Dairy News Australia Issue 017

Lely releases new balers

Page 33

Processors desperate for more milk supply Page 3 Attention to detail rewardedPage 27

issue 17: August 2011

Bills to spike under carbon tax

Page 4

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DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // August 2011 3

NEWSThis issueISSUE 17: August 2011

sA farmer Phillip Wheaton speaks openly about his battle with depression.

13

gippsland farmer Peter Hanrahan shares tips on how his family is forging through a very sodden season.

20

WA farmer John giumelli took Coles boss John Durkan to task at the recent WA Farmers conference.

11

News ��3-15

OpiNiON ��16-17

AgribusiNess ��18-19

MANAgeMeNt ��20-24

ANiMAl HeAltH ��25-29

MAcHiNery & prOducts ��30-33

MOtOriNg ��34

INTERNATIoNAL DEmAND and expansion in local processing facilities has fuelled renewed competition between Australian processors for southern milk supply.

Warrnambool Cheese and Butter took the unusual step of advertising in local newspapers in south west Victoria and south east SA, detailing its new farmgate payment package.

WCB is seeking another 50 million litres of milk after investing $5 million in new capability in its Allansford powder plant near Warrnambool, and $3.5m to expand its Sungold milk plant by 50%.

It is also upgrading its speciality cheese operation in Mt Gambier.

Gippsland farmers are also being pursued, with Longwarry Food Park planning a new UHT milk line requiring between 20-30m litres each year – or an additional 10-15% more.

Investment has also been increased in Tasmania with the announcement of the new Tasmanian Dairy Products milk powder facility for Smithton, National Foods investment at Burnie and further investment at Fonterra’s Spreyton factory.

Murray Goulburn is doubling the capacity of its sole packaging plant in China, which packages infant formula produced at its

Cobram plant in northern Victoria.Outgoing chairman Grant Davies says this

will require greater output from Cobram and MG will take as much milk as possible.

“We all know the affects drought has had on northern Victoria in the past 10-12 years but the good thing is we’re starting to see a turnaround in milk production,” Davies says.

“It’s not huge, but we’re starting to see it turnaround. We can certainly put that milk to good value at the moment.

“Companies are out and about and they want extra supply. There’s healthy competition out there for milk and we’ll be doing our darnedest to keep that milk within our company.”

WCB CEO David Lord says its 2010-11 year payout of $5.75/kg MS was the second highest in its history and was largely an outcome of strength of international markets for dairy products.

“We have very strong markets in Asia, Japan in particular, the Middle East. Demand for dairy protein in all forms has been steadily growing year on year, and the last 12 months in particular has been very strong,” he told ABC Radio.

“With the strength of the markets being what it is, processors like us want to make sure

they are fully utilised, we want to make sure our plant is full, and that we are manufacturing the maximum amount of products we can to take advantage of those markets.

“I imagine our competitors are thinking in the same way we are and would be looking for more supply.”

Dairy Australia analyst Joanne Bills says all the companies are conscious they need to offer farmers an incentive to produce more milk after some very tough years.

“It’s fair to say all of them are offering the best prices they possibly can to send out positive signals to farmers,” Bills says.

Bills says the companies would probably prefer that their existing suppliers can supply the additional amount.

“A lot of the companies have provided growth incentives in their payment systems to encourage that growth. But certainly if their current supply base isn’t willing or able to grow, they’re equally happy to take on new suppliers.

“Anecdotally, we know there are farmers looking at the different options available, particularly in a region like Gippsland where there are so many companies on the lookout for milk. Some of them may be switching.”

Milk processors want you

See how Keith Trevor and his family maintain enviable bulk milk cell count levels in Far North Queensland, where rainfall is measured in metres. Just leave your smokes at the front gate. Page 25.

DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA // August 20114

ThE FEDERAL Government’s Car-bon Farming Initiative will return very little money to the pockets of dairy farmers who face rising energy costs under the carbon tax.

The farm sector as a whole could earn an additional $1407 each if the Government’s Carbon Farming Ini-tiative was implemented and shared across the sector.

The Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) was introduced to help facili-tate the sale of carbon credits on do-mestic and international markets.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said there was previously no uniform way for farmers, forest growers or landholders to generate carbon cred-its and sell them into international markets.

The Federal Government propos-es to legislate clear rules for the rec-ognition of carbon credits that could then be sold on domestic or interna-tional markets.

This would give farmers a guide-line to know what they need to do to generate credits that are interna-tionally recognised and available for trading.

However, Australian Farm Insti-tute executive director Mick Keogh says the CFI will not be a pot of gold for farmers, despite the hype sur-rounding it.

He based his conclusion on two

detailed modelling reports released earlier this month, one by the De-partment of Climate Change and En-ergy Efficiency (DCCEE) containing projections of non-forestry offsets under the CFI, and the second from the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics and Sci-ences (ABARE) providing projections of forestry offsets.

The DCCEE projections indicate that, under the proposed carbon

price outlined by the Government, about 7 million tonnes each year of CFI offsets will be produced in the years between 2013 and 2020, rising to 9 million tonnes each year in the period between 2020 and 2030.

“Of the 7 million tonnes, 1.9 mil-lion is projected to come from legacy wastes (capturing gas from landfills), which seems a curious inclusion in a farm initiative, given that the land-fills in question are mostly owned by Local Government authorities,”

Keogh says.“Another 3.6 million tonnes per

annum is projected to come from ‘avoided deforestation and managed regrowth’ which refers to landhold-ers selling tree clearing rights or agreeing to forego future rights to manage scrub regrowth.

“Both these types of CFI offsets will only be able to be sold into vol-untary carbon markets, projected to be worth $3 - $5 per tonne by DC-CEE, or direct to the government, so will earn considerably less per tonne than the mandatory carbon price the government has foreshadowed.”

Keogh says this means the farm sector is projected to earn $57 mil-lion each year from non-forestry CFI offsets, or an average of $407 per broadacre farm per annum.

Projections of carbon sink forestry development are similarly conserva-tive. ABARES estimates that the land converted to carbon sink forestry between 2012 and 2049 will be lim-ited to 350,000 hectares in total, of which about half will be carbon sink forestry.

The 350,000 hectares of forestry would be worth around $140 million per annum by 2020.

If this income was shared equally across all broadacre farms it would add an additional $1000 in income per year for each broadacre farm.

NEWS

VIcToRIAN DAIRY farmers would be slugged an additional $6054 in in-creased electricity costs under the Federal Government’s carbon tax while NSW farmers will receive a $7691 hit.

The figures were revealed through Australian Farm Institute modelling on the Federal Government’s $23/tonne carbon tax.

The AFI says the extra bill would reduce income by 7.8% for Victorian farmers and 6.7% for NSW farmers.

The report also reveals that three years after the introduction of a carbon price estimated at $25.36, the addition-al cost for each NSW farmer would be $13,940 and $11,763 for each Victorian farmer.

This would reduce their income by 10.6% and 13% respectively.

Sally Davison, who compiled the re-port, says the impact of a carbon price on total farm costs is greatest for dairy and rice farmers in percentage turns.

“This is because of the relatively

more significant processing costs asso-ciated with products from these farms, in addition to having a large propor-tion of farm inputs which are reliant on energy, and are therefore affected by a change in carbon price.”

About half of the additional cost is actually initially ac-crued by the process-ing sector but this will be passed onto the farm in the form of re-duced milk prices.

Murray Goulburn has already said it will pass all costs onto its suppliers.

“As outlined in the modelling, the impact of a carbon price on processor costs is potentially significant,” Davi-son says.

“The challenge of this cost for farm business managers is that there is very little which can be done to reduce it.

“There is little opportunity to change

behaviour to cope with this additional cost burden, as it is largely determined at the processor level and passed back to the producer.”

Davison says the Australian and New Zealand agriculture sectors are “global-ly-unique” as they are the only two de-

veloped nation agricultural exporters worldwide which operate without tariff protection, largely without subsidies, while paying developed-nation wages and costs.

“The success of these sectors has depended on an ability to continu-ally reduce costs. “However, the scale of challenge that will be presented in

future years through a car-bon cost is quite consid-erable, and this will tax the ability of businesses in the sector to remain prof-itable, especially once the carbon price begins to escalate.”

The Australian Dairy Industry Coun-cil has written to Climate Change Min-ister Greg Combet to remove the tax on electricity from primary producers and dairy processors.

“ADIC is alarmed about the impact that a carbon price of $23 per tonne will have on the viability of Australian dairy farming families,” ADIC director Adrian Drury says.

“A simple solution to this obvious inequity is to exempt or remove the carbon tax on electricity from primary producers and dairy processors.

“The Government has failed to rec-

ognise that as a trade-exposed industry, dairy processers cannot pass on the costs of a carbon scheme to local consumers or world markets, therefore farmers will wear the full cost of this tax.

“The Prime Minister’s assurances that Australian families won’t be worse off does not seem to apply to the 7500 dairy farming families.

“These families face the double whammy of paying the carbon tax as householders as well.”

See the AFI study at www.farminsti-tute.org.au

Dairy farmers left out of pocket

PeTer BurKe

oUTGoING FoNTERRA chief executive Andrew Ferrier has gone on the offensive over agriculture’s inclusion in New Zea-land’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) saying it makes no sense to him.

Ferrier’s comments came at the recent Australasian Climate Change and Busi-ness conference in Wellington where he was the keynote speaker.

He told the 200 or so delegates with various interests in climate change, that New Zealand is one of the lowest carbon cost dairying industries.

He went on to point out that applying an ETS on agriculture in New Zealand when it’s not applied anywhere else in the world would ultimately lead to a shift in dairy production to far less emissions ef-ficient countries.

He says emissions-efficiency can be achieved without more carbon costs being piled on to our farmers and those costs are real.

“Dairying is already paying its way. The ETS has already resulted in higher on-farm costs of some $3600 a year com-

pared to an urban household’s costs of around $133.

“With the removal of transitional pro-visions, the entry of agricultural gases and a $50 carbon price, those on-farm costs will rise to more than $22,000.

“That’s 28% of the average dairy farm’s cash surplus. Piling more carbon costs on farmers will simply reduce profitability and reduce dairy growth in New Zealand.”

Ferrier says the populist view is that farmers are climate change deniers, but he says this in untrue and that a great deal of work to curb emissions has been achieved on farm.

He says since 2003, Fonterra’s NZ dairy farmers have reduced emissions of the two agricultural greenhouse gases by an estimated 8.5% per litre of milk which has resulted in an estimated 1.4 million tonne reduction of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per year.

“These reductions are attributable to a range of factors, including improved bo-vine genetics, nutrition, fertility and pro-duction efficiencies.

“But mostly it’s down to the innovative and adaptive style that has always been at the heart of our dairying community.”

ETS to hurt NZ farmers

“A simple solution to this inequity is to remove the carbon tax on electricity from primary producers and dairy processors.”

The carbon Farming Initiative will not be a pot of gold for farmers, despite the hype surrounding it.

cFI fails to balance the ledger

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Robyn says.“This is our 13th season

here and it’s definitely the wettest we’ve experienced.

“We just keep going until spring, taking each day as it comes, and trying not to mess up the paddocks too much.”

The rain has also forced south west Victorian farmers to consider options such as cow parking to help get milking cows off wet paddocks and

prepare potential paddocks for spring growth.

About 12mm of rain across northern Victoria late last month has kept the season ticking along but most farmers would readily take another 24mm to maintain a season that started well with the huge January rainfall.

South Australia has received between 50mm-300mm across the state this winter with warm

weather from late July, causing good pasture growth.

Farmers have been warned about an influx of parasites and bugs in the ground caused by the wet, warm weather.

WA dairy farmers are experiencing good rainfall and warm days – a great recipe for pasture growth and a terrific contrast to last year’s shocking drought.

NATIoNALS SENAToR Fiona Nash has called for a public food security impact statement to be done before any agricul-tural property is sold for carbon seques-tration and trading under the Federal Government’s Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI).

It follows the recent joint purchase by RM Williams and the Federal government of Henbury Station in the Northern Terri-tory with the aim of sequestering carbon dioxide and selling offset credits under the CFI.

There has been an emerging trend in carbon traders buying farms, to generate carbon credits for sale under voluntary schemes or the CFI if the legislation is passed in the senate.

Senator Nash says public food security impact statements should be mandatory before properties are sold to companies for environmental and biodiversity off-sets.

“We must protect our prime agricul-tural land from corporate self interest. Our future food production and future food security should be the higher prior-ity,” she said.

“For example, locking the Henbury cat-tle station up as a nature reserve means the removal of at least 10,000 head of cat-tle from the global food chain.

“We have to consider the ramifications of shutting down properties, as the Fed-eral Government has done to Henbury, on farming families and associated rural industries.

“I support improved environmental outcomes for farming practices so long it doesn’t compromise food productivity and food security.

“I also caution corporates against rush-ing into land acquisitions to take advan-tage of the CFI as the legislation still lacks vital and important details.”

Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change, Mark Dreyfus, rejected Nash’s calls and says an amendment to the CFI legislation will ensure projects that affect access to agricultural land do not get the green light.

Dreyfus says the Northern Territory station, now being used to sequester carbon, removed the cattle for other reasons.

“The owners of this station have de-cided that they want to increase natural biodiversity on that station and engage in some very large-scale restoration of degraded landscape on that station,” he said.

“I’d see it as quite separate to anything under the Carbon Farming Initiative, it is to be viewed in the context of restoration of degraded land.”

Dreyfus says food security will not be an issue under the Carbon Farming Initia-tive.

Nash’s comments follow decisions by major companies to buy farmland for tree plantations to be used as carbon sinks.

Major emitters, such as Origin Energy, have been reported as securing farmland suitable for tree plantations.

The moves are being facilitated by Car-bon Conscious – a carbon brokerage com-pany based in WA.

This would mean big polluters are com-peting with farming for land.

Carbon Conscious dubs itself “Austral-asia’s leading developer of forestry plan-tations for carbon offset credits”.

It has announced $190 million in op-tions were “more likely” to be exercised because of the introduction of a carbon price.

The company says it has contracts worth $45 with clients, including Origin Energy and BP Singapore.

It plants estates of Mallee Eucalypts.

NEWS

Waiting for spring sun

CFI could impact food security

ThERE’S A traditional wet Gippsland winter and then there’s this year.

Most areas in Gippsland have received their annual rainfall by the end of July and it hasn’t stopped there, with falls of up to 120mm this month.

Matt and Robyn Colwill have had to think outside the square to forge through the winter on their farm at Mardan, situated in the hills east of Leongatha.

“People say you’re from England, you should be used to this weather, but in England cows are housed in winter so it’s easier,” Matt says.

Like other Gippsland farmers, the Colwills have had to look after the condition and health of their cows and calves in conditions where bugs and parasites are rife and vehicles bog easily in sodden paddocks and laneways.

“We had some clear, sunny days (at the start of the month) but it only takes half an inch of rain to get everything flooding again,”

Gippsland dairy farmers Matt and Robyn Colwill are slugging their way through an exceptionally wet year.


NEWS

mURRAY GoULbURN’S decision to expand its packing capabilities in China will create better returns for its Aus-tralian suppliers, according to outgoing chairman Grant Davies.

The co-operative will build a new packing plant in Qingdao, China, to cap-italise on Chinese demand for its infant formula, doubling its current capacity.

The company will grow its product line from one to six at the Qingdao plant to capture new opportunities generated by the demand for infant formula and adult nutritional product.

MG has been packing its Australian-produced products in China since 2007, selling it under the NATRASTART brand.

“It’s great news for our Murray Goul-burn suppliers,” Davies told ABC radio.

“We’ve seen an increase in sales from China and we’ve outgrown our present site.

“There’s great de-mand in China for Aus-tralian and New Zealand infant products because of the clean, green image we portray and actually have.

“We have a great record for supplying good quality products into that market and it’s widely sought. That’s shown by the growth in our business in the four years that we’ve been established.”

Davies would not elaborate on how much the new facility would cost, but says it is cheaper to build in China than Australia.

All product packaged and sold in

China is manufactured at MG’s Cobram plant in north west Victoria.

“As this market grows, this puts more demand on our nutritional factory

at Cobram.“We’ll be looking for milk to put

through that factory. That creates jobs, that creates work, and the most impor-tant thing, that creates better returns for our farmers.

“It’s about maximising returns to our farmers. Here’s one way we’re doing it by value adding their milk into a spe-cialty, nutritional product.”

Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu an-nounced the company’s plans at the Australian China Business Council this month.

The Victorian Government have been involved in the Dairy Nutriceu-ticals to Asia Project to promote milk products in the region.

Davies will resign from his position as chairman at the AGM in November.

“Since I informed them of my deci-sion we have had some constructive discussions around succession and I am very confident that the board will make an excellent appointment of a new chairman following November’s AGM,” he says.

Davies says he decided not to seek re-election after discussion with his family.

“The demands of the role of chair-man are significant and after spending seven years on the board of Murray Goulburn, I believe it is the right deci-sion to spend more time on my farm and with my family.”

FUNDING AVAILAbLE for water saving infra-structure upgrades in the Murray Darling Basin is dramatically less than the headlines suggest, a review by the National Irrigators’ Council reveals.

NIC CEO Danny O’Brien says the $5.8 billion Sus-tainable Rural Water Use and Infrastructure Pro-gram (SRWUIP) has been plundered for a host of projects leaving just $3.4 billion now allocated to ir-rigation upgrades.

“The Common-wealth is pilfering the infrastructure bucket such that less than 60% of the $5.8 billion al-located to the pro-gram is now com-mitted to actual irrigation water saving projects in the Murray Darling Basin,” O’Brien says.

“While delays with in-frastructure spending drag on, the Department and the Minister have been pick-ing off chunks of the infra-structure fund like vultures around a carcase.

“Far from being a ‘big subsidy for irrigation inter-ests’ as some commenta-tors have charged, a huge chunk of this funding has now been siphoned off to projects that don’t save any water and that’s something that even environmental groups should be con-cerned about.”

O’Brien says items being funded out of SRWUIP in-clude: • $195.8 million to pay

costs of the Common-wealth Environmental Water Holder (CEWH)

• $59 million for the MDBA to write the Basin Plan

• $60 million for “compli-

ance and enforcement” • $10 million for the Com-

monwealth’s share of costs for remedial work at Hume Dam “On top of this throw in

$190 million for depart-mental costs and the ability of this program to invest in water savings that will help communities adjust to the Basin Plan has been seri-ously eroded.

“One of the worst exam-ples of bureaucratic raid-ing is the $195.8 million for the Commonwealth Envi-

ronmental Water Holder’s costs.

“These costs are ongoing and should not be funded from infrastructure pro-gram spending.

“If the Commonwealth is serious about infrastruc-ture and striking a balance, these costs could have been funded from the buyback bucket.”

O’Brien says irrigators are angry at the siphoning away of such funding, par-ticularly while delays con-tinue to the delivery of the bulk of the funds allocated.

“It’s now over three years since the Commonwealth agreed to fund $3.7 bil-lion worth of State Priority Projects (SPPs) and the vast bulk remains unspent.

“We know Federal and State Water Ministers agreed to a new funding deal in April but that was meant to have been final-ised by bureaucrats by the end of June so why the de-lay?”

Govt plunders murray Darling upgrade funds

China expansion to fuel MG milk demand

All product packaged and sold in China is manufactured at Murray Goulburn’s Cobram plant in north west Victoria.

Less than 60% of the $5.8 billion allocated to infrastructure upgrades remains.

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Liz CoTTon

ThE DELAYED release of the Murray Darling Basin draft plan has been welcomed by farmers and farming groups keen to see a more balanced outcome, but a lack of consultation has left many feeling uncertain it can be achieved.

Chair of the Murray Darling Basin Authority, Craig Knowles, said in a statement that the draft plan will now be presented in mid-October, allowing for more time to resolve how the plan will be implemented from 2012-2019, the mid-point review process and how water can be moved around the Basin effectively.

“This is too important to rush – it’s not about ticking a box – it’s about getting it right,” Knowles says.

The MDBA will now re-commence negotiations with State water ministers regarding implementation and infrastructure funding arrangements.

In promising news for irrigators, the new report is believed to recommend a maximum buyback of around 2800 gigalitres compared to the 3-4000GL proposed in the original guide released in October last year.

The National Irrigators’ Council and the National Farmers Federation have also welcomed the delay, with NIC CEO Danny O’Brien saying farmers need certainty and a “plan we can all live with”.

“We all want certainty, but we don’t want certain death….we hope the draft will look nothing like the Guide and this delay gives more chance to deliver the balance between environmental, economic and social outcomes.”

NFF president Jock Laurie says the delay gives the MDBA the chance to get the plan right and avoid at all costs, further uproar in rural communities.

He did however raise concerns about the length of the consultation period and the fact that it occurs

during summer, one of the busiest periods for farmers and irrigators.

South Australian dairy farmers Melanie and Nigel Treloar, Lake Albert, are also concerned about a lack of consultation, and say initial “positive” communications about the plan have turned into deafening silence for Basin communities.

“Certainly the initial consultation was very good, but with the delay we haven’t heard anything. It makes you very nervous

that the outcome will be one-sided,” Melanie says.

She and her husband are part of a group of local farmers and concerned residents who are fighting to see a good outcome, “not just for our area, but for the entire system”.

“We want to see the Murray Darling protected for generations to come, we have travelled up the basin and spoken to other farmers about the hardships they have endured and about how we can work together to achieve the best possible outcome.”

The Lake Albert region was once prime dairy country, but in the space of just ten years, the fifty dairy farms in the region have reduced to just ten. In the last six months alone, three more dairies have disappeared.

Melanie says uncertainty about water, coupled with fluctuating milk prices and the enormous hikes to power and water costs have sent many dairy farmers to the wall and future generations off to the city.

She is hopeful however, that a good outcome from the MDBA’s draft plan will reinstall a sense of optimism about the future of the industry.

Murray Darling Basin draft plan delayed

NEWS

SA farmers Melanie and Nigel Treloar, with children Charlotte, Eliza and Millie, say communication regarding the Murray Darling Basin plan has fallen away.

The National Farmers Federation has raised concerns at the length of the consultation period.

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DEmAND FoR fodder across eastern states is lifting as continued wet, soggy paddock conditions inhibit grazing op-portunities from pastures in south west Victoria, Gippsland and SA.

Some dairies in these regions are looking at cow parking and agistment to take the pressure off their home farms until the spring.

Australian Fodder Industry Asso-ciation industry development officer Nick McClelland says there are fresh concerns of the availability of new crop oaten hay to the domestic market for 2011-2012.

“Sowing of oaten hay varieties is reported to be down to the tune of 25-35% nationally, much of which will be destined for a hungry export market,” McClelland says.

“It could be good insurance to con-sider securing next winter’s supply di-rectly behind the baler in this spring.”

The wet conditions have seen a sig-nificant increase in the amount of fod-der being traded.

“Dairies who have in the past pre-ferred vetch as a source of protein are relieved that adequate stocks of high quality lucerne hay is available that was produced from second, third and fourth cuts,” McClelland says.

The availability of good quality vetch is very limited due to the wet harvest in the Victorian Mallee and Wimmera.

The equilibrium in hay trading activ-ity is beginning to balance out from the extremes experienced in eastern states and in the west.

“As more confidence grows in the

Western Australian season and feed becomes more available, demand for hay is slowly reducing,” McClelland says.

“While this has not yet affected prices, it is anticipated that the closer we move towards the spring prices will begin to decrease.

“Conversely demand is increasing in south eastern dairies that are experi-

encing an extremely wet winter.“While winter rainfall is around

average, the soil profile was already saturated in the autumn and as a conse-

quence pugging and damage to pastures is a constant battle for southern dairies.”

While hay is moving in the south east of the country, Mc-Clelland says it is not expected that prices will lift much if at all.

Sellers are keen to move whatever stock they can to

avoid carryover. “In this instance lucerne is the fod-

der of choice to maintain protein levels in the diet that cows cannot get from pastures in the wet conditions,” McClel-land says.

Mice are presenting a problem to hay producers and potential buyers alike.

Stacks outside are littered with chaff up the walls of stacks, rendering much of this hay unsuitable for livestock con-sumption.

Some southern dairies would like to purchase cereal hay for springing cows but are having difficulty sourcing hay that has not had mice harbouring in it.

While prices are stable in Northern NSW, it is expected that through the winter hay prices will continue to rise there.

Canola hay in Western Australia has been a valuable source of protein and supplies are now all but depleted. Can-ola growers still have some stored on farm for their own livestock consump-tion,” McClelland says.

Sodden pastures lift fodder demand

DEVELopmENT oF the Federal Government’s National Food Plan has been deferred for another month after Ag-riculture Minister Joe Ludwig extended the consultation period.

The new closing date for submissions is September 2, 2011.

One of Labor’s key 2010 election commitments, the plan is being developed to maximise food production op-portunities and protect Australia’s food security.

Ludwig says the date had to be put back because of growing public interest and requests for further time.

“We want to hear from our nation’s farmers, food pro-duction and service industries, transport and logistics companies, retailers, consumers, researchers, health pro-viders and community groups, among others,” Ludwig says.

“We’ve extended the submission deadline to ensure all cross-sections of the community have a chance to con-tribute to an over-arching, food policy framework that brings together the Government’s policies and programs relating to food,” Ludwig said.

The issues paper as well as information about how to make a written submission is available at www.daff.gov.au/nfp

Extension for national food plan

AUSTRALIAN DAIRY Farmers president Wes Judd will step down from his position at this month’s board meeting.

Judd will also resign from his roles as chair of the Australian Dairy In-dustry Council (ADIC) and president of the Australian Dairy Herd Improvement Scheme (ADHIS) President.

Judd is relinquishing these positions due to the need to attend to his farm-ing business full time.

The Judd family farm in Millmerran, outside of Toowoomba, was among the worst impacted by the Queensland floods and on-going wet weather has set back recovery.

The Judd family’s farm received three months’ worth of rain on Boxing Day, causing the Condam-

ine River to burst its banks.Judd has spent more than

a decade on the ADF board and has been involved in the formation of Dairy Aus-tralia and the restructuring of the Australian Dairy Farmers Federation (ADFF) and the Australian Dairy Industry Council in 2003.

He will maintain his po-sition on the Queensland Dairyfarmers Organisation (QDO) board. He is a former long-serving president of the QDO.

Wes Judd resigns

Wes Judd

Southern dairies are having difficulty sourcing hay that has not had mice harbouring in it.

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NEWS

LIFE hAS changed dramatically for Chris and Julie Vogels and Chris‘ parents Frank and Dorothy Vogels since they began em-ploying staff from overseas.

The Vogels milk 1500 cows year round at Cooriemungle in South West Victoria and have a work force of nine staff comprising five Uzbeks, three Filipinos and one Aus-tralian.

Chris Vogels says their first experience with employing staff from overseas began four years ago and has been a rapid learn-ing curve and rewarding experience.

The Vogels have milked 1500 cows since 2001 and staff management had become a consuming issue since then.

“I chose a career in the dairy industry because I liked dealing with cows, but as we got bigger I found I was spending 90% of my time dealing with staff issues for all the wrong reasons and I hated it,” he said.

“It was a struggle to get quality people and then get them to stay.”

“In 2005, 2006 and 2007 we found we were struggling to get the cows milked and were so desperate we would take anyone we could get, which was far from ideal.”

The turning point came when the Vogels learnt about the opportunities to employ an overseas student working in Australia through the International Agricultural Ex-change Association (IAEA).

The IAEA offers young travellers be-tween 18 and 30 years an opportunity to work on farms in other countries, and or-ganises their travel, work permits and farm placements.

Julie says they were offered an agricul-tural student from Uzbekistan who had been working on a cropping property in Queensland for six months and wanted to work in the dairy industry for the remain-ing six months of his visa.

Chris says the decision was the begin-ning of a new direction in sourcing staff.

“I was overwhelmed with his willing-ness to work. He was reliable and he had a great attitude but after six months he had to go back to Uzbekistan.”

The Vogels were so impressed they took on another two Uzbek students on 12 months working visas through the IAEA. They arrived with limited English but learnt quickly and displayed the same at-titude to work.

The students were then joined by anoth-er two Uzbeks on 12 month visas through the IAEA, as well as another Uzbek who had been working on a farm in Gippsland, but who felt culturally isolated.

“There have been major cultural differ-ences. All the Uzbeks we‘ve employed have been Muslim – we‘d never had much to do with anyone who was Muslim before so we‘ve learnt a lot about their culture and religion.”

Cultural differences also extend to ag-riculture according to Chris, with all five Uzbeks coming from farms where cows are still milked by hand; there is limited, if any,

use of machinery and no concept of occu-pational health and safety.

“We invested an enormous amount of time in training for the first six months of their stay with us and after that we didn‘t want them to go,” he says.

“The Uzbeks wanted to stay as well so we‘ve supported their applications for per-manent residence in Australia. Four have been successful and one is currently ap-plying.”

The Vogels have also taken on three Fili-pino staff who are in Australia on 457 visas which allow them to work for four years. All three have also been granted perma-nent residency.

The Filipinos had previously worked on

a 15,000 cow dairy in Saudi Arabia and were employed by the Vogels through an employment agent based in Western Aus-tralia who specialises in sourcing overseas staff for the mining industry.

Using an agent meant the Vogels did not have to deal with the complex paperwork and constant changes to immigration law.

Working in such a big dairy operation meant the Filipinos had expertise in spe-cific aspects of farm management, such as inseminating and herd health, but lacked general farm experience and have required on the job training.

The Vogels admit employing staff from overseas is not for everyone and stress the need to be patient and to take time to learn about the culture and values of the people being employed.

If not sourcing staff through agencies, employers can utilise the Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO) service, which is a free, internet-based system that allows them to check the work entitlements of a visa holder online.

Farmers wanting more information can contact the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) Immigration Liaison Officer Su-zanne Gillham on 0403 395 154 or [email protected]

Backpackers in Australia can also be a source of short-term, seasonal labour for dairy farmers but Australian employ-ers need to make sure backpackers they employ have the appropriate visa. They are limited to a maximum of six months’ work.

Employing migrant labour has proven successful in addressing employment issues. Chris Vogels (back row, second from left) and his parents Frank and Dorothy (back row, right) currently employ nine international staff on their South West Victorian property.

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emma reynoLds

WESTERN AUSTRALIAN farmers have called for the milk tendering proc-ess to be revamped.

Farmers at the recent WA Farmers Federation annual dairy conference questioned the state’s three milk proc-essors, Brownes, Lion (formerly Nation-al Foods) and Harvey Fresh, as to why Coles had all the control when it came to the tendering process for milk.

Dardanup dairy farmer John Giume-lli says logic would suggest that if proc-essors have all the milk they should be able to dictate the terms of the tender.

This would then ensure a sustainable

milk flow from one year to the next. Brownes managing director Tim

Cusack was quick to point out that col-laborating on the milk price between the three processors would breach competition regula-tions for which they could be sent to jail.

If farmers wanted processors to be able to control the price that Coles and Woolworths pay for milk, then the legislation that gov-erns the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission would have to be altered, he said.

WAFF president Mike Norton asked the three processors to take the com-

ments from dairy farmers seriously.“You are living on borrowed time. If

you look at some of the other commodi-ties, processors have had to double or increase the farm gate price anywhere

from 25% to 50% to keep their doors open,” he said.

“Feedlot cattle have gone from $3.60 to $4.70,

lamb has gone from $4 to $6, and wool has doubled from 800c/kg to 1600c/kg.

“Processors, when they have to, can pay. There are less dairy farmers but production has held up but this is not going to happen forever.

“Not even the unions behave like

you and the supermarkets are behav-ing. The tender process is not open and transparent and the ACCC does not seem to be able to crack it – we need to and we need to do it very quickly.”

Harvey Fresh sales manager Kevin Sorgiovanni says winning the Coles contract has placed Harvey Fresh in good stead to pursue new market op-portunities, saying it will provide vol-ume and certainty for the processor and supplier in the years ahead.

While it is often argued that too much milk is produced in WA, it is the lack of year round supply that recently caused Harvey Fresh to reject an over-seas contract for two million litres.

“We have enough milk to cover our

current requirements but not enough for new business,” he says.

There were concerns from Brownes producers that their milk price may suf-fer following the loss of the home brand milk contract to Harvey Fresh.

Brownes managing director Tim Cu-sack says the loss of the contract would present some short term challenges but they were committed to growing their business in a way that would effectively utilise the excess milk solids.

There was general consensus from the audience that communication needed to be improved, to allow suppli-ers to be aware of changes to domestic and overseas markets, so opportunities can be seized as they arise.

ThE QUEENSLAND Dairyfarmers’ Organisation (QDO) believes that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has made a premature conclusion that Coles has not breached the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 in regard to its $1/litre milk discounting campaign.

The ACCC revealed its findings on the supermarket price wars last month, saying there is no evidence Coles has act-ed in breach of the Competition and Consumer Act.

“The major impact of the reduction in milk prices since January seems to have been a reduction in the supermar-kets’ profit margins on house brand milk,” ACCC Chairman Graeme Samuel says.

“Price cutting, or underselling competi-tors, does not neces-sarily constitute preda-tory pricing. “ACCC enquiries have revealed evidence that Coles’ purpose in reducing the price of its house brand milk was to increase its market share by taking sales from its supermarket competitors including Woolworths.”

QDO president Brian Tessmann says the QDO is disap-pointed that the ACCC has not backed up its claims with substantiated evidence.

“The conclusion is premature because a lot more of the impact from this cutthroat discounting is still to come.

“The major impacts on farmers will hit home in the com-ing months, as farmers seek to renegotiate new contracts for the coming year.

“We believe the ACCC conclusion is short-sighted and lacks supportive evidence, and farmers have every right to be sceptical.”

Tessmann says the dairy industry has presented a mountain of evidence – including numerous submissions and presentations to the current Senate Inquiry – detailing the far-reaching and sinister impacts of the milk war.

He added the ACCC need to answer more questions about the nature and breadth of its investigation, particu-larly regarding the supermarkets’ costs of supply and the damage being inflicted on the value chain.

Samuel says the ACCC findings revealed some proces-sors pay some farmers a lower farm gate price for milk sold as supermarket house brand milk.

“However on the evidence we’ve gathered over the last six months it seems most milk processors pay the same farm gate price to dairy farmers irrespective of whether it is intended to be sold as branded or house brand milk,” Samuel says.

Tessmann says the dairy industry will continue to put its case to the Federal Government, which includes a list of recommendations which would help deliver a sustainable value chain, including strengthening the legislation and implementing a mandatory Code of Conduct across the whole supply chain.

competition watchdog clears coles

Farmers want WA tender process changed

“Processors, when they have to, can pay.” - Mike Norton

“The conclusion is premature as a lot more of the impact from this cutthroat discounting is still to come.”


NEWS

emma reynoLds

ThE ANNoUNcEmENT by Coles mer-chandise director, John Durkan, that Coles would be using WA family owned processor, Harvey Fresh, to bottle their milk did little to quell the hostile crowd gathered at the WA Farmers Federation annual conference last month.

It was the first opportunity for WA milk producers to directly question a Coles executive since the company dropped the price of its home branded milk to $1 per litre in January, putting downward pressure on the domestic milk price.

Durkan was quick to defend Coles’ pricing strategy, stating that since the Wesfarmers purchase of Coles nearly four years ago, it has been trying to im-plement strategies to turn the business around.

“We have dropped 5000 prices in the last 12 months with milk being one of them,” Durkan says.

“It is part of the long term strategy to turn the business around. We are hearing

and seeing Australians feeling the pinch and giving better value to customers is at the heart of everything that we do”.

Durkan’s presentation was heavily fo-cussed on Coles’ commitment to a sus-tainable dairy supply chain, which cur-rently sources 143 million litres of milk from WA.

This commitment was questioned by Dardanup dairy farmer John Giumelli who told Durkan that if Coles truly val-ued locally sourced milk they need to

ensure that the cost of production comes back to the farm gate.

“In the 1990s we had a price that was based on the cost of production and that was around 48 cents per litre, yet 13 to 14

years down the track we are battling to get 38 cents,” Giumelli says.

“If Coles want to ensure they have a continued supply of locally sourced milk, the price needs to provide for the current generation as well as provide just enough profit to allow the next generation to slip into the old boy’s shoes,” he says.

Giumelli also pointed out that the re-cent report from the Australian Consum-er and Competition Commission, which

found that Coles did not breach compe-tition guidelines, gave dairy farmers no avenue of appeal, and would eventually lead to a shrinking local food supply.

Durkan’s claim that consumers were actually seeing great value in milk and they are consuming more of it since the $1 per litre campaign was scoffed at by those gathered.

Busselton dairy producer Greg Chap-man made Durkan aware of a recent ABARE survey that revealed that 32 WA dairy farms had a farm business profit for the 2010 financial year of just $46,492.

Reduced returns (excluding capital ap-preciation) of 1.4% and even lower for the last financial year were becoming a disin-centive to keep farming.

Durkan told producers that the farm gate price over the last six months has neither gone up or down in terms of retail price of milk.

“Our aim in milk pricing is not to harm farmers in any way shape or form. It is not in our short or long term interest to make dairy farmers unsustainable,” he says.

Durkan says for the first time they have set up their contracts to make sure farm-ers were protected and provide a sense of transparency in terms of the price that farmers are getting for their milk.

WA farmer John Giumelli questioned Coles merchandise director John Durkan at the recent WA Farmers Federation conference.

Cole director faces WA farmers

“The ACCC report gave farmers no avenue of appeal and would lead to a shrinking local supply.” - John Giumelli

LOVE THEIRAUSSIESKUBOTA

Liz CoTTon

TAckLING mENTAL health issues in rural communities is familiar to Buckleboo, SA, farmer Heather Baldock.

Baldock, along with a group of concerned and motivated community members, founded the Kimba Community Devel-opment Group, following a series of catastrophic events across Eyre Penin-sula in the late 1980s.

“We had high interest rates, low commodity pric-es and drought,” Baldock says.

“Population was de-clining, businesses were closing and farmers were selling up. There was a

standing ‘joke’ in the Kim-ba community at the time; will the last to leave please turn out the lights.”

The group implemented a series of initiatives in-cluding promoting local tourism, holding train-ing courses, grant writing workshops and inviting locals to hear from motiva-tional speakers.

In doing so, a communi-ty with people who “didn’t want to talk” took action and saw results.

In 2006, during one of the worst droughts on record, a young local farm-er from the community was lost to suicide.

“There was a real worry that this tragic event may prompt copycat incidents and the community needed

support to deal with their grief and their own stress levels.

“We decided to organ-ise the ‘Kimba Commu-nity Night Out’ as a way of banding together as a com-munity.

“What we said was: you may not be suffering, but your mate, your neighbour, your partner might be – so make sure you bring them along. It was a way of mak-ing sure everyone felt they could attend,” Baldock says.

“Sometimes when peo-ple are suffering, they don’t always know what’s out there to help them. When you can get involved and grab some control back, it can make all the differ-ence.”

proactive community extends helping hand

Liz CoTTon

A LEADING mental health expert says ex-posure to uncertainty and frequent lack of control are two key, unique issues putting farmers at risk of suicide.

Adelaide University’s Kate Gunn, Mount Cooper, conducted a study of 309 farmers from across South Australia in 2008 and found an alarmingly high number were experiencing moderate to high levels of stress, with suicide a very real risk.

“Farmers are often dictated to by ex-ternal forces such as governments, com-modity markets, financial institutions and of course the weather, which can be very stressful,” she says.

Added to this are geographic and social isolation, poor access to mental health services, economic instability, rising input costs, overwhelming workloads, exposure to dangerous machinery and chemicals and the inherent attitudes that stem from a rural culture of ingrained stoicism that subscribes to the “just-get-on-with-it” mantra.

Farmers work in all conditions and when knock-off time comes, it usually does not involve leaving the property as the work-place is also the home.

Gunn says this ‘way of life’ can often re-sult in work, home and family roles becom-ing intertwined and the clashing of busi-ness and personal issues.

During times of drought, farm debt lev-els increase and many farmers are forced to sell or lease their property, reduce la-bor and in some cases, engage in off-farm work.

Gunn says this can lead to increased isolation as neighbours or family members move away, rural services and businesses close down and social outings become few and further between.

Even when droughts break, the long term effects of these hardships endure.

Closely linked to these issues, Gunn says, is the fact that rural people are less likely to seek professional help, even when

it is available.This is thought to be because of the

stigma associated with accessing mental health services in rural areas, widespread poor levels of understanding about how services can help and fears about running into mental health professionals in other settings - for example, at the local footy.

These unique aspects of rural culture and the farming lifestyle help to explain why farmers are at risk of poor mental health.

The unique mental health issues and needs of farmers require special attention and greater understanding not only from non-rural people but also by professional services, governments and the media.

As well as professional medical services, there are now a number of different ways farmers and rural Australians can work to overcome mental health issues, with key elements being early intervention and edu-cation.

“There’s a saying - no matter how you feel: get up, dress up and rock up,” Gunn says.

“It’s important to be guided by what’s important to you in the longer term rather than by your immediate thoughts when you’re feeling down.”

Gunn says as well as seeking profes-sional support; exercising and socialising are also good ways to improve your mood.

Further advice can be sought from: Lifeline 13 11 14; Suicide Callback Service 1300 659 467; SANE Australia 1800 187 263; Mensline Australia 1300 789 978; Beyond Blue infoline 1300 224 636

Keeping up appearances: mental health and farmers

Kate Gunn

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Liz CoTTon

SoUTh AUSTRALIAN grain farmer Phillip Wheaton is every bit the “do-er, not the viewer”.

A local SES volunteer for over 30 years, presi-dent of both the local Ag Bureau and Eyre Penin-sula Ag Advisory Board, the man with a “passion for all things ag” has spent much of his life help-ing others, but in 2007 while battling devastating drought, he knew something wasn’t right within.

Mornings were the worst.“I’d spend all night tossing and turning, I

couldn’t find an answer to the drought.“I only saw the negatives – I’d write things down,

go through the budget, but I couldn’t get any clar-ity.”

Finally sleep would come at early dawn and then the ordeal of having to get up and face the new day arrived.

“Finally the wake-up call came when I found myself looking at my life insurance policy and I thought: wait a minute, why am I looking at this?”

An advocate of being proactive on men’s health, Philip’s first point of call was his local GP.

“I didn’t find it hard to go and talk to him – we’d played tennis together, been involved in the SES together and socialised outside our work, so I trusted him entirely.”

But faced with a waiting room full of local faces in the small west coast surgery, he “picked up two brochures from the surgery wall and hid the de-pression pamphlet inside the one on menopause”.

Phillip was diagnosed with depression and pre-scribed medication to combat its effects. Within

three weeks of the visit to his GP, things were start-ing to improve and the fog was lifting.

Although the illness and its scars will be some-thing Phillip must deal with throughout life, it is a battle he is determined to win.

“It’s treatable and that’s the best part, but I still wouldn’t wish it on anyone – not even my mother in law.

“It’s a sick feeling in your guts, you lose weight because food doesn’t have any taste, you’re hold-ing your breath all the time and your stomach is doing flip flops.”

He encourages people to take action straight away if they think something isn’t quite right.

“Go to your GP and if it’s nothing, that’s great news.

“If not, then you know help is on its way. Admit-ting it to myself and doing something about it was the game changer.”

Phillip believes social support is essential.“You don’t have to be a lone ranger - people may

not want to talk initially, but they do want to know about it, they want to listen and they want to ask questions.”

When he stood up and talked about depression at a farming forum in Wirrulla, he likened the ex-perience to “coming out of the closet: it’s the same magnitude - it’s a huge step.”

Despite this, he feels person to person contact is non-negotiable.

“We’re setting ourselves up for a lonely exist-ence – you can’t hear and feel a person from an email or on a screen and farmers especially need to know that there are others, the same as them, going through this.

“I had a lot of support from my wife and two kids, but it was tough for them to see me go through it. “I had a group of five mates and four were experienc-ing similar issues to me.

“We could ask each other questions, talk about treatment options and just know we weren’t alone. It’s so valuable.”

Phillip also encourages others – especially young people – to get involved in their local com-munities and develop support networks, as well as skills, confidence, self-esteem and a belief in one’s self.

He is also a firm believer in the power of positive thought.

“Keep smiling: it makes people wonder what you’re thinking about.”

NEWS

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A farmer’s battle with the black dog

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NEWS

Liz CoTTon

FARmERS IN South Australia are being driven to the wall by an exorbitant hike in water rates, with dairy farmers the hardest hit and facing fivefold water price increases.

Mick and Lesley Fischer milk 400 cows on the Narrung Penin-sula, on the shores of Lake Albert and the Coorong. Prior to 2007, when water became unavailable for irrigation due to the govern-ment decision to hold water back at lock one during drought times, they were completely self-suffi-cient.

“There was no choice and we had no help. We had 700 cows in

the top 5% for quality milk pro-duced and could only keep 100 young heifers that didn’t need the water. Thirty years of genetics was gone overnight, we could hardly watch the truck leave,” says Lesley.

Mains water was delivered through a pipeline from Tailem Bend after two years without wa-ter, “but what was once a lifeline is now a noose around our necks,” says Lesley.

The Fishers’ water bill has since skyrocketed to over $100,000.

“We are paying $2.48 a kilolitre now, but they’re saying that will go up to five dollars within two years.

“We’re paying the same amount as people growing roses in Ad-elaide and we’re certainly not see-ing any better returns for the food we produce.

“It’s just totally unsustainable for anyone reliant on mains wa-ter,” Lesley says.

In 2010 the Fischers also looked to lease water out and were told they would receive $120 a kilolitre but in May, they were only able to make $10/kl for the water.

The rise of 26.3% was an-nounced by the government to fund their $1.8 billion desalination

plant. The rise follows increases of 18% and 23% over the previ-ous two years and a 179% increase since the government came to power in 2001.

While Mick and Lesley say the last five years has been “absolutely heart wrenching” they are looking ahead with cautious optimism as their sons gradually take the reins.

“They are incredibly enthusias-tic and are looking at new ways to adapt and prosper. We are now to-tally mixed ration instead of cen-tre pivot irrigation and the herd, which is milking 9-10,000 litres a cow is gradually being built up again.

“These days though, we scruti-nise absolutely every bill and ac-count.”

andrew swaLLow

AN AmERIcAN dairy marketing giant is joining Fonterra’s online auction, GlobalDairyTrade.

DairyAmerica (DA) is the US’s largest supplier of non-fat dry milk, skimmed milk powder (SMP), whole milk powder and butter-milk powder, marketing all of these products produced by its four member coop-eratives.

It says a “significant” proportion of its export business will be through GDT from October, rather than distributor and resel-ler arrangements.

The announcement “marks a ‘coming of age’ for DA’s export business, and is a recognition that exports are an increasingly important growth opportunity for our member companies, which represent approxi-mately 45% of all non-fat dry milk and skim milk powder produced in the USA,” says DA chief executive Rich Lewis.

Market rules under which all parties will participate on GDT were published last month as a result of consultation with industry participants and interested stakeholders that began in early March.

“These rules lay the foundation for other new sellers to join GDT and we expect this will happen over the next year,” says GDT general manager Paul Grave.

GDT began in July 2008 as a monthly, single-seller auction for whole milk powder. It has grown to offer seven product categories twice monthly, currently selling about 650,000t/year with 350 registered bidders across 67 countries.

Grave says the addi-tion of the single-largest American provider of milk powder will transform Global Dairy Trade into a multi-seller, multi-product,

platform trusted by buyers and sellers to efficiently and transparently discover a fair, market-clearing price.

“For Fonterra it adds an extra level of credibility to the GDT platform so it’s not just Fonterra using it and it’s a truly global market-place.”

SMP product will be DairyAmerica’s first offering; other products will be added over time. Grave says the volume to be offered hasn’t been announced, but given DA’s total exports average 176,000t/year, it isn’t going to double GDT volume.

“I expect they will start small and build the volume up. Fonterra was only of-fering 170,000t/year at the start.”

Lewis says GDT’s plat-form provides DA with “the opportunity to establish our export business inde-pendently and have access to worldwide bidding demand on our first day of business.”

“We are confident [this] announcement is good for our customers and mem-bers. We have watched GDT buyer participation grow. We have increas-ingly understood the independence of the GDT trading manager, and we have participated in devel-oping the market rules.”

DA was established in 1995 as a federated marketing company and currently represents four major US producer-owned dairy co-operatives: Agri-Mark; California Dairies; O-AT-KA Milk Producers; and United Dairymen of Arizona.

All products marketed by DA are made from milk of 100% USA origin.

Water rate hike driving dairy to the wall

US processor joins auction

Water prices rose to fund a $1.8b desalination plant in SA.

Paul Grave

“For Fonterra it adds an extra level of credibility to the GDT platform so it’s not just Fonterra using it and it’s a truly global marketplace.”

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NEWS

ers’ profit margins and the dairy market stabilisation pro-gram (DMSP), a plan to discourage farmers from boosting milk production or expanding their farms. He says it’s time to act before another crisis hits the dairy industry.

“If we have another dairy crisis like we had in 2009, we could lose half our dairies. The discussion draft allows us to keep the ball moving while continuing dialogue with the dairy industry.

“Current dairy programs aren’t working; they’re not keeping up with the challenges facing today’s dairy indus-try.”

But his proposal hasn’t gone down well with US proces-sors and marketers.

International Dairy Foods Association president Connie Tipton says the draft legislation will take the dairy indus-try in the wrong direction.

“Instead of encouraging job growth and reducing regu-lation on an already overregulated industry, the discus-sion draft would impose new and intrusive government mandates on dairy markets at the cost of a growing dairy export business and the jobs that have come with it.”

But Kozak is rejecting Tipton’s claim. He says any rev-enue collected from the proposed DMSP is not a tax on consumers.

“It’s a user fee paid by farmers which will, only as need-ed, be used to help stimulate demand.”

US DAIRY farmers are welcoming a proposal to end gov-ernment buying of excess dairy products and storing them for future sale or donation, saying it will boost exports.

National Milk Producers Federation president Jerry Ko-zak says the elimination of the dairy product price support program is a good thing.

Kozak says the programme acts as a government-funded buyer of last resort for a limited list of commodities, in-cluding cheddar cheese, butter and nonfat dry milk pow-der. Unfortunately, this program also acts as a disincentive to exports, he says.

“Once this program is eliminated, markets during peri-ods of surplus will clear more quickly.

“Product manufacturers will no longer have the incen-tive to make dairy foods intended only for the government, and will have incentive to sell those products on the world market.

“The price support program has hindered our ability to fully develop and capitalise on foreign markets, as was the case in 2009, when US dairy exports dropped and govern-ment price support purchases surged.”

Under a proposal put forward by a congressional agri-culture committee ranking member Collin Peterson, the price support programme and income loss protection for farmers will be removed.

Peterson’s proposal includes insurance to protect farm-

New US milk plan will boost exports

Jerry Kozak

Uk FARmERS are seeing red over a report show-ing their April farm gate milk prices were the lowest among the 27 EU states.

National Farmers Union president Peter Kendall says the UK languishing at the bottom of the European milk price league table is a disgrace.

“It’s plain wrong that British dairy farmers are paid the lowest prices in Europe,” he says. “They’re receiving around 8c/L be-low the EU average which is a disgrace. Something has to change.”

Figures from the EU Commission’s directorate for agriculture and rural development showed that in April the average UK farm gate price stood at 49c/L, lowest price of any nation in the EU-27.

The UK price was a 10% improvement on domes-tic farmgate milk prices in April 2010 but is still way below the 71c/ L being paid to Greek producers in April this year.

Dairy farmers in eight of the EU 15 member states were getting well above 57c/L while among the whole EU 27 those in Cy-prus and Malta were being paid 76c/L.

UK farmers have been struggling under lower farm gate prices with many farmers being forced out of the industry.

Kendall says volume pro-duction is finally turning a corner and, despite declin-ing farmer numbers, aver-age yields and efficiency are improving.

UK producers want to ex-pand their businesses, but market signals tell them to do the opposite, he says.

“The dairy industry ur-gently needs fair terms and conditions of trade and that’s why the NFU is back-ing calls for a voluntary ‘code of practice’. As part of our campaign, we have been lobbying MPs and dairy processors to push for the introduction of fairer contracts. We believe these will deliver negotiating strength and price trans-parency to dairy farmers.

“A rising population here in the UK will mean some eight million more con-sumers on our doorstep within the next 15 years.

“That should be great news, but unless we can find a way for our dairy farmers to get a fair return on their investment, it’s dif-ficult to see how they’ll be in a position to rise to the challenge.”

Kendall admits the in-dustry needs to produce more milk but points out for farmers, the really criti-cal first step is sustainable terms of supply.”

NFU dairy board chair-man Mansel Raymond says the position the UK milk price now occupies in the EU league table is scandal-ous.

“Equitable transmission of price and margin in the supply chain is not happen-ing. Farmers are anxious to expand as we head to the end of milk quotas. There is no excuse for procrasti-nation or failure to pass on price rises to farmers.”

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EDIToRIAL

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Durkan dashes to avoid grilling

For someone with pockets full of bonuses, Coles merchandise director John Durkan can really move.

Durkan was a guest speaker at the recent WA Farmers Federation conference last month to discuss the Coles decision to cut milk prices to $1/litre.

It was the first chance WA farmers have had to question someone from Coles about the decision and a few had their chance during question time from the floor.

However, when this was finished, Durkan left the stage and literally walked out the door. No lunch with suppliers for him.

Our person on the spot thinks she heard something mumbled about having a plane to catch and swears she could hear a car outside with the motor revving, ready to go.

pass the buck, says pmAre there any farmers feeling

the pressure from extra costs to be caused by the impending carbon tax? Well, just pass them on down the line, says Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

It was put to the PM by the ABC last month that farmers’ profitability would be eroded by increasing farm costs and no ability to pass these costs on.

“Oh, of course farming will be viable and our modelling is showing that, for example, with food production, what you will see is people pass costs through to the consumer, which is why we are ensuring that nine out of ten households get assistance through increased pensions, increased family payments, and a tax cut, which comes with a major tax reform.”

Pass costs through to the consumer? Is she serious? Sadly, it appears she is.

It’s bad when a Government can be so out of touch, but devastating when its decisions

can have such a negative impact.

It’s all relativeFarmers at the recent wet

weather workshop were discussing different footbath treatments, including the use of formalin, which is a suspected carcinogen.

“Most of the blokes I know that use it smoke, so it’s not a problem,” came one response.

Dark agesAnother classic comment

from the same Federal Government that brought you Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig’s query of what that truck was doing on the dairy farm he was visiting. (It was collecting milk, Joe).

A senior industry figure was

taken aback when Climate Change Minister Greg Combet seemed surprised when told the dairy industry would be affected by the carbon tax as it is power intensive.

“What does he think we do - milk by hand?” Our man asked, shaking his head.

making senseSouth Gippsland dairy

farmer Peter Hanrahan had a twist on an old saying at a recent wet weather workshop held in Meeniyan last month.

“Whoever said where there’s mud there’s money should be taken out and shot,” Hanrahan told the delighted audience.

“Where there’s mud there’s misery, but where there’s moisture there’s money.”

Nobody disagreed.

hard drinkersIt would come as no surprise to anyone that those

from the Northern Territory are hard drinkers but we assumed they were downing those giant two litre stubbies.

Apparently the average Darwin local consumes up to 55% more flavoured milk than other Australians.

Parmalat Australia tells us the NT has the highest consumption rate for flavoured milk per capita in Australia.

NT drinkers consume 24 litres per person, compared to Queensland with 13.2 litres per capita and New South Wales with 5.5 litres per capita.

Parmalat are stoked, saying each and every person in the NT drink 24 litres of flavoured milk each year.

mILkING IT...

RUmINATING

has the carbon tax been thought through?ThE ENTIRE country will be living under Prime Minister Gil-lard’s carbon tax from July 1.

The details were released last month after months of spruik-ing from the Prime Minister that no family would be worse off under the tax.

Except, it would seem, 7500 dairy farming families across Australia, who are going to receive less income because of in-creased power bills.

The Prime Minister also said only the 500 largest polluters would pay.

Plus, it would seem, the 7500 dairy farm businesses that will be whacked with greater power bills and no way to pass on the increased cost.

The Australian Dairy Industry Council has found a carbon price of $23 per tonne will cost dairy farmers $5000-$7000 ex-tra per year.

Although direct agricultural emissions and diesel have been excluded from the Federal Government’s Carbon Tax proposal, electricity has not been, and it is a major component of dairy farming operating costs.

As ADIC points out, the Government has failed to recognise that as a trade-exposed industry, dairy processers cannot pass on the costs of a carbon scheme to local consumers or world markets, therefore farmers will wear the full cost of this tax.

It has called on the Government to remove the carbon tax on electricity from primary producers and dairy processors.

The dairy industry is Australia’s third biggest rural industry and contributes around $9 billion in total value to the Austral-ian economy every year. It seems nobody in the Government fully understands it.

The industry has also shown its commitment to reduce its carbon emissions through reduced power use in dairy sheds. Dairy Australia has invested levy money in schemes to help farmers reduce their power bills on farm.

This decision will have a severe impact on most dairy farms, which cannot be ignored.

But there’s an even larger problem looming, the extent of which may not be recognised for 12 months or even longer.

With such an oversight from the Government, what other surprises will we receive over the next 11 months?

Is the carbon tax legislation rigid, or will it be full of holes, with more industries being unfairly targeted? The country can’t afford it to be the latter.

Unfortunately, the dairy industry is a case in point of fami-lies and small businesses bearing the brunt of a poorly con-ceived plan.


opiNioN

EVER hEARD of greenwash? It means misleading consumers about the environmental practice of a company and/or the benefit of its product or service.

Accusations of greenwashing usually come from environmentalists, criticising companies, organisations and even countries for not living up to the expectations of these self-appointed green guardians’.

Often, agriculture is the subject of such sanctimonious lectures from the Greens, Greenpeace – or some other ecological do-gooder group – accusing it of unleashing environmental damage on land, water system and/or animals. Regularly these groups call for wholesale conversion to organics, claiming only this can save the country – environmentally and economically.

So to learn that certain types of agriculture, such as organics, are not all that environmentally friendly and/or economically sensible, brings a sense of schadenfreude.

An Australian Farm Institute conference heard how relieving world hunger and ensuring food security are inextricably linked to adoption of new farming technology. United Nations figures show the world’s population has been increasing by 78 million/year and is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, requiring a 70% increase in food production from today’s levels.

Roger Cady, Elanco’s sustainability leader, says this will have to come from new technology due to limitations in land and natural resource availability. He says consumers have been swayed into organics by impressions and intuition without considering the science, productive efficiency and environmental impact per unit of output.

“Intensive agriculture is actually significantly more sustainable than most people are aware,” says Cady.

“Today’s technology-aided, intensive agriculture is far more environmentally sustainable than historical agriculture because fewer resources, less water and less land are used with less greenhouse gas produced per unit of food grown than by historical farming methods.”

Meanwhile, Brett Stuart, of US

agricultural analysis company Global AgriTrends, told the conference most consumers do not understand the social implications of perceived “socially-responsible” purchasing.

“Organic, locally grown, free range and other anti-technology production methods typically increase the use of water and feed resources, and can lead to higher greenhouse gas emissions.” He says it is actually “socially irresponsible” to impose choice restrictions on producers

which then lead to higher food costs, felt mainly in the ‘developing world’.

“Utilising technol-ogy effectively will mean that while we

need to double agricultural production by 2050, we will only occupy 13% more land to do this than was used in 2008.”

Australian agriculture and science author Julian Cribb says mankind faces its greatest challenge with world demand for food doubling in 40 years or so. This growing demand comes as the scarcity of land and water available for growing food intensifies.

In 2010, DuPont assembled an external committee, chaired by former US Senator

Tom Daschle, to examine the best public policy and business practices to tackle the global challenge to increase agriculture productivity in a sustainable manner.

Its three key recommendations were:• Produce more food and increase the nutritional

value of food – unleashing innovation and ensuring farmers have access to the tools they need will be essential.

• Make food accessible and affordable for everyone – barriers to moving food, such as infrastructure and government policies, must be removed.

• Address the challenge in a continuously more sustainable and comprehensive way – continuously improving agricultural products and practices to address natural resource needs.With the world’s population growth

showing no signs of abating, the ever-increasing demand for food makes it even more important for farmers to produce more from less. Those pushing organic barrows won’t want to admit it, but the food production increase needed to feed the world’s growing population cannot, and will not, come from organic systems.

David Anderson is principal of Write Here, Right Now and a former Rural News Editor.

Who’s greenwashing who?

dr PauLine BrighTLing

ALL DAIRY managers can ben-efit from taking time out to work on the business, rather than in it.

It doesn’t matter how large or small a dairy operation is, there’s value in taking ourselves away from the distractions of the daily farming activities and thinking about it from a differ-ent perspective.

As a dairy business grows and employs more people it becomes increasingly important to do this.

The concept may start with the introduction of regular ‘staff meet-ings’ where the people involved in the farm can discuss plans for the coming weeks and issues that may need special at-tention.

It may also include tak-ing the time to document the farm’s procedures and poli-cies.

It sounds simple but the proc-ess of documenting these things helps the business owner or manager think through prac-tices that have been communi-cated informally in the past.

It is the first step for formal-ising farm systems and it helps both managers and employees to have a clear understanding of what’s expected.

Another step is to write job de-scriptions for staff.

Job descriptions are often pre-pared when a position becomes vacant on the farm. It’s a good opportunity to think about the tasks involved and the skills re-quired.

The process of writing a job description helps the owner or manager clarify in their own

mind what they need from the position and the type of person who will fit the role.

And having a written job de-scription helps the new staff member know exactly what is expected of them.

Job descriptions, procedures, policies, staff meetings – you can’t do any of these on the run, while you are busy with the day to day activities on the farm.

They are best done by taking time out, away from the farm, to concentrate on the business rather than the daily chores.

Many of these tasks can be made easier by using the tem-plates and tools available on The People in Dairy website (www.thepeopleindairy.org.au).

Dairy farming can be a hectic occupation. But when you take time away to look at things dif-ferently you’ll often come up with ideas that save time and stress every day.

Having these key documents – job descriptions, farm policies, procedures – also help present the operation as a professional business.

And in the long run that will help address the on-going issue of attracting, developing and retaining people in the dairy in-dustry.

Dr Pauline Brightling manag-es The People in Dairy program for Dairy Australia

Work on the business, not just in it

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agribuSiNESS

ThE bEGA Cheese float has proven exceptionally popular with investors and farmer shareholders but its value has been questioned by shares investment re-search publication, Intelli-gent Investor.

The two share issues were closed late last month ahead of schedule and oversubscribed.

The pool of shares for employees, farmer share-holders and Bega locals due to close on August 16 was also closed early due to popular demand.

This will make the Bega Cheese Group Australia’s biggest listed dairy entity when it begins trading on the Australian Securities Exchange at the end of this month.

It wanted to raise $35 million through a 17.5 mil-lion share issue to the pub-lic under the offer price of $2 a share. There were 850,000 shares issued un-der the Employee Loyalty Offer.

Bega plans to use the $35 million to primarily reduce interest-bearing debt and improve the company’s gearing levels and interest cover ratios, according to its prospectus.

In a letter with the pro-spectus, Bega chairman

Barry Irvin says Bega had grown its revenue in recent years to a forecast $942 million this financial year.

However, Intelligent In-vestor research director Nathan Bell told ABC radio it would advise investors to steer clear of the stocks.

“Bega doesn’t even own its own brand, it sold the rights off ten years ago. All it gets is a 2.5% royalty on the sales,” Bell says.

“It’s not really a brand business that you’re buy-ing, it’s actually a low mar-gin contract manufacturer, which is a whole different ball game.

“The returns on equity or the returns on capital are absolutely lousy.

“I think the institutional

investors would have seen straight through this and the reason it’s been floated on CommSec, is because individual investors are not generally as experienced as other investors.”

Kidder Williams is ad-vising Bega Cheese on the float and its managing director, David Williams, says Intelligent Investor has missed the mark.

“Bega owns its own brand and it leases or li-cences that brand to Fonterra in Australia only,” he told ABC Radio.

“It owns the brand and uses the brand itself in the international market, so it has significant export sales of Bega branded cheese into South-East Asia, and

the Middle East and else-where.

“It is a high multiple (price to earnings), but it’s not high compared with some of our international peers.”

Bega Cheese’s decision to list followed a meeting of 150 Bega supplier-share-holders near Bega in April.

In overwhelmingly approving the float with about 90% support, the company’s 150 farmer-shareholders have also acted to protect Bega’s local identity.

Shareholding restric-tions will be in place for at least five years, with op-tions for a five year exten-sion – and a majority of directors will be farmer suppliers.

Shares will be capped so that no shareholding can be greater than 5% and a mini-mum of four dairy farmers will fill the eight board posi-tions.

Bega follows Warrnam-bool Cheese and Butter as another major player in the Australian dairy field to be publicly listed.

Irvin says the decision to list on the ASX was an important day in Bega Cheese’s history.

Irvin says the listing will create a new level of finan-cial strength for existing shareholders and “position Bega Cheese for opportu-nities that will inevitably come from further indus-try rationalisation and the ever growing international dairy market place”.

Irvin believes most exist-ing Bega shareholders will stay and use their cashed-up status to reinvest in their businesses.

“We believe many share-holders will reinvest the money back into their busi-ness. They will be more fi-nancially secure and more likely to invest or expand, or look at succession plan-ning.”

He says it will give share-holders the opportunity to realise the value of their shares if they wish to take advantage of that.

Bega plans to retain all its production facilities and could use the extra funds to improve infrastructure or look at new markets.

In the past decade, Bega Cheese has grown to be the fourth largest dairy operation in Australia, and the largest cheese “cut and pack” operation in the Southern Hemisphere.

Bega employs nearly 1400 people at its NSW op-erations and at plants in Coburg, Tatura and Strath-merton in Victoria.

Investors take large bite of Bega

Bega Cheese executive chairman Barry Irvin says Bega has grown its revenue to $942 million this financial year.

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DIVERSE INTERNATIoN-AL demand for specific dairy commodities is hav-ing a major influence on prices, which will partly de-termine where milk payouts will finish at the end of this season.

Local processors are now deciding not just where to sell product, but also what products will maximise re-turns for the milk they col-lect.

The average 10,000 litres of milk can be manufactured into butter/skim milk pow-der (SMP) (892kg SMP, 501kg butter, 50kg Butter Milk Powder (BMP); butter/whole milk powder (WMP) (1272kg WMP, 105kg butter, 11kg BMP); or Cheddar (1062kg cheddar, 32kg butter, 3kg BMP and 623kg of whey powder).

So the value of 10,000 litres of milk can change significantly depending on what products it’s manufactured into.

When planning how to use milk collected, manu-facturers will consider factors like existing sales commitments, plant ca-pability and utilisation.

Anticipated supply from competitors, both overseas and Australia, and the relative returns across the commodities will also play a role in determining where milk payouts finish at the end of this season.

Factors that will influence pricing on the four dairy commodities are:

Smp (skim milk powder)Prices have received a boost from competi-tion for relatively small volumes available on the Fonterra auction site, global Dairy Trade (gDT), but auction prices are now be-ing scaled back.

Demand for dairy protein in the form of SMP has remained strong all year, ab-sorbing growing export volumes from the United States without having a detrimen-tal effect on prices.

Wmp (whole milk powder)China continues to drive the global WMP market and preferential access with New Zealand makes them China’s largest WMP supplier providing 93% of Chinese WMP imports.

Strong buying from China from Janu-ary to May 2011 means buyers have ample inventories of WMP for now. This reduces

competition in WMP mar-kets and is a significant factor behind easing WMP prices over the last couple of months.

It is likely Chinese buyers are trying to postpone purchases until the beginning of 2012 when a discount to current tariff rates (for NZ product) takes effect.

cheeseCheese markets are well balanced with steady demand from major buyers in Rus-sia and Japan while global supply growth has been quite modest this season.

Similar to SMP, global market demand for cheese has been strong enough to ab-sorb a 20% increase in export volumes from the USA (May 2011 vs May 2010) with-out seeing commodity prices drop signifi-cantly.

The problem is that US dollar prices have not increased enough since the beginning of the year to offset the increas-ing AUD, so local curren-cy spot returns are down around AUD$200/t.

A large volume of US cheese was recalled fol-lowing reports of foreign matter discovered in bulk

cheese, reducing commercial inventories intended for use later this season and ex-posing cheese markets to a sharp increase in prices if milk supply wavers.

butterGlobal butterfat markets remain fairly tight despite a dip in prices over the last month.

US stocks remain light for this time of year and are not building up prior to peak demand in the end of year festive season.

At the moment US butter producers are choosing to sell their production on the global market rather than store it for later this year.

The rationale being ‘better to sell now at high prices rather than build stocks and risk inventory write downs’ if prices fall later on.

Come Thanksgiving and pre-Christmas buying though, US manufacturers will be choosing whether to supply the domestic market or global market.

It’s very unlikely there’ll be the volume to adequately supply both, so prices will be heading up.

In addition to the seasonal demand spike in the US, a hot summer in Europe has lifted demand for ice-cream, which has meant some of the milk that would go to the butter churn has been diverted to ice-cream.

Add to this the ongoing shortage of butter in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami, plus a reported butter

shortage in India, and momentum appears clearly behind strong butter prices for some time.

That’s a brief summary of the factors driving individual commodity prices. However, the choice facing many manu-facturers is not just where to sell product, but also what products will maximise re-turns for the milk they collect.

Diverse dairy product demand dictates local prices

Indicative Australian Dairy Export pricesSource: Dairy Australia

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maNagEmENt

SoUTh GIppSLAND farmers Peter and Cath-erine Hanrahan, Stony Creek, knew it was going to be a tough winter when they received two major flood events of 100mm each in March and April.

The rain has barely stopped all year, with more than 900mm received by July in the district with an average rainfall of 1000mm.

“We know it can be tough in winter so we put a system in place for when things get bad,” Peter says.

He spoke at a Future Ready Dairy Systems work-shop in Meeniyan last month, providing ideas to other farmers on how to survive the wet conditions.

The Hanrahans milk 750 cows at their peak on undulating to flat country with grey clay loams. They run a split calving system and have a 320ha milking area.

Peter says the priority is

to look after yourself, your family and your staff.

Having a list of key con-tact points for “your farm business team”, including farm vets, farm agrono-mist-consultant, account-ant, bank manager, feed supplier, milking machine technician, bobcat op-erator, farm track material supplier, dairy factory field staff, and DPI staff, is also useful.

“I would walk behind the cows and make phone calls in that time.”

Because of the excessive rainfall this year, the Han-rahans teat sealed all their heifers this year, which they haven’t done in the past. They also installed a tip-over crush for cows and heifers.

Puddles full of parasites meant an increased worm burden in young stock, which needed to be closely monitored. They were drenched every four weeks.

Young stock were also

more prone to nutrition problems this year as the Hanrahans weren’t able to sow as much new pasture.

Some cows were dried off a week earlier to reduce paddock damage and cow condition loss.

Removing slurry from tracks was a priority as it splashes onto teats.

“We had to think about ways to discourage cows from lying down in mud, especially on tracks which

present a high mastitis in-fection opportunity,” Peter says.

This included locking them in paddocks and keeping cows walking on tracks to and from the yards.

Teat cup liners were changed on time, full teat spraying was done by hand with premixed spray and milking machines were serviced regularly, all in a bid to prevent infection.

Peter made a make shift calving area, laying down wood chips on an area of high ground, so cows can calve down close to home and off the mud.

“The wood chips were hard to get in Gippsland so we ordered them from Tatura for only $2 more per cubic metre.”

He recommended getting a bobcat and operator to clean out wet areas in the calving down

area and calf sheds. “It’s not expensive and quicker than a farm tractor with bucket.”

All calf pens are treated with the disinfectant, Nat-ural Clean, every Monday and Friday.

The Hanrahans have used a vibrating roller on tracks twice this year to push down stones with great success.

Rollers (normally used when pasture sowing) have been used to move slurry off the tracks, and this has worked well in the rain.

Tyres have been dragged with a pasture smudger to move slurry off tracks. The tyres will ride around the posts.

Using the Muck Runner and water from the effluent pond to flood wash con-crete lanes and under the overpass also proved quick and effective.

The Hanrahans had previously installed a feed pad and Peter says it had

paid for itself over the win-ter. They fed grass silage, bread, almond hulls and lucerne, allowing cows to adlib feed whenever possi-ble because silage, hay and grain quality was generally lower this year due to the wet weather during last harvest.

Cows have access to feed pad for one hour before both morning and evening milking and for longer in rough weather.

The troughs and pad are cleaned twice per week with scrapers and a flood wash.

The Hanrahans are making plans now for ren-ovating/oversowing dam-aged pastures as soon as weather permits in early spring.

They will apply aerial ap-plication of nitrogen and growth promotant and will avoid putting heavy fertiliser spreaders on wet paddocks for as long as possible.

Forging through the winter mess

Who: Peter and Catherine Hanrahan WhErE: stony Creek What: Wet weather

Peter Hanrahan, with son Patrick, received his district’s annual average rainfall by August this year.


maNagEmENt

riCK Bayne

A SoIL biology expert is researching whether soil microbes “step up” and main-tain ecosystem functions if nutrient inputs are reduced.

Dr Damian Bougoure is part of the soil microbiology group of the Victorian De-partment of Primary Industries’ Bioscienc-es Research Division.

He says farmers have indicated high in-tensity systems are falling out of favor for reasons such as increased fertiliser costs, so it would be valu-able for them to know if their soil biology can help maintain produc-tivity with fewer in-puts.

Making sure soil bugs are happy and doing the right thing is one of the key ingredients to a successful operation.

Bougoure explained this at a soil biology workshop conducted by the Future Ready Dairy Systems Project (FRDS) and Glenelg Hopkins CMA in Terang, western Victoria, attended by more than 50 local farmers and service providers.

He encourages farmers to seek greater numbers and diversity of bacteria, fungi, earthworms and other bugs in their soil as they consider ways to improve soil health.

Dr Bougoure says having diverse soil biology can help in achieving good produc-tion as it decomposes plant residues, regu-lates plant nutrient supply, improves soil structure, degrades pesticides and herbi-cides, regulates water supply and captures and releases greenhouse gases.

“Carbon and soil biology are best mates

as carbon is great bug food. More carbon equals more bugs which is good for every-one,” Bougoure says.

“The more carbon you have in your soil the more types of bugs you will have work-ing for you.

“It is important you know about your bugs and what they can do for you and also how your management practices can im-pact on their processes.”

Management practices can create the right conditions for good bugs to increase in number and carry out the process that will benefit growth of healthy plants.

He says farmers should manage nutri-ent inputs to avoid creating “lazy soil mi-crobes”.

“Too many chemical inputs might knock the

system about, but if you have to use chemi-cals it’s not the end of the world.

“Bugs are tough and many will survive just about anything.”

He says fungicides are more likely to cause damage to soil microbes than herbi-cides and insecticides.

“There are about 400 registered chemi-cals we add to different agricultural soil types with different microbial communi-ties and different climatic conditions.

“None of these interactions are black and white so it is difficult to know how all soil biology will respond.

“Getting your pH levels right is impor-tant and lime can have a significant impact on soil microbial community structure.

“The bug community changes for the better when you get your pH right and that helps your plant growth and nitrogen fixa-tion.”

riCK Bayne

FARmERS ShoULD be wary of soil biology products and ask questions before considering their use, accord-ing to research scientist Dr Damian Bougoure.

Bougoure, part of the soil micro-biology group of the Victorian De-partment of Primary Industries’ Biosciences Research Division, says some products could be okay but some probably weren’t.

“There are concerns because it is not a regulated industry. Anyone can make a glossy brochure or website but that doesn’t necessarily mean the product will work for your farm,” Bougoure says.

“If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

Bougoure says farmers should not be shy in asking questions when of-fered biological products.

“It’s not my job to say if any prod-uct is good or not, but I can arm you with information to ask the right questions.

“You should ask whether it is reg-istered, what is in it, is the product suitable for your climate, crop and

soil conditions, have there been lo-cal trials of the product and if it is backed by data in scientific journals.

“There is no way to say that a prod-uct that works in Queensland would work here in south-west Victoria without proper testing or trials.”

Bougoure said that getting man-agement systems right was more important than “adding a few bugs”.

He also warned farmers to be care-ful using some commercial soil biol-ogy tests.

“They are limited in the informa-tion they tell us at this stage.

“You are better off undertaking longer-term monitoring of patterns of management, crop production and climate than taking one-off samples, although better tests for soil biology are just around the corner.”

Bougoure says fertiliser applica-tions will eventually cost more and farmers needed to use them to best advantage as well as encouraging soil biology to help maintain produc-tion.

“We’re not in a position to give a definitive answer on what is a good measure of soil biology but it is al-ways important to get your house right and make sure things such as pH levels are right and you are en-couraging more bugs and more di-versity.”

Question soil biology products

There are concerns because it is not a regulated industry.

Carbon and soil biology are best mates as carbon is great bug food.

Healthy soil bugs lift productivity

Dr Damian Bougoure says establishing correct pH in your soil helps plant growth and nitrogen fixation.

Cow parking and mastitis risk

Countdown Downunder is one of the many examples of the dairy service levy at work. Farmers receive a benefit of $3 for each $1 invested by Dairy Australia on their behalf. For

more information on this and other levy investments visit www.dairyaustralia.com.au

Wet farms in southern Victoria are seeking to cow-park herds off-site to spare the pugged paddocks. However, a common way to introduce mastitis bacteria into a herd is in the udders of cows from somewhere else.

Bacteria such as Strep agalactiae can spread rapidly through a herd.

To minimise mastitis risk around ‘cow parking’, the top priorities are:

• Milk the herds separately where it is possible, with the guest cows last. This reduces the risk of spread, especially if you put a rinse through the machine between each herd.

• Ensure all staff follow best practice for hygiene when milking. It is essential everyone wears gloves to milk, people stripping cows don’t get milk on their gloves and gloves are regularly washed with running water.

• Clinical cases are milked last, or with a separate cluster disinfected afterwards.

• 100% of every teat is covered after every milking. Teat spray is a ready-to-use product (or made up daily at the correct concentration with good-quality water).

• Use blanket Antibiotic Dry Cow Treatment (all quarters of all cows)

• Liners are not past their use-by date – no more than 2500 cow milkings.

Both farms – keep an eagle eye on mastitis ratesWatch your bulk milk cell counts carefully. If these are above 250,000 or trending up in a way that is unusual for your herd, speak to your mastitis adviser or vet.

Count clinical cases and assess treatment success – record all details – get advice from your vet if you have more than two cases per 100 cows per month, or more than one in five cases needs a second course of treatment.

Check which bacteria are present. Get a milk sample for culture from all clinical cases, especially for early warning of Strep ag.

Track new infection rates by milk recording for the next 12 months. Get a Countdown Mastitis Focus report from your Herd Improvement centre after every milk recording visit. This is an accurate way to track new infections in your herd.

Both farms – review dry cow plans with your vetDrying-off is the time that you have a chance to remove infections that have occurred during the lactation. When you discuss your dry cow plans with your veterinarian, tell them that you have hosted or sent cows cow parking.

After cow parking you should seriously consider blanket antibiotic dry cow treatment – all cows treated with an appropriate dry cow treatment.

When it is time to send cows homeIf cows are sent home at the end of their lactation either send them home while stillmilking, or at least two weeks after drying off, when the udder has shrunk and the teats have sealed well. If still milking, continue twice daily for a few days to find and treat any clinical cases before drying off. Make sure all mastitis records go home with the cows.

For more information go to the Countdown Downunder Farm Guidelines at www.dairyaustralia.com.au/mastitis


maNagEmENt

AUSTRALIAN RESEARchERS have officially backed a new way of estimating dry matter (DM) consumption in dairy herds.

They believe a technique called ‘feeding sys-tems’ is more accurate than the current system.

Janna Heard, a research scientist with the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) led the team of Victorian and WA scientists studying how farmers account for energy requirements of Australian herds.

As a result of this work a simple compu-ter program has been developed to help them estimate on-farm an-nual pasture removal and feed conversion ef-ficiency of the milking herd.

DPI Research Manager of Dairy Production Sci-ences Bill Wales says this can be used to bench-mark farm performance over time.

“You need to measure pasture consumption ac-curately to make sensible decisions on purchas-ing expensive supplements,” Wales says.

“However, estimating the amount of pasture consumed is difficult, and is influenced by the interrelationship between animals, plants and overall feed management.”

When researchers analysed the sensitivity of both techniques using a stylised dairy farm in Australia’s temperate zones, pasture consump-

tion using the current approach was 8.6tDM/ha, while the feeding standards approach measured 12.44tDM/ha.

Currently many farmers use a back-calculation that assumes every 20kgDM of feed consumed annually produces 1kg milk fat.

After allowing for intake of supplements, for-age consumption can be estimated from milk fat production.

“This is possibly no longer a suitable standard,” Wales says.

“There have been significant improvements in the genetic potential of cows based on milk component yield, such as milk fat, and there is now a much wider range of feeding systems than when this simple calcula-tion method was introduced.”

Seeking a more accurate technique, the re-searchers used a back-calculation approach which accounts for all the metabolisable energy (ME) requirements of a cow under Australian conditions, based on CSIRO findings.

“The practical implication of this is that dairy farmers might be undervaluing the contribution of pasture and overvaluing the contribution of purchased supplementary feeds to their herd’s diet,” Wales says.

Farmers can access the new program at www.dpi.vic.gov.au/agriculture/dairy/pastures-man-agement/calculator

GREG AND Joanne Ault’s dairy herd has an Australian Selec-tion Index (ASI) of 58, placing it in the top 2% of the Australian Holstein herd.

The Aults attribute their herd’s high genetic merit to 40 years of artificial insemination (AI) and using progeny test (PT) bulls since they became avail-able.

Over this time they’ve been consistent in their breeding ob-jective, selecting bulls primarily on the basis of production com-ponents, with a more recent em-phasis on milk protein content.

Based on the ASI, the Aults’ cows are each $58 more prof-itable a year than the average Australian cow. With a 220 cow herd, that adds up to $12,700 more profit over a year.

ASI reflects a herd’s genetic merit based on the commercial value of production. It’s calcu-lated from a combination of protein, fat and milk production and accounts for the Australian milk payment system and feed costs.

Having gained confidence in progeny test bulls over the years, Greg splits his semen purchase almost evenly between proven and progeny test straws.

“We usually buy a team of about four proven bulls from

different family lines, selected from the list of the top 50 APR bulls,” Greg says.

“It’s a good place to start be-cause we know that high APR – Good Bulls Guide bulls have the genetic potential to produce daughters that will perform well under Australian conditions.

“Progeny test bulls repre-sent newer genetics so they can speed up the rate of genetic gain in the herd.

“With PT straws priced well-below proven bulls they are also very good value for money.”

Greg is also very excited about the arrival of genomics, which he says gives him further con-fidence in the genetic quality of progeny test bulls.

He already has first hand ex-perience with a daughter from an initial genotyped young bull.

The April 2011 graduate bull list includes Watchdog, an early Informer son who was in the first batch of young Australian bulls to be genotyped to assist selection.

“A couple of years ago we had some Watchdog progeny test straws and we are now milking one of his daughters.”

The Watchdog daughter has almost completed her first lacta-tion, with a production index of 118, putting her in the top end of the herd.

The August release of the Aus-tralian Breeding Values are now available at www.adhis.com.au

Genetic choices boosting profitsDPI study revises how cows eat their greens

Measuring pasture consumption correctly influences supplement purchases.

Greg Ault, Rochester, northern Vic, has used AI for 40 years.

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maNagEmENt

raChaeL CamPBeLL

JohN AND Jodie Martin have introduced a range of alternative forages alongside their rye grass on their Western Victorian property to help them manage risks associated with a variable climate.

The Martins milk about 180 cows on Wolverston Park at Irrewarra, near Colac.

Their farming system is based upon low to medium fertiliser inputs and, unlike most dairy farmers in the district they rely solely on home-grown feeds for their herd.

The Martins use a range of alternative forages to complement the ryegrass. These help fill feed gaps, make use of stored soil moisture and help to manage the risks associated with dairying in a marginal area.

During the past 15 years they have experienced significant rainfall declines but their farm can also get very wet.

The Martins shared their knowledge and experience with farmers and service providers during a field day organised by the Department of Primary Industries (DPI).

Rod Eldridge, from the DPI climate change team, discussed the risks and potential impacts of changing rainfall trends and longer periods of hot weather on stored soil moisture.

This got the audience thinking about how the changing weather patterns can really affect their farming practices.

Eldridge’s address also provided a great introduction into John Martin’s discussion about what they do on their farm to manage the risks associated with a variable climate.

Martin described some of the many different forage crops and pasture types they use, some of which have become regular components of their forage base, while others have failed and were not grown again.

He said forage choices depended upon the amount of moisture stored in the soil and the seasonal rainfall outlook.

Martin takes into account the species best suited to each particular

soil type on his farm.He has had success with

growing high-yielding maize crops on his sandy banks that in the past had plenty of deeply stored soil moisture.

For the past eight years the Martins did not grow maize due to insufficient subsoil moisture going into spring/summer.

They have tried many different types of forages including lucerne, phalaris, fescue, chicory, cereals, medics, swedes and some lesser known species, such as fodder beet mangels and Melilotus albus. Farmers at the field day quizzed Martin on how he fitted these unusual species into his whole farm system.

He said it had not always been dry soil profiles that caused concerns. Some soils are poorly drained and get wet, with some paddocks periodically becoming inland lakes.

This creates its own management challenges.

On one saline waterlogged area Martin has sown tall wheat grass and a little-used species, Melilotus albus. Melilotus albus provides a good source of protein and balances the nutritional qualities of the tall wheat grass, but could

become quite toxic under particular conditions.

Martin says while the mix was not generally valued as a nutritional crop choice, it worked well in this saline, heavy clay area where other species will not grow.

Martin says having several different species is a great way to manage risk but the management did become complex because of different establishment techniques and grazing management requirements.

He stressed that forward planning was one of the keys to managing risk and “don’t put all their eggs in the one basket.”

Notes from the workshop are available by contacting Rachael on (03) 5233 5507 or [email protected]

Rachael Campbell is a team member with Depart-ment of Primary Industries, Colac.

New forages spread risk in variable climate

John Martin plants alternative forages to reduce risk.

Forage choices depend upon the amount of soil moisture and rainfall outlook.

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maNagEmENt

ThE DAIRY RAPID Feed Analysis service will continue to be available to dairy farmers across Victoria and Tasmania due to popular demand.

Dairy Australia’s Grains2Milk program leader Dr Steve Little says the dairy feed testing service was now being offered by George We-ston Technologies after a successful 18-month trial the trial in northern and western Victoria proved it to be commercially viable.

“Feed test results mean you know what the

cows are really getting in their diet or exactly what a potential feed supplier is offering,” Lit-tle says.

The service provides an analysis of the most important nutrients including dry matter, me-tabolisable energy, crude protein, fat and ash for a range of feeds including pasture, silage, hay, straw, grains, meals and pellets.

“The RAPID Feed Analysis kits are simple and easy to use,” Little says.

“The information on the package is self ex-planatory and the samples get picked up by the tanker driver from the dairy.

“Most results are available within two days from George Weston Technologies and are sent via fax and email. The quick turnaround time means you can make decisions quickly.”

Little says farmers can also get help inter-preting test results by using the My Feed Report tool on the Dairy Australia website.

RAPID dairy feed test service to continue

VIcToRIAN DEpART-mENT of Primary Indus-tries (DPI) geneticists have developed a DNA marker test to pinpoint whether a cow or bull is responsible for any genetic glitches.

They already found the genes responsible for a slight defect in Australia’s Jersey cow herd.

Some Jersey calves are born with slightly turned snouts – known as squiffy.

The DPI test is able to determine if the sire or dam is the carrier of the defect.

DPI genomics expert Ben Hayes says the market test helps farmers tell if a bull or a cow is a carrier of the defect.

“As long as we’ve got DNA from the bulls, we can take DNA from a calf and match that very accurate-ly,” Hayes says.

The research, under-taken at the Victorian AgriBiosciences Centre at Bundoora, will help

improve the reliability of Jersey genomics and help detect defects.

The Australian Dairy Herd Improvement Scheme has been testing Jersey genomic breeding values with the new DNA data and recorded reli-ability increases of 27% up to 40% in yield traits from the parent average.

Dr Hayes, the DPI’s state-wide leader of computa-tional biology, says farmers need to more easily track cow genetics as their herds grow larger.

The information could also be used to prevent in-breeding in dairy herds.

He praised the involve-ment of Jersey breeders who assisted the research-ers in their work. A request for proven bull semen saw more than 400 straws submitted.

“It more than doubled the data set we had avail-able for Jerseys,” Dr Hayes says.

DPI delivers brown cow know-how in the hunt for ‘squiffy’

DAIRY FARmERS are being encouraged to think differ-ently when ordering artificial insemination (AI) straws this season: for every heifer replacement needed in the herd, order six straws.

In reviewing the number of replacements required, In-Calf’s Barry Zimmermann suggests farmers look three years ahead and decide how many replacement heifers they’ll need entering the herd.

“The number should include any extra heifers to expand the herd size or for sale or export,” Dr Zimmermann says.

“Then it’s just a simple rule of thumb – allow six straws for every replacement heifer.”

For example, a 400 cow herd with a 25% replacement rate will need 100 heifer replacements every year so 600 AI straws should be ordered to maintain the herd size.

This rule of thumb allows for a 50% conception rate, 10% loss of cows prior to calving (eg. pregnant cows that are culled for other reasons), 50% female calves, 5% loss of heifer calves prior to weaning, 5% loss of heifers prior to joining, 90% heifer conception rate, 3% losses prior to calving (deaths, slips) and 3% heifers exiting the herd in the first 30 days post calving.

“This approach helps you think about where you want the herd to be in three years time and ensures you’ll have enough replacement heifers without scratching around at the last minute buying extras,” Dr Zimmermann says.

The ADHIS website will soon have a simple calculator tool that allows the user to change the percentage rates of the various allowances for their herd.

For more information visit www.adhis.com.au

Six straws for each replacement heifer

The latest recommendation is that dairy farmers should order six straws for every replacement heifer they need.

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aNimal hEalth

By gordon CoLLie

ThERE IS a no smoking sign at the Trevor family dairy at Butchers Creek on the eastern edge of the Atherton Ta-bleland in far north Queensland.

They are taking no chances with passive smoke which could stress their cows and put a flawless milk quality record at risk.

Attention to small detail is the daily mantra for Des and Cheryl Trevor and their son Keith and his wife Cheyenne who take pride in their extraordinary reputation, achieved in one of the most challenging farming environments in Australia.

The risk of mastitis sky rockets in wet conditions and on this family farm in the tropical north the annual rainfall is measured in metres.

The Trevors have not suffered a sin-gle demerit penalty in the 11 years that two major milk quality awards have been running.

Keith Trevor is particularly proud of the fact that their herd has ranked in the top 100 in Australia in the Count-down Downunder program for the past five years – during which they have en-dured two cyclones, Larry and Yasi.

Their efforts have also been recog-nized in the Dairy Farmers Milk Co-op-erative annual awards for milk quality since their inception.

The family takes absolutely no chances when it comes to putting their reputation at risk, keeping their milk cell count so low that any spike is not going to cause them grief.

Quality penalties kick in when the bulk milk somatic cell count goes above 200,000. The cell count of their herd sits in the range of 80,000 to 90,000.

“We are onto any cow with mastitis before the milk goes in the vat. Starting antibiotics at the very first sign of trou-ble gives us a better treatment success rate,” Keith says.

Their success is based on doing lots of little things right. They stick to a strict milking routine, which is person-ally overseen – no relief milkers are employed.

“Every day, twice a day, there can be no slip-ups. We monitor our milk test results very closely and keep right on top of any little problems.”

The milking routine starts with a thorough washing of every teat and the careful application of hibitane-based spray. Every quarter of every cow is strip tested daily.

“We know every cow in our herd so well, I can tell pretty much if anything is amiss without looking at their milk,”

Keith says extra time taken to be thoroughly vigilant when milking their herd of 100 to 120 cows was well worth it.

“Our reputation is on the line every time the milk tanker pulls out the gate,” Keith says.

The Trevors are rela-tive newcomers to dairy-ing with Des starting out in farming growing sugarcane at Gordonvale on the nearby coastal strip.

He managed dairy properties in the late 1980s before buying their 125ha property in the early 1990s. Keith has been dairying since he joined his father in 1996.

“We started with 60 cows and are just about at capacity with just a bit more development to be done which would help reduce our fertiliser costs,” Keith says.

“We get a lot of rain and have cold winters and hot sum-mers which makes it fairly difficult. It’s nothing to get six or 10 inches of rain in one hit. We tend to count the number of fine days.”

Topaz just down the road is one of the wet-test spots in Australia, recording almost 3.4 metres of rain in Janu-ary to July this year.

Ironically, their main feed staple ryegrass crop benefits from irri-gation, at the start of the

season. The chocolate loam soil is ex-tremely porous and even heavy rainfall quickly disappears.

Rye with a clover mix provides the bulk of feed from April through to Oc-tober when the self seeded tropical pas-ture seteria takes over.

“Seteria provides pretty good feed if you keep it short and fertilised, al-though it doesn’t hurt to let it go to seed every now and again.”

Mainly foliar fertilisers with trace element mix are used to get rapid plant nutrient absorption. Granular prod-ucts are prone to being lost with regu-lar, heavy rainfall.

Keith says there is just too high a risk of rain to make hay which they buy in from drier parts of the Atherton Ta-bleland. They don’t have any silage, relying on a grain-based ration fed at an average 4.5 kg/day to supplement pasture.

After suffering extraordinary dam-age with long loss of power during cy-clone Larry five years ago the family invested in a big generator to be com-pletely self sufficient for electricity in emergencies.

It was put to good use in the after-math of Cyclone Yasi which struck in early 2011.

“We are still feeling the effects of Yasi with our milk production well down. Our pastures have been very slow to recover,” Keith says.

The foundations of their milk qual-

ity record are laid in the genetic selec-tion of cattle to perform in their wet, muddy environment.

They have had registered herds of Holsteins and Jerseys and Keith did show Trevaleigh Jerseys for a number of years, but now their focus is on com-mercial production.

“We still look for style and produc-tion and have a number of purebreds in the herd,” Keith says.

Over the past six years Brown Swiss have been introduced and have become a favourite.

“They are big, tough cows which per-form really well in our conditions.

“Our cattle have to be able to walk well, have good feet and legs and be structurally sound. Wet, muddy condi-tions really soften their feet. We look for a foot with shape and good heel depth,” Keith says.

While their walking tracks can get very muddy, they dry out quickly and get regular maintenance and shaping with a blade to maximize water runoff.

“We put a lot of work into making the environment as healthy and stress free for our cattle as we can and take pride in our achievements,” Keith says.

Family pride in flawless milk quality record

Who: trevor family WhErE: Butchers Creek What: Milk quality

Keith Trevor on his family’s Far North Queensland property. The Trevors have not suffered a single demerit penalty in the 11 years that two major milk quality awards have been running.

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consists of a bit of rusty steel with a homemade headlock.

There are many older facilities on smaller farms or at out blocks or dry paddocks that are nothing more than “widow makers”.

I have seen it all - from ramshackle wooden numbers held together with string and a prayer to full hydraulic custom designed numbers that make the handling of cattle a breeze.

Well it is time for all dairy farmers to step back and have a look at the crush and yards that you are using and asking your vet to work in.

The crush is our workplace, and believe it or not, OH & S rules apply to vets too.

With spring calving underway, I know for sure that it is only a matter of time before some dairy cocky will ring me up and expect me to calve a cow in a slippery mud yard, or catch that wild heifer behind a gate tied with baling twine to deliver the calf or attempt a caesarian with the cow tied to a post because the “crush” that they have is totally inadequate for the job that is required of it.

I am speaking on behalf of the members of the Australian Cattle Veterinarians when I say that enough is enough.

Cattle vets are sick and tired of working in substandard facilities.

The ACV is looking at a project that will outline the standards of the crush and yards that are acceptable for our members to work in.

We will be encouraging our members to perform a risk assessment on the facilities that we are being asked to work in and if there is not a safe work environment, or if the work practices cannot be modified to make the workplace safe, we will be recommending that vets just walk away.

Clearly this is not what we would want.

Vets enter the profession to prevent pain and suffering of animals, but over the years, many farmers have taken this dedication for granted and asked or even insisted that we risk long term, career ending injuries in order to get a job done faster or “easier” in poor facilities or

in areas of the dairy that have been designed for another purpose.

One example that really sticks in my craw is when the OH &S rules regarding fuel storage tanks or the requirement for blow pipes on silos changed.

Those safety improvements were made with barely a whimper at the cost of thousands of dollars and these changes are purely related to safety.

Yet improvements to the yards and crush will not only make for a safer workplace for vets and farm workers and employees, it will also improve the welfare and health of the herd which is one of the dairy farmer’s biggest assets.

When talking with my beef vet colleagues, they express amazement at how little pre-mating or pre-sale bull testing is done on dairy bulls.

The only real reason that dairy vets are not recommending bull testing for our clients is that most of the dairy farms that we service do not have yards and a crush that would allow us to safely examine and collect a semen sample from a cranky dairy breed bull.

When my beef colleagues test bulls, up to 20% will fail one or more critical tests related to fertility so it makes good sense for dairy vets to be testing bulls.

Just imagine if 20% of the bulls you are putting out with the girls are not up to par?

I would suggest that it wouldn’t take long to recoup the cost of investment in a decent crush and set of yards on this saving alone.

So as you get the cows in tonight, give a bit of thought as to how you could improve the handling facilities at your farm, or even better, involve your local dairy vet in the discussion to ensure a safer and more productive workplace for us all.

Rob Bonanno is president of the Australian Cattle Veterinarians Association and a director of the Shepparton Veterinary Clinic

aNimal hEalth

There are many older facilities on smaller farms or out blocks that are nothing more than “widow makers”.

I WAS talking with a small group of colleagues at a recent conference discussing various issues facing cattle veterinarians when it occurred to me that in the group we had two with busted elbows, one with a crook shoulder and one with a chronic back injury.

The conversation then moved on to the causes of our various ailments and the one consistent theme was the poor handling facilities that veterinarians are asked by farmers to

work in on an almost daily basis.

What never ceases to amaze me is how often I go to dairy facilities that would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to build, yet the crush

Improve handling facilities or risk refusal

Mark Rovers, Congupna, Dave Gordon, Undera, Graham Sudholz, Coprice, Kotupna, and Shepparton vet Rob Bonanno at the easy calving workshop held by the Young Dairy Development Program last month.

aNimal hEalthrob boNaNNo

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Liz CoTTon

AFTER JUST four years at the helm of her west-ern Victorian dairy operation, Jennifer Hand has achieved her aim of lowering her annual average bulk milk cell count (BMCC) to less than 100,000.

In doing so, the Larpent farmer is among the top 100 dairy farms across the country recog-nised in the 2011 Dairy Australia Countdown Milk Quality Awards.

Hand says the key to achieving the result has been twofold.

“I know each of my cows individually and I know their patterns, so I can detect any irregu-larities straight away,” she says.

“It’s something that can be missed by farm workers who do not know the cows so well.

“I also send individual cow samples to my supplier, War-rnambool Cheese and Butter, every second day for testing and keep detailed records of the re-sults.”

Hand says the free service offered by WCB has been “in-valuable” in early detection and treatment and urges other WCB dairies to take advantage of the service.

Not long after moving to Lar-pent in the prime Victorian dairy region of Colac, Hand’s cows were experiencing problems with mastitis and she sought advice from her parents, former dairy farmers, and the local dairy community as well as her veterinarian and WCB factory field staff.

Her bulk milk cell count results speak for themselves and she has since pushed her yearly average down to just 96,000 from 106,000 last

year and 109,000 the previous year. Her involvement in the dairy industry spans

more than two decades, despite being just 27 years old. Working alongside her parents on dairy farms at Simpson and Mount Moriac, it was 2007 when the opportunity came along to go it alone with the pur-chase her 60 hectare Lar-pent dairy.

She says having parents in the industry is always a big leg up,

“It’s particularly hard – not impossible – but certainly challenging for young people to break into the industry without that family involve-ment, or capital behind you.”

The property will accommodate around 94 milkers this year after calving, milked by Hand

or her parents when they visit, in the 13-aside dairy.

She has also recently leased another out-paddock and hopes to expand the herd to around 130 cows, “which is still manageable for me,” she says.

One look at the herd of glossy, contented Jersey cows and it is clear that they don’t suffer from a lack of attention and care.

“Most of my girls wear rugs to ward off the cold, wet weather and I still show quite a few when time permits.

“I feel that it’s really important to give them the right royal treatment because they do the

hard work and produce the milk for me,” she says.

Extensive but cost-effective pasture renova-tion has also been undertaken since Hand pur-chased the property, with a focus on strip graz-

ing lucerne and silage production.Decisions are made depending on seasonal

conditions, but the lucerne will last up to ten years.

She is also a seasoned competitor and went to her first show at just three. At age eleven, she

started up her own jersey stud.

One of her most suc-cessful show bulls, the now ten-year-old Glen-brae-blood `Royal Rum’ remains undefeated in the jersey show ring.

And if milking, preparing show cows and spending time on her AI work wasn’t enough, she also has a successful beef operation com-prising Red Angus, Black Angus, Poll Hereford and Miniature Herefords, which are located on her parent’s adjoining property on the other side of the road.

The busy, hands-on farmer, who works around the clock seven-days-a-week, has only recently taken a back seat from her industry in-volvement with the Australian Jersey Breeders Society, of which she was a committee member for four years.

“It’s hard to get away every month for meet-ings when it’s mostly just me on the farm,” she says.

But she has recently employed one other part-time worker to help on weekends with farm maintenance jobs.

“It’s been great to have someone else to help out with the heavy work but it can be difficult sourcing good, reliable labour - especially when weekend or out-of-hours’ work is involved,” she says.

Hand says the support she has received from the local dairy farming community around Co-lac has been invaluable with neighbours on-call to help if ever the need arises.

Advice and attention to detail reduce cell count

Who: Jennifer Hand WhErE: Larpent What: Low cell count

She has pushed her annual bulk milk cell count average down to just 96,000 this year.

IN UDDER WORDS...

Calf scours? Take action nowCoopers® Animal Health has reminded farmers of the need to take quick action at the first sign of calf scours. Technical Services Vet Damian O’Brien said that it is critical for farmers to ensure calves stay well hydrated, as dehydration can kill young calves very quickly.“Scours can be time consuming and costly, with lost future production from either the death of calves or depressed growth rates. Rehydrating immediately with electrolytes can save a young calf,” Dr O’Brien said.“Keeping the calf alive and protecting your future production is the critical first step, but then it’s important to look at the causes of the outbreak, so you can both treat and prevent future outbreaks,” he said.“Proper diagnosis of the cause is the beginning of a plan.”Dr O’Brien said that Coopers can help identify the specific cause of calf scours on your farm.“A Coopers advisor can run a simple calf side test which will diagnose most causes of scours on farm in just 15 minutes, helping farmers to move to prevention programs immediately,” he said.This season, Coopers is encouraging farmers to not only take immediate action when calf scours occurs, but to also move to diagnosis and implementing long term solutions.As well as hydrating sick calves with electrolytes, calf scours management involves:• Reviewing management to

ensure newborn calves receive adequate colostrum

• Discussing with your vet whether antibiotics are required

• Managing ventilation and hygiene in the calf housing area

• Vaccination for future prevention where indicated

Many producers don’t realise just how much calf scours costs when reduced growth, calf deaths, diagnosis and treatment costs are added up. Coopers investigation found that a typical herd of 200 with an 18% incidence was losing $5200 a year due to calf scours.

For immediate action to diagnose the cause of your calf scours outbreak call Coopers on 1800 885 576 or talk to your local vet.® Registered Trademark


aNimal hEalth

IT IS not rocket science, but science can help. When mothers give birth and ba-bies are born, a lot of things can go wrong.

Some things can’t be avoided, such as needing the vet to assist calvings where the calf is deformed or presented wrong. But most things are prevent-able, with the help of a bit of experience and science.

New Zealand-based vet Fanny Leduc likes the old adage ‘prevention is better than cure’. At the heart of that belief is the preventa-tive role veterinarians can play in managing animal

health – particularly during the challenges and trials of spring.

Leduc says mastitis, lameness, metabolic prob-lems, non-cyclers and calf health are common issues on farms nationwide at this time of year.

“A lot of farmers still use vets as a reactive means. With tighter margins on farms, as well as pressure to produce better quality milk, improve environmen-tal impacts and animal wel-fare, the future for farmers and vets is increasingly in a consultancy role, using us as a preventative, proactive measure.

“Even a simple thing like introducing records to monitor animal health will save our time and be more cost-effective.

“The cost of a two hour consultation will be easily made up with one or two fewer mastitis or lameness cases.”

Originally from Canada, Leduc is now in her seventh year as a dairy vet in Repo-roa, New Zealand.

prevention better than cureLeduc says risks associated with down cows, prolapsed uterus, ketosis, retained af-terbirth, mastitis, lameness and calf scours have been well-documented.

“By making sure these risk factors are controlled or eliminated you mini-mise their negative im-pacts on animal health. By keeping on top of scientific developments, vets and consultants can help you manage them.

“For example, calving cows are at risk of meta-bolic problems such as milk fever, grass staggers, ketosis, as well as masti-tis, retained afterbirth and metritis. These conditions have several risk factors in common.”

To help assess and man-age some of those factors, vets have varying pro-grammes. One that Leduc’s clinic has in place is a four-visits-per-year package that looks largely at min-eral status of cows.

“The pre-calving visit includes blood testing cows and incoming heifers for trace minerals (copper, se-lenium and cobalt) as well as magnesium. Herbage tests are done in order to foresee any mineral or en-ergy deficiency from pas-ture early in the season.”

Using this information and past experience on the farm, the vets can then draw up a nutritional and mineral supplementation plan that suits the herd.

A colostrum visit in-volves blood sampling some freshly-calved cows to make sure the plan is working.

“By checking calcium and energy levels we can tell if the cows are transi-tioning well from springers to milkers, and manage-ment changes can be made if needed.”

Failing to plan is planning to failHaving a plan for dealing with various animal health situations will reduce stress on people and cows.

“Even if all the risk fac-tors are being controlled, you will still have the odd lame cow or case of masti-tis.

“Everyone on-farm should know how to rec-ognise problems and how to handle them. The plan should cover basic things like mastitis detection and treatment protocols, to more extreme situations such as where to take the stock for shelter in case of a major storm or flood.”

Vets are involved on dairy farms by planning which drugs are best suit-ed, designing protocols, or offering staff training mod-ules.

Information gatheringHow many cases of masti-tis, retained afterbirth or calf scours have been treat-ed last spring? How many is too many? How easy is it to find out the information?

“While we can answer those questions by looking up product purchases on our computer system, now a lot of dairy farmers can gather this information themselves, and retrieve it at the push of a button if necessary,” says Leduc.

“If there’s good data and record keeping on a farm, we know where we are starting from, as it’s really hard to monitor without that information.”

Having good processes, communication and gear ready ahead of time will make dealing with prob-lems less stressful. Record keeping, especially in an electronic format, will make it easier to identify and fix problems.

Prevention is better than cure

Fanny Leduc (right) believes vets can play a role in managing animal health, particularly during the challenges and trials of spring.

“Even a simple thing like introducing records to monitor animal health will save our time and be more cost-effective.”

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aNimal hEalth

LARGER hERDS, higher stock-ing rates, heavy traffic areas on laneways and around troughs and the use of calving pads are all contributing to an increas-ing incidence of environmental mastitis caused by Streptococ-cus uberis bacteria.

Dairy Australia’s Countdown Downunder project leader, Dr John Penry, says mastitis caused by Strep. uberis had been in-creasing in Australia and New Zealand to the point where 60-70% of mastitis infections where a pathogen can be cul-tured in the lab are caused by the bacteria.

“Strep. uberis is found in cat-tle manure and can survive for

up to two weeks in fresh dung or contaminated mud and straw,” Dr Penry says.

A number of factors are contributing to the growing prevalence of Strep. uberis infections.

“The management of dairy herds has changed significantly in recent years, creating an en-vironment where cows have increased exposure to Strep. uberis.

“Farms are running larger herds on bigger farms and using higher stocking rates, resulting in heavy traffic areas such as laneways, gateways and around water troughs.

“Management changes also

now include calving pads and loafing areas on some farms.

“Transition management now means we can have cows dripping milk before calving. The teat canal is open when the cow lies down to calve and can be exposed to mud and manure.”

The key to controlling Strep. uberis involves minimising en-vironmental exposure and con-trolling the cow to cow trans-mission.

Dr Penry says Strep. uberis needed to be controlled across three stages of the lactation – at

drying off, over the transition period and during lactation.

At drying off cows should be treated with an antibiotic dry cow therapy to remove existing infection and prevent infections early in the dry period before the teat canal seals.

During the second stage – transition and calving – the aim is to minimise the exposure of susceptible cows to faecal mate-rial and maximise cow immu-nity.

Most infections occur within the first few weeks of calving when a cow’s natural defences are low and the udder has been in contact with mud and manure during calving.

“It’s important to ensure that cows are milked as close to calv-ing as possible and to monitor closely for signs of clinical mas-titis,” Dr Penry says.

During the third stage –lac-tation –the aim is to minimise teat end damage and reduce the incidence of bacteria on the teat skin. Important practices for preventing the spread of in-fection include putting cups on clean dry teats and taking cups off carefully, post milking teat disinfection and milking ma-chine maintenance.

“It’s worth talking to your ad-visor about environment mas-titis as an effective control pro-gram can take more than a year.”

Environmental mastitis increasing

PhiLLiPa hedLey

ThE moST important mineral for dry cows is magnesium. This plays an important role in milk fever prevention (calcium deficiency) as it is required for the production of hor-mones important for the absorption of calcium (Ca) from the gut and the mobi-lisation of Ca from bones.

Supplementing with magnesium daily for two-three weeks pre-calving will reduce the risk of milk fever. How-ever, it does not build up a store of magnesium in the cow.

Magnesium sul-phate (MagS) and chloride (MagC) are more effective at preventing milk fever than magnesium oxide (Causmag). Unfortunately they are difficult to feed because they are bitter and not very soluble.

Pre-calving add 60g magnesium sulphate per cow into the water trough daily (introduce it gradually for up to one week), but also dust the pasture (or silage) with 60-70g Causmag per cow each day.

Supplementing with magnesium needs to con-tinue after calving, until spring growth rates have slowed (around December) to ensure that milk produc-tion is not compromised and to prevent grass stag-gers (grass tetany).

However, you can also give too much magnesium, which can cause scour-ing and poor absorption of other nutrients. So it is im-portant to know how much you are giving your cows and how much they actu-ally need.

calciumSupplementation with cal-cium (Ca) immediately af-ter calving ensures the cow absorbs enough calcium to prevent milk fever. In most cases it is important that calcium supplements are not started before calving, as its presence in a preg-nant cow’s diet reduces the absorption of Ca. The risk of milk fever is greater in these situations.

After calving, provide 150g/cow of finely ground limestone (lime flour) daily

during the colostrum peri-od – double this rate if dust-ing. An alternative would be to add lime flour to sup-plement or to feed calcium-enriched molasses.

mineralsTrace element supplemen-tation for at least two weeks precalving is important to avoid health disorders around calving. The impor-tant elements are copper, cobalt, selenium, iodine and zinc.

otherConsider using starter drenches on high-risk cows at calving. These include 7+ year-old cows, cows fatter than BCS 5.5, or cows with a history of metabolic prob-lems.

Cows affected by facial eczema need extra atten-tion. At calving treat with an energy starter drench, vitamin B12 and vitamins A, D, E.

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minerals part of a balancing act

Supplementing with magnesium pre-calving will reduce milk fever risk.

Strep. uberis can survive for up to two weeks in fresh dung-contaminated mud.


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RoN mILLER and his fam-ily milk 700 cows at Ath-lone, between Drouin and Poowong in central Gipps-land, on a 50 unit rotary that was installed 10 years ago at the time of deregula-tion.

They are big grain feed-ers for their cows, feeding 10kg per cow, per day of wheat, lupins and canola meal in the milking shed.

But the Athlone property is not well suited to cropping and is really just used for grazing, with “a bit of summer crops to renovate the pastures”, as Ron says.

“When we started pay-ing $400/tonne for grain we decided that we needed to look around for our own grain-growing property.”

So, to guarantee feed for their herd, they acquired a 666 hectare cropping prop-erty at Cosgrove, just east of Shepparton, about 2½ years ago when the number of cows they were then milking was doubled.

The property was for-merly the home of Goul-burn Valley Stockfeeds so it came with extensive shed-ding, lots of silos and even a weighbridge.

It’s been a well-planned and successful decision – last year they sowed 600ha down to wheat and aver-aged four tonnes per hec-tare.

The Miller dairy enter-prise now encompasses 332ha on what were once six different dairy farms.

All of Ron and wife Jan Tina’s four sons, Ronnie, Alan, Jonathon and David, work on the dairy.

On the Gippsland property, the Millers had used a Pegoraro three metre power harrow with a pneumatic seeder

mounted on top that they had purchased through Derek Genoni at Gendore Tractors and Machinery in Tooradin.

So last season they took it up to Cosgrove and found that the results were ex-tremely rewarding com-pared with direct drilled crops.

Alan maintains that an increased yield of three tonnes to the hectare in places is down to using the three metre power har-rows.

The Pegoraro brand has now evolved to Alpego, an Italian agricultural ma-chinery company located between Venice and Ve-rona.

When Gendore took along a six metre folding Alpego power harrow and Alpego AS3 plus air seeder combination to this year’s Farm World at Warragul, Ron decided that it would

be a good investment. The DX-600 TWIN

FORCE machine has two rotors mounted on tapered bearings held together by a single support.

This design creates a high clearance under the trough, which in turn guar-antees high reliability and performance.

Derek Genoni says this unit was the first six me-tre Alpego power harrow/seeder combination in Aus-tralia.

Ron had a front linkage

bar fabricated overnight to carry the seed hopper on the front of their New Hol-land T7040.

The unit was delivered just as everyone in the re-gion was seeding, which was a little later than Ron would have liked but so far they have seeded 600 hectares of wheat and 300 hectares of lupins.

They have grown up to 1800 tonne of grain each year since their move to Cosgrove and this year they sold their excess

wheat grain to buy in lu-pins, which accounts for the decision to plant lupins this time.

The Alpego combination is a radical change to the traditional systems used for seeding in the district, and with a very wet year many farmers have had to leave some areas un-touched as tractors were getting bogged.

But with the Millers’ Al-pego sitting on the three point linkage they were able to seed the wettest ar-eas without a hassle.

“In May we did the whole place with the six metre power harrows to level out the tractor tracks, trenches and where the header got bogged,” Alan says.

“That’s 200 hectares

that we wouldn’t have got onto, and other patches that I didn’t think I’d get over. It glided over the lot.”

They say that the six me-tre unit has performed ex-ceptionally well, but their New Holland T7040 strug-gles to lift it when turning at headlands. “It’s just not big enough!”

Ron believes that if he replicates the yields from last year in the trial area he will have the unit paid off quickly.

They have used a Semea-to drill for the past two sea-sons and will continue with it in drier years and on the smoother paddocks.

They are in the process of purchasing a further 655 acres in Katandra about ten kilometres away, to assist

with crop rotations.In 1998 Ron trialled a

New Holland 4’ x 3’ large square baler at Athlone, making 630 bales at that time and has stuck with New Holland tractors and balers since. He is enthusi-astic about the brand.

“We ordered a New Hol-land 8260 tractor, a 1010 large square baler and a Tanco large square bale wrapper, and started off with all three in 1999.

“We went from taking two months to do our own work, to less than a week, so we then did a bit of con-tracting.”

The NH1010 made 11,000 large square bales three years in a row.

“There’s been days when I’ve done 500 bales”, Ron says.

They did 6000 bales this year, of which 5000 were silage from mixed pasture. They now concentrate on their own silage, still look-ing after some neighbours, but not as much as they have previously when they had 32 contracting custom-ers.

A New Holland BB940 large square baler joined the fleet four years ago, and it was trucked up to Cosgrove a couple of years ago with the idea of baling straw.

“I started at 8pm and finished at 8am, with 606 bales,” Ron says.

They now have five New Holland tractors, the two balers and a CR9070 header with a 36’ Honeybee front.

• 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]

Power harrows lift yields for grain crops

The Alpego combination is a radical change to the traditional systems used for seeding in the district.

Who: Ron Miller WhErE: Athlone What: Pneumatic seeder

WorkiNg clothESchriS diNglE

Ron and Alan Miller with the family’s Alpego power harrow and Alpego AS3 air seeder.

Ron Miller had a front linkage bar fabricated to carry the seed hopper on the front of their New Holland T7040.

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ALAN kIRSTEN at Agriview reports that tractor sales rose 6% in the second quarter of 2011 compared with the same period last year in a solid result.

Almost 2800 new tractors were delivered in Australia for April-June. This is down on the record result for the same period in 2009 when second quarter sales peaked at 3650, driven by the Federal Government’s stimulus package.

“Down-the-line suppliers of components to machinery manufacturers in North America and Europe have not had a chance to get back on track since the global financial cri-sis and that is constraining the ability to build machinery,” Kirsten says.

“It’s a simple fact that if you are planning to invest in machinery in the next 12 months, you must be speaking to dealers now as supply is very tight.”

Five row-crop models from John DeereJohn Deere says its new 7R Series tractors (pictured right) will be available towards the end of this year, focusing on increased power, versatility, capacity and improved opera-tor comfort.

The five new models range from 200 to 280 horsepower using the new Interim Tier 4 EGR PowerTech engine and feature fully automatic infinitely variable Transmission.

John Deere marketing manager Jarrod McGinnis says these new tractors represent the next generation of power in an easy-to-operate, performance-driven row-crop trac-tor from John Deere.

The 7 series tractors are claimed to have the versatility to handle the tillage, planting, hay making, loader work and many other tough jobs around the farm.

“The 7R Series Tractors are completely new from the ground up,” McGinnis says.

“They are designed for the producer who needs a more versatile tractor that has more kilowatt power, more fuel capacity, and greater hitch-lift capacity in order to handle larger implements and be more productive in the field.

“At the same time, we’ve integrated cutting edge tech-nologies into these tractors to deliver improved fuel effi-ciency.”

Gardners win $5000 prizeCavendish mixed farmers Robert and Jill Gardner won first prize of $5000 in the Vicseeds $5000 Cash Giveaway, where farmers had to buy a bag of either Avalon or Avalon AR1 perennial ryegrass and send in the certified tag.

“I was really looking for a perennial ryegrass that would persist and also not cause ryegrass staggers which has been an issue in the past,” Gardner says.

Gardner decided to choose Avalon AR1 as it was locally bred for persistence and contains the safe AR1 endophyte.

“I was really impressed by the work done by the Ham-ilton DPI with the Evergraze Project, and there were very positive results from that project for Avalon, so it was a fairly easy choice to sow Avalon AR1 this year”. Gardner sowed 125 hectares of Avalon AR1 in a mix with two sub clovers, and it has established very well in cold and wet conditions.

Windmill Ag expansionJason Henry, dealer principal at Windmill Ag in Meeniyan, tells us that they are all very excited about their impending move to large new ‘state-of-the-art’ premises next door to the Koonwarra saleyards at Leongatha South.

The move has been brought about by expansion of their business, which is not surprising seeing that they now have fourteen service staff.

The big opening day is Friday September 9, so mark it in your diary if you’re in that part of Gippsland.

Jason says they will have great deals on Kuhn hay and si-lage machinery as well as John Deere mower-conditioners. And stand by for the release of John Deere’s new 6R, 7R, 8R and 9R tractors soon.

Henry says business has only been steady at the dealer-ship, mainly because of the extraordinary rainfall in the region. They are now taking orders for this hay and silage season as their forward-looking inventory policy means that they have machines in stock.

Taking the market by Storm From the people over at Lely comes the news of their new Lely Storm 130 P trailed forage harvester. They say that although it’s new to Lely, it has been proven over many years in Europe as a product of Mengele Agrartechnic AG. High capacity in combination with low maintenance would make this machine attractive to contractors and

large farmers.The 1800 mm wide pick-up has five tine bars with a tine

spacing of only 54 mm.Four intake rollers are claimed to create maximum com-

pression and a reliable and even in-feed of the crop.The Profi model is equipped with an electronic metal

detector on one of the intake rollers to shut down immedi-ately when a metal object is detected.

The 1300mm flywheel with ten knives and five blowing paddles maximises chopping quality and provides a pow-erful and rapid filling of the trailers.

Lely says low horsepower requirements for chopping and transporting the crop results in significant fuel saving

thanks to the huge flywheel.

The unique onboard hydraulic system provides an inde-pendent, accurate oil flow.

A built-in oil pump with its own oil reservoir supplies the hydraulic power for raising the pick-up and reversing the drive and spout rotation.

All parts of the system are fully integrated with electro-hydraulic in-cab controls, to help reduce operator fatigue on long working days.

Contact Chris on 0417 735 001 or email [email protected]

Australian tractor sales rise

NEW productSchriS diNglE



ThE NEW series of Aussie Scud high pressure water blasters will be dis-played at country shows and field days this year.

Manufacturer Australian Pump says the Scuds produce more pres-sure combined with less flow in order to get cleaning tasks done faster and with less water.

The heart of the system is a ‘Big Berty’ Bertolini

triplex pump with ceramic pistons and s t a i n l e s s steel valves.

Scuds are

powered by Honda industrial petrol engines or Yanmar diesel engines with slow speed gearbox drive for smoother operation.

Japanese brand engines have been selected because of their reliability, quality and ease of servicing.

The Aussie Scud features an ergo-nomic galvanised frame which Aus-tralian Pump says is finely balanced to enable operators to move it easily on site.

There is also easy access for rou-tine pump and engine maintenance.

Other products on display this year include the release of the new Aussie QP3310 gusher range.

“This is the 3” pump that thinks it’s a 4” pump,” Aus-tralian Pump’s Adrian Fia-tarone says.

The new 3” pump offers flows of up to 1600

lpm and pres-sures up to 100 psi or 70m head.

The com-pany achieved

this by design-ing a range of

volute impeller c o n f i g u r a t i o n s

that enable the big pump to deliver maximum efficiency right though the range.

“Like all our Aussie Quik Prime line the new big 3” pump self primes, first time every time,” Fiatarone says.

It can operate with a suction line down as low as 7.6 metres.

The new pump features all of the Aussie Quik Prime features includ-ing five-year warranty, huge inte-grated priming tank and both open and closed impellers.

Depending on the configurations chosen, it is capable of operating in dewatering, water cart, spray irriga-tion or high pressure water transfer duties.

Other new products including an upgraded version of the Aussie Fire Chief, a light weight portable fire pump, diesel drive versions of pres-sure cleaners and a wider range of agricultural spray equipment will also be on display.

The range of Aussie Poly pumps for liquid fertiliser handling has also been extended. The range now in-corporates 2” and 3” pumps capable of handling flows of up to 1100 litres per minute.

The full product range is avail-able at www.aussiepumps.com.au

kUboTA TRAcToR has released a new version of its RTV util-ity vehicle range.

The new RTV900XT models are based on the pre-vious RTV900 model released first to the Australian market in 2006.

The new RTV mod-els come standard with a rollover protec-tive structure (ROPS) and seat belts for op-erator safety.

The RTV900XT is powered by a Kubota tier 4 compliant die-sel engines matched to Kubota’s innovative VHT transmission.

This variable hydrostatic transmission means that when the operator puts the ma-chine to work under heavy load conditions a secondary hydraulic pump opens to sup-ply more torque to the wheels and power through the task at hand.

In the RTV900XT, the VHT Plus2, hy-drostatic transmission is upgraded with bigger capacity pumps and motors to better perform in the toughest conditions.

A key feature of this type of transmis-sion is its ability to safely control downhill movement through the transmission.

The dynamic braking of the VHT means

that operators can slow the vehicle down using the foot pedal.

As the pedal is re-leased the transmis-sion brakes the vehicle and if the operator removes his foot com-pletely, the vehicle will come to a controlled stop on level ground and on hills depend-ing on the slope.

For serviceabil-ity and durability, new stronger drive shafts and grease points have been added to prolong

the life of the new RTV900XT.Beside the VHT the RTV900 offers sev-

eral other features including hydrostatic power steering, selectable 2WD or 4WD, 590kg towing capacity, 500kg carrying capacity in the tipping cargo box which is hydraulically tipped in worksite model.

A new wraparound front grille guard gives better protection to the headlights and front of the RTV.

Operator comfort has been improved with a softer moulded seat with a full length wider backrest.

A range of accessories is available from Kubota dealers to fit to the RTV900XT models of utility vehicles.

Tel. 1800 334 653

Scud water blasters hit local field days circuit

Increased driver safety in new kubota RTVs

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LELY AUSTRALIA will release three new variable chamber round balers in time for the hay season.

The new balers in the Lely Welger RP 415 and RP 445 series produce bales with diameters ranging from 0.90-1.6m and have been trialled to suit Australian farming conditions.

Test machines have been trialled in all types of hay and silage conditions across Australia for the past two years. The information gained from these trials has contributed to the development of the new balers.

The major difference between the previous Lely Welger RP 420 and RP 435 series and the latest Lely Welger RP 415 and RP 445 series is in the configuration of the pressing chamber which allows the balers to achieve a higher compaction pressure, which can be better controlled.

An extra roller has also been added to the pressing chamber, improving the start-up of a new bale.

The Opticlean rollers have been upgraded improving the performance of the Lely Welger RP 445 in silage operations.

As a result, the new net wrap coverage is wider giving the bale a more proficient finish.

Some new features have also been added, including 2.25 metre “free running pick-ups” without cam track.

These pick-ups are fitted with five tine bars which

comprise of new tines.Lely says the Welger RP

415 baler is suited for the farmer market for baling dry material such as hay and straw and some silage.

Its features are simple to use and include a cam less pickup and rotor feed and the base Control-E monitor.

The RP 445 series is available in two main versions. The standard RP 445 is a rotor feed version

without the cutting device but still with the Lely Welger Hydro-flexcontrol feed channel floor with cam less pickup as standard equipment.

This baler is suitable for users who have large farms and contractors that do not have the need to chop the hay and silage but like the output of the RP 445 Master.

The more extensive RP 445 Master version also features the Hydro-flex control feed channel floor and comes with the Mastercut13 chopping system standard.

This model can be optioned with Xtracut 17 or Xtracut 25 cutting device which give a shorter cut length for some silage conditions.

Lely says the new baler design links up with both the Lely Welger RP 245 and the RPC 445 Tornado.

Tel. (03) 5484 4000

coomA bASED fencing contrac-tor Dan Ward has more than dou-bled the amount of gateways he can build in a day by using Wara-tah Ezyslot strainers and Adjusta-Stay.

These Waratah end assemblies have enabled Ward to say goodbye to using much heavier concrete or timber strainers and steel pipe that needs to be cut on site and then morticed to make a stay.

“They’re unreal to put up – I can do five gateways a day by my-self with these Ezyslots and Ad-justa-Stays, whereas before even working with someone we’d only get one done in a day most of the time,” he says.

“With timber strainers you have to dig a big hole and bust your guts getting them in and you might only get two strainers in your vehi-cle at a time, but you can get 20 of these Ezyslots in the back of your vehicle at a time without a worry.”

He says the adjustability of War-

atah’s Adjusta-Stay make it ideal for use in basalt and other soils that are notoriously unstable.

“Having that threaded rod means you can wind the stay in or out to make your post sit properly and if the soil moves, you can ad-just it down the track without hav-ing to reseat your strainer,” he says.

Since last year, Ward has erect-ed close to 500 end assemblies using the Ezyslot/Adjusta-Stay combination, mostly to enlarge gateways in readiness for large machinery to be used in building Country Energy’s new Bega-to-Cooma powerline.

While Ezyslot posts still need to be driven up to 900mm deep, they don’t require holes to be dug, unlike timber or concrete strainers do.

Ward says the slimmer dimen-sions and pointed end of the Ezys-lot mean it can nearly always be banged in with a pneumatic post driver alone, rather than having to

dig holes by hand or with heavy-duty pneumatic or PTO driven tools.

“The beautiful thing about us-ing the Ezyslot and Adjusta-Stay products is they’re failsafe. It all locks together as a unit, and you’re not relying on a stayrock that can move where you don’t want it to

and then let your strainer move.“If the Adjusta-Stay moves you

can see what’s gone wrong and ad-just it to get your post back to the right angle — it takes the guess-work out of where to position your post before you strain it and you’ve got a good long stay to work with.”

Tel. 131 080

Lely releases new balers

New Waratah fencing more time efficient

Test machines have been trialled in all types of hay and silage conditions across Australia for the past two years.

Waratah end assemblies reduce time required for fencing.

www.caseih.com 1800 227 344

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Now, for a limited time, purchase a JX or JXU series tractor and we’ll throw in a FREE Scout* 4WD Utility Vehicle valued at RRP $13,990! Hurry into your nearest Case IH Dealer, and don’t miss out!*Conditions apply. Offer expires 31st October 2011 or while stocks last on 4x4 Petrol 2 seater Scout UTV, JX and JXU tractors.

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bmW AUSTRALIA has re-sponded to Australian de-mand for its diesel engines with the introduction of a new entry model to the BMW X6 range: the BMW X6 xDrive30d.

The three-litre straight-six cylinder turbo-diesel engine has already proven successful across the BMW

range, including BMW’s market-leading X5 Sports Activity Vehicle where it accounts for well over half of all X5 sales in Australia.

Demand for BMW die-sel technology has soared in recent months with the carmaker selling more die-sel than petrol engines in Australia in 2010 for the

FoRD pERFoRmANcE Vehicles (FPV) has released its most limited edition ve-hicle to date, the GT Black.

Responding to feedback received on the FPV Concept, revealed at this year’s Australian International Motor Show, FPV have taken the popular black-on-black treatment and applied the stealth-looking paintwork to 125 units of the current standard supercharged Boss 335kW GT, creating the FPV GT Black.

“We were totally blown away by the positive feedback received from fans

and show-goers on our Concept,” FPV General Manager Rod Barrett says.

With all black finished styling, black alloy wheels, black tail pipes and all-new matt black striping decals the GT Black will display a striking presence on our roads.

“The FPV GT Black is available in one colour only, so there will be no confu-sion when it comes to placing an order for colour on this one,” Barrett says.

The limited edition GT Black is pow-ered by an all-aluminium BOSS 335

5-litre supercharged engine with a maximum power output of 335kW at 5750rpm, combined with maximum torque of 570Nm delivered across a broad 2200-5500 rpm range.

The newest addition to the FPV sta-

ble will be finished in Silhouette black paintwork and will carry the features of the current GT range plus some extras, including reverse camera and leather seating.

An all-new styling matt black stripe decal will feature on the bonnet, rear wing and body sides, with the black paint treatment also carrying over on to the front and rear bumpers and upper and lower grilles.

The fog lamp bezels have also been made black, as have the exhaust tips,

while completing the exterior will be GT premium five-spoke 19-inch al-loy wheels finished in gloss black with black wheel nuts.

Inside the all black theme continues with black leather trim throughout, a black finish around the Interior Com-mand Centre (ICC) unit, tissue box and door spears, and a unique black gear shift badge on manual transmission models.

The recommended Manufacturer’s List Price is $74,290.

Ford releases GT Black limited edition series

New three litre diesel joins bmW X6 line-upfirst time ever.

Priced at $109,900 (ex-cluding dealer charges, stamp duty, statutory charges and on-road charg-es), the BMW X6 xDrive becomes the new entry model to the range, broad-ening the appeal of BMW’s already market-leading xDrive model line-up.

The X6 xDrive30d boast-s180kW of power output and peak torque of 540Nm enabling the Sports Activi-ty Coupe to sprint to 100km per hour in 7.5 seconds. At the same time, fuel econo-my of 7.4litres per 100km is best-in-class.

Like all other models in the X6 line-up, the X6 xDrive30d gets an 8-speed automatic transmission as standard, producing finely tuned gear shift ratios for increased comfort, dynam-ics and efficiency.

Dynamic Perform-ance Control, which is unique to the BMW X6, is a standard feature on the X6 xDrive30d, giving the Sports Activity Coupé the agility and handling capa-

bilities of a sports car half its size.

The X6 xDrive30d also features a number of BMW Efficient Dynamics tech-nologies including Low Rolling Resistance Tyres, third-generation common-rail diesel technology and Brake Energy Regenera-tion, making it supremely efficient, without compro-mising power or perform-ance.

The X6 xDrive30d also sees the introduction of a ‘five-seater’ option with a three-passenger rear seat now available across the X6 range for the first time.

This fifth seat, incorpo-rating a three-point safety belt, retains a centre arm-rest and the 60:40 fold-down split of the rear seats remains unchanged.

Despite its highly-com-petitive pricing, the BMW X6 xDrive30d offers high standard specification in-cluding 19”Star-spoke alloy wheels, Sport Seats, Sports leather steering wheel, Bi-Xenon headlights, and Ne-vada leather upholstery.

The GT Black is available in one colour only.

BMW sold more diesel than petrol engines in Australia last year.

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Dairy News Australia Issue 017

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Transcript of Dairy News Australia Issue 017