors covering 200 acres and room for a third. Because we are on ground-water we have 100% permanent al-location.”
Peddle has been involved in a lot of hay contracting work.
“In a good year we were mak-ing 14,000 round bales, but as the drought dragged on, the hay con-tracting work virtually disappeared.”
“We had been making our own silage, using a Strautmann Mega Vitesse that we later traded up to a Giga Vitesse. That operated for 18 hours-a-day for three to four weeks. And we pulled it with a JD7930.”
During last year they purchased another JD7930 to run two loader wagons, but Windmill Ag invited them along to a farmers’ night to learn about John Deere forage harvesters.
“I wasn’t really serious about it at the time, but it looked like a good ma-chine that was easier to service and cheaper than its main competitor,” Peddle says.
Two months later they did the deal for a 7450 self-propelled forage har-vester. Mark Allott from Windmill Ag worked out the specifications and they took delivery in October 2010.
It is fully equipped with all the ex-tra lights possible, but because of its capacity it hasn’t been used at night. Peddle says that decision to buy the forage harvester “has changed our lives and taken the pressure off at harvest.”
“The machine has a pretty fancy
Forage harvester changes lives
WorkiNg clothESchriS diNglE
WE’VE BEEN having a look during the last couple of weeks at weed detection technology, where sensors mounted on a spray boom identify individual weeds and relay a message to fast-acting solenoids linked to spray nozzles that then spray only the weeds at speeds of up to 25km/hour.
It is mainly applicable to broadacre spraying at the moment where some opera-tors are reporting a saving of up to 87% of herbicide chemical.
However as the technol-ogy develops I can see a sit-uation where it will become viable for smaller booms in pasture renovation applica-tions. It’s worth keeping an eye on.
In New Zealand we’ve heard about similar tech-nology being used to meas-ure, in real time, a crop’s nitrogen levels and apply liquid nitrogen require-ments at the prescribed variable rate. This system is called GreenSeeker.
Grant Yates at Southern Precision on 0428 430 259 has more information on the Weedseeker system (pictured).
Tier 4 comingTHE WORD on the tractor development scene is that next year we should expect to see the new Tier 4 diesel engines on tractors avail-able in Australia, with sec-ond generation common rail fuel injection technol-ogy.
Manufacturers say that meeting Tier 4 emissions legislation is a massive challenge, but also a huge opportunity for innovation to create tangible benefits for owners. These include reduced fuel consumption and cost of ownership and better reliability.
Stand by to hear more about it as distributors her-ald their developments.
Plan for harvestYOU’VE HEARD it said it before, and it bears repeat-ing because this time it’s dead-set serious, if you are planning to buy new equip-ment for later this year and early next – make sure that you get your plans in place early.
Higher commodity prices have meant that overseas agricultural business is ‘go-ing gangbusters’, according to one industry informant. And, due to the earthquake, we are seeing shortages oc-curring in machinery com-ing out of Japan.
Assess your capacity for the next hay/silage harvest
and lock in your orders now. Prospects have improved after three years of sub-dued activity. Windrowers will be particularly difficult to source, but you haven’t missed out on new balers. If you have your name on one, you’ll get it for August/Sep-tember. If not you may have to wait.
On a positive note, with the strong Aussie dollar, prices of imported machin-ery have remained fairly stable and there shouldn’t be too many price rises.
A word of cautionIN THESE perceived boom times there is an influx of re-manufactured or sec-ond-hand tractors from overseas, known in the in-dustry as ‘grey imports’.
These may represent good value, but remem-ber the old adage ‘if a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is’. Be careful - you may not be able to get the same local dealer sup-port for parts and service that you would normally expect and the risks under OH & S can be substantial if they don’t meet our ac-cepted standards.
Brevi tillage gear hereSILVAN AUSTRALIA has taken on the importation of Italian-made Breviglieri rotary hoes and power har-rows.
These are said to be par-ticularly popular overseas for farmers converting previously uncultivated ground for pasture renova-tion. They come in sizes up to seven metres working width and suit a wide range of tractor horsepower.
You can see them at www.brevigleri.com or call Silvan on 1300 745 826.
Lifecycle-neutral dairy operationsCLIVE EDWARDS, at Lely Australia, tells us that, glo-bally, Lely has joined forces with a group called Green Energy Technologies (GET), which has embarked on the development of a sustain-able operational system to make optimal use of miner-als on-farm.
They say their AgriMo-
DEM system is a unique and compact concept whereby manure can be refined after a few days. It reduces emis-sions and ensures that dairy farms are self-contained in terms of energy production.
This means that dairy farmers can apply a larger part of the minerals that are produced on-farm to their own land. Less manure, if any at all, needs to be re-moved from the farm. The joint venture is to ensure ‘lifecycle-neutral’ opera-tions in the dairy business.
Lely Australia had its
national dealer conference at Noosa and released their new range of Welger bal-ers to the dealer network in March. This included prod-uct training and in-field demonstrations.
More information on the new range is available from Lely on 03 5484 1055.
Landpower appoints tractor specialistLANDPOWER HAS ap-pointed tractor sales spe-cialist, Paul Holdaway, to look after its Claas tractor
market. The company says the
37-year-old is arguably the foremost authority on Claas tractors in the southern hemisphere, having sold more than 200 units in New Zealand during the past six years.
Paul will provide sales support and technical ad-vice to Claas Harvest Cen-tres and dealers throughout Australia from his new Mel-bourne base.
infinitely variable transmission, and these forage harvesters are normally four-wheel-drive, but they built this one up as two-wheel-drive. They then needed to add some ballast to the rear end to avoid tip-ping up under some conditions.”
Peddle says it is a simple machine to op-erate. Mastering the transmission was no problem, and controlling the spout took about 20 minutes.
“It didn’t take very long at all to get used to it. In half an hour we were look-ing for more horsepower – and it already has 570hp. I was a little nervous to start with, but it turned out to be a non-issue. It’s a good automated system that is easy to drive.
“We cut the crop with the front-linkage mower and rear mower-conditioner with auto swather, on the JD7930.
“We have a 6.4 metre swath and run that into one windrow. We use an inoculant so that we can harvest it with a higher mois-ture content.
The harvester runs at 11 to 16 kmh and can fill the 26 cubic metre tipper body on the chaser truck in 2 minutes 40 seconds.
“We used a front-mounted buck-rake on the other JD7930 and a 20 tonne excavator to roll the silage, but they couldn’t keep up. It’s the biggest silage bun you’ve ever seen – 95m x 30m x 3m.”
He recently bought a second-hand JD9200 from Western Australia to be fitted with the buck rake for the coming season.
“With the loader wagon we were averag-ing 350 hours per year. The forage harvest-er takes 80 hours to do 1½ times as much,” he says.
He is grateful for the in-built metal warning system on the forage harvester, as there is plenty of old wire on one of the blocks.
Working Clothes will focus on the performance of a new machine in the paddock each month. Send suggestions to Chris Dingle on 0417 735 001 or email [email protected].
Controlling the spout took about 20 minutes to learn.
East Gippsland farmer Greg Peddle on his John Deere 7450 self-propelled forage harvester.
DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // MAY 201132 DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // MAY 2011 33
machiNEry & productSmachiNEry & productS
TASMANIAN DAIRY farmers, the Dornauf family, will be the first commercial farmers to install the DeLaval automated milking rotary (AMR) system.
Three generations of the family – Ian and Jen-ny, Chris and Lynn, and Nick - run three dairy operations and milk 1100 cows.
They are currently preparing a new site for the automated dairy, which will be built-up dur-ing the next 2-3 years to a 500-600 head opera-tion in a voluntary cow traffic system.
“We see this technology as being vital to the future of the dairy industry, and we are excited about being involved at the start of this revo-lution,” Chris says. “We see this move to large scale automated milking as a key milestone in our business development.
He says the family invested in the AMR be-cause they want to manage their farm in a way that allows them to focus on the cows’ perform-ance rather than on the manual task of milking them.
“I think this is the system that will help us achieve that goal.”
The Dornauf’s pasture-based systems are supplemented with silage and concentrate. Pro-duction levels on their three properties fluctu-ate between 520-620kg milk solids per cow, per lactation.
DeLaval’s Andrew Turner says the system was developed with three key customer ben-efits in mind - profitability, farm management and flexibility.
He says the main components of the AMR are teat preparation, attachment and teat-spray modules, and two touch screens to operate the system, automatic cup backflush, automatic floor cleaning and safety systems.
Turner says the first AMR systems will have up to 90 cow/hour capacity, depending on the number of robots installed. With as many as five robots that can be attached to the rotary.
“I would like to acknowledge the collabora-tion with Future Dairy Project in Australia that has resulted in the successful development of this significant technology,” Turner adds.
The challenge to develop the AMR was to bring to market a flexible system that works equally well on all types of farming operations. Another goal was to offer a modular approach so dairy farmers can scale up - they can start with a lower level of automation and then increase as their business grows.
“Less capital is needed from the outset,” Turner says.
DeLaval is testing the AMR on farms in Sweden and Australia and plans more commercial releases in both countries during the year.
Aitchison releases new Grassfarmer rangeAITCHISON NEW Grassfarmer tine drills include 14” coulters, frame stagger for superior trash clearance and newly designed 25mm straight tines.
Aitchison have been making drills in New Zealand for 40 years.
The company’s Australian Sales Manager, Brendan Prentice, says two disc drill models are now also available in the Grassfarmer range. Prentice says it was the first manufacturer that fitted an inverted t-boot to a tine and was instrumental in the development of this technology.
“We also have the farmer end of the market well covered with our Grassfarmer range of disc
and tine drills,” Prentice explains.
“With two frame sizes of 2.1 metres (seven feet) and 2.7 metres (nine feet) in either a tine or disc only configuration we are the accepted market leaders in this segment.”
Prentice says the versatile drill can plant any seed, including small brassicas, with great accuracy. It also has a large hopper.
The seeding rates are governed by a variable gearbox with a range of settings that accommodates sowing rates from as low as 1kg and up to 350kg/ha. According to Prentice calibration is also easy.
Prices start at $14,950 plus GST for the GF2014 model Aitchison.
Tel. 0400 540 300
Tas farmers install auto dairy
Nick, Lynn and Chris Dornauf with DeLaval dealer Laurie Hooper at the Camden AMR site. The Dornaufs will have the country’s first AMR system installed on their Tasmanian farm.
CHOPPING AND distributing straw or big-bale silage, re-gardless of their consistency or quality, is easier using a new-model Kuhn Primor feeder/bedder.
The trailed Primor 3570 holds 3 cubic metres, so it will carry two 1.5m round bales. It can feed any long-fibre for-age and distribute bedding straw up to 18m through a top chute.
The 3570 has a hydraulically operated regulator at the entrance to the feed rotor which adjusts throughput ac-cording to material quality, so maintaining working effi-ciency.
Kuhn says the key to the Primor’s effectiveness is its robust two-speed gearbox. This typically runs at its lower rate for silage, and faster when distributing straw.
A power shaft drives a four-strand power-band system, engaged/disengaged by a hydraulic cylinder. The power band provides a high level of power to the distribution beater rotor and acts as a safety device.
The bed chain conveyor runs independently to draw material into the beater rotor.
This can be run at varying speeds, and reversed, to con-trol the flow of material into the distribution area. Feed or bedding straw come out the same top chute, height adjust-able.
An optional 300-degree swivelling chute improves ac-
Kuhn increases feed option with Primor
A NEW milking machine cleaning system available from GEA Farm Technolo-gies uses less electricity to heat water, less chemicals and less water overall.
GEA Farm Technologies, formally GEA Westfalia Surge, managing director Peter Maguire says the new re-use system offers dairy farmers reductions in op-erating costs, as well as re-ducing the amount of water and chemicals running to waste each milking.
“One of the key saving measures is the Westfalia Surge heat recovery sys-tem on the refrigeration units, which heats water for free, using the waste heat from milk cooling,” Maguire says. “This hot wa-ter is used to maintain the temperature in the stored detergent water so water heating costs are dramati-cally reduced.”
The system stores wash-ing chemicals in three insulated wash tanks so the chemicals can be used for several weeks, rather than only used once. To avoid contamination of the cleaning solution, at the start of the detergent rinse cycle the first few litres is run to waste while the rest is recirculated, then saved and stored in the appropri-ate insulated storage tank.
The main wash control-ler is operated by a PLC which can be adjusted to suit any milking system. It also manages the wash pro-gram, as well as monitor-ing the detergent concen-tration and automatically adding either acid or alkali detergent as required to maintain the correct con-centration.
“Re-use systems have been around for many years. However, old sys-tems were manually con-trolled and required careful management by the opera-tors,” Maguire says.
The big difference with this system is how modern technology provides au-tomatic monitoring of the system so it is simple to use.
“For today’s dairy farm-er, the question is payback on the investment. Based on today’s prices for elec-tricity, chemicals and wa-ter, the typical pay period is 5-7 years, but this will vary depending on the size of the milking plant and the existing dairy system.
“With increasing costs for electricity, chemicals and water, plus the un-known effect of Carbon pricing on our industry, the return on the investment in this system will be even better in the future.”
Tel. 1800 789 100
Dairy cleaning system saves money
cess in tight spaces.The rear door of the Primor 3570 is hydraulically con-
trolled, for self loading. All functions are controlled elec-tronically from the tractor cab.
Minimum power requirement is 70hp when the Primor 3570 is used for silage or haylage.
Tel. 0447770171
DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // MAY 201134
motoriNg
HOLDEN’S NEW medium sedan, the Malibu, has made its international debut at the recent Shanghai Auto Show. Conducted by Holden’s sister brand, Chevrolet, saw the veil lifted on the new-generation model that will be sold in up to 100 countries – including Australia next year. Hold-en says the Malibu will be powered by a range of efficient 4-cylinder en-gines, highlighted by advanced exte-rior and interior design, exceptional ride and handling and outstanding safety features.
It says the Malibu’s exterior de-sign has taken inspiration from Chevrolet�s iconic Camaro and Corvette muscle cars, with a wide stance, broad shoulders and inte-grated spoiler giving it impressive on-road presence.
Inside, the dual-cockpit interior is finished with the use of premium materials, including soft-touch and textured surfaces and ice-blue am-bient lighting along the centre stack dials, instrument panel and storage pockets.
Malibu will offer a comprehensive range of safety features and has been extensively tested on a wide range of
road surfaces and conditions around the world.
Holden Executive Director of Sales, John Elsworth, says Malibu re-flected the same focus on quality and advanced technology as seen in the globally successful Cruze small car.
“Malibu will represent another ma-jor step forward in the Holden prod-uct offensive when it arrives late next year, filling a gap in our model line-up between our leading Cruze and Commodore models,” Elsworth says. “We think it will really hit the mark.
From the Camaro-inspired exterior design and sleek interior to the dy-namic performance capabilities, it is another great example of the sophis-tication we’re building into our new-generation global vehicles.
“We’ll offer high-performing fuel-efficient engines, a high level of safe-ty and a range of features and tech-nologies to appeal to customers in the competitive mid-size segment.”
Holden will release details specific to the Malibu model sold in Australia closer to its local launch in 2012.
THE NEW BMW 6 Series Convertible has arrived in Australia.
The top-of-the-range V8 petrol engine 650i Convertible is priced from $248,300 while the six-cylinder in-line petrol engine 640i, which is available from August, starts at $194,300.
BMW Australia managing director Phil Horton expects the new generation 6 Se-ries to outsell the previous model in Aus-tralia.
The 650i features 4.4-litre TwinPower Turbo V8 engine with High Precision Injec-tion, which generates 300kW of power and maximum torque of 600Nm across a broad rev range between 1750 rpm and 4500rpm.
Combined with the 8-speed sports automatic transmission which includes steering wheel paddles for manual shift-ing, the BMW 650i Convertible covers the 0-100km/h sprint in just 5 seconds – with a combined fuel consumption of just 10.7 litres per 100km.
The 640i Convertible features a straight-six petrol engine with BMW TwinPower Turbo technology, and High Precision In-jection, delivering 235kW and 450Nm of torque between 1300 – 4500 rpm.
The BMW 640i accelerates from 0-100 km/h in just 5.7 seconds and consumes only 7.9 litres per 100km of fuel on the Eu-ropean combined cycle, while emitting just 185g/km of CO2.
Through the application of BMW Effi-cient Dynamics technologies such as Brake Energy Regeneration, High Precision Injec-tion, Auto Start/Stop and Air Vent Control, the BMW 6 Series Convertible offers power without compromising fuel efficiency.
Standard specification on both the 640i and 650i includes 19” V-Spoke alloys, adap-tive headlights, Bluetooth, lumbar support, seat heating, Professional Navigation, Rear View Camera, front and rear Park Distance Control, Sports Seats, full-colour Head-Up Display, High-Beam Assist, Internet, Bi-Xe-non headlights, cruise control with brake function, LED fog lights, USB, and interior and exterior metallic paint.
Both models can be fitted with Adaptive Drive (standard on the 650i). This technol-ogy offers four driving modes – comfort, normal, sport and sport+ - to change vehi-cle response at the touch of a button.
In addition to Adaptive Drive, both mod-els can be fitted with Parking Assistant, which enables automatic identification of parking spaces and automated parking manoeuvres.
The new BMW 6 Series features a host of luxury, safety and infotainment technolo-gies from the BMW ConnectedDrive suite of innovations.
The BMW 650i Convertible is available in Australian dealerships in May, with the 640i Convertible due to arrive in August.
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