Brisbane region farmer Joe Bradley new eastAUSmilk president
After a lengthy journey in dairy advocacy, Queensland farmer Joe Bradley is the new eastAUSmilk president.
On the other side of the world in the Oval Office, one President Joe clinched the top job after a 50-year path to power.
In a rectangular milking pit north of Brisbane, another President Joe has reached the apex of dairy advocacy after a similarly lengthy journey.
Joe Bradley was recently appointed president of eastAUSmilk, a cross-state lobby group representing both NSW and Queensland dairy farmers.
Source: The Weekly Times, Alex Sinnott, 8 January 2024
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Supermarket inquiry: Nick McKim calls for farmer submissions
Dairy farmers and other primary producers are being urged to have their say on dealing with supermarkets ahead of a senate inquiry into the retailers.
Dairy farmers and other primary producers are being urged to contribute their stories to a senate inquiry into supermarkets.
The senator who spearheaded the call for the inquiry, Nick McKim, told The Weekly Times that farmer feedback would give a pertinent perspective to the parliamentary probe.
For the first time, a select senate inquiry will scrutinise the impact of market concentration on food prices and the pattern of pricing strategies employed by the major supermarkets.
Senator McKim said the inquiry would also assess the rise in essential item prices, whether advertised discounts were genuine, and retailer profits compared to producers.
“We want to understand whether the supermarkets are price gouging their customers,” the Tasmanian Greens senator said.
“In particular we want to understand whether the concentration of market power of Coles and Woolies is allowing the them to put up prices by more than they should.
“We’re getting a lot of contact from farmers who sell to the supermarkets who say they’re not getting a fair price.
“The $1 a litre milk period was a good example of how farmers have been hurt by the lack of supermarket competition in Australia. We want to hear from dairy farmers about their experiences with supermarkets and get a clearer picture of how they feel the retail sector has impacted their businesses.”
Alex Sinnott, The Weekly Times, 18 December 2023.
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Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Agriculture purchases Split Rock Dairy
Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, has added another asset to her reshaped rural property portfolio, snapping up a 1980ha northern NSW dairy.
Hancock Agriculture has purchased the Split Rock Dairy, located north of Manila near Tamworth in northeast NSW, the company announced in a statement.
Details of the off-market sale remain confidential, but it is understood the Split Rock Dairy property will complement other backgrounding properties within the Hancock Agriculture portfolio.
Spilt Rock Dairy, to be named Buena Vista, was owned in an equity partnership which included three investors and Australian dairy industry champion Robert Cooper.
The original farm was owned by three brothers, before they and Mr Cooper started a new company 10 years ago.
Spilt Rock Dairy was expanded during their tenure from 1400ha to 3230ha, increasing cow numbers from 400 to 1200. The property includes irrigated and dryland cropping with 366ha under irrigation via 11 pivots.
“The purchase of this property is consistent with the Hancock Agriculture strategy of acquiring properties to support growth in our annual turn-off of 2GR branded Fullblood and Pure Bred Wagyu. We thank the vendor for facilitating the sales process and we wish them well,” Hancock Agriculture said in a statement.
Tallis Miles, The Weekly Times, 28 November 2023.
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Australian Dairy Farmers in chaos: Eight Victorian councillors ousted
The Australia Dairy Farmers peak lobby group is in chaos, after eight of its Victorian councillors were ousted in the lead-up to its annual general meeting today.
ADF has been forced to postpone the election of a new national president until Friday, but it’s unlikely the eight Victorian councillors will be replaced in time.
United Dairyfarmers of Victoria president Bernie Free, who was only confirmed in the role on Monday, led the push to oust eight of his own state’s ADF councillors, notifying them via email on Wednesday that their positions had been “revoked”.
“Most of them had a conflict of interest, so we decided, with advice from the VFF president (Emma Germano), that we remove them all,” Mr Free said.
He said that “conflict was in being Dairy Farmers Victoria members”, plus “most of them had already served their two year terms”.
But former UDV president Mark Billing, who spearheaded the formation of DFV as a new state lobby group, said he and the other councillors were still “UDV members and are all ADF business members”.
“(Fellow ADF councillor) Bruce Knowles and I went through an election to represent the south west (on ADF national council),” Mr Billing said. “We were all democratically appointed, but summarily dismissed.”
As for their terms being up, Mr Billing said that was not the case for two of the ousted councillors and that ultimately UDV had the discretion to vary terms.
Mr Billing said Victorian dairy farmer representation on ADF was already under scrutiny, given the Victorian Farmers Federation had not paid any subscriptions to the peak dairy lobby for more than 12 months.
The loss of eight Victorian ADF councillors leaves the ADF council with just seven from other dairying states.
Peter Hunt, The Weekly Times, 23 November 2023.
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Dairy Australia’s year in review highlights power, labour costs
Dairy farmers are battling costly expenses across the nation, but some states have been more profitable than others.
Victorian dairy profit margins have doubled in the wake of the 2016 clawback — but the cost of running a farm is galloping as well.
New figures from Dairy Australia covering the post-2016 era reveal a revival in fortunes for the beleaguered sector, with surpluses in most states hovering close to $4.00 per kg milk solids.
Victorian and South Australian farmers were the biggest winners last financial year, with an average surplus figure of $3.94 per kg milk solids.
NSW stood at $3.84, Queensland at $3.75 and WA at the back of the pack with a $3.49 per kg milk solids average in the 2022-23 season.
Victorian and SA farmers enjoyed the biggest surplus jumps between the 2016-17 and 2022-23 financial years; in the wake of clawback, they were barely making $1.50 per kg milk solids in profit.
Dairy Australia industry analyst Isobel Dando said record-high farmgate prices played their part in the pricing purple patch for the sector.
But a combination of surging power prices, labour costs and other input expenses eroded the gains somewhat.
“Farmgate prices were at record highs last season. What our figures have shown is that expenses were also very high last financial year,” Ms Dando said.
Released recently, the Australian Dairy Industry in Focus report goes someway to explaining why farmers continued to leave the sector despite strong prices, with a correlation between shrinking margins in 2019-20 and an exodus of primary producers.
“Everyone’s power bill is going up, many businesses have the issues with labour costs,” Mr Free said.
“Rates are an area where farmers in particular are also feeling pressure, along with those other price rises.
“The UDV wants the state government to do more to reduce the rates burden, it’s not the fault of councils alone.”
“Power bill prices aren’t going to go down anytime soon,” he said. “Running a dairy takes a lot of power, it’s not like a household, so that needs to be acknowledged.”
The annual review confirmed Australia’s milk pool fell to a 30-year low last financial year, clocking in at 8.129 billion litres.
Alex Sinnott, The Weekly Times, 23 November 2023.
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Dairy Australia: Australian dairy farmers returns $6.1 billion in 2022-23
Dairy farmgate returns hit $6.1 billion last year, after a 24 per cent jump, but higher costs are putting pressure on profits.
New data released by Dairy Australia today confirms the national farmgate figure edged close to $6.1 billion in 2022-23, a 24 per cent jump from $4.9 billion in the 2021-22 financial year.
The Australian Dairy Industry in Focus report calculated the average farmgate price at $9.80 per kilogram of milk solids, with a shortage of supply forcing processors to nail down supply.
Dairy Australia industry analyst Isabel Dando said the $6.1 billion farmgate value meant the dairy sector was the third largest rural industry nationally.
She said the vast majority of farmers reported that they made an operating profit, with profitability at an all-time high in some regions.
“We saw historically high farmgate prices over the 2022-23 season, driven by competition for milk supply among processors,” Ms Dando said.
“However, depending on the region, many farmers faced challenging seasonal conditions with floods in parts of NSW, Queensland and Victoria.”
The annual review confirmed Australia’s milk pool fell to a 30-year low last financial year, clocking in at 8.129 billion litres.
The last time the national pool was around that figure was back in the 1994-95 season, when it tallied at 8.2 billion litres.
“Roughly 20 years ago, the milk destined for export was about 50 per cent of all milk produced in Australia,” Ms Dando said. “Today, that export figure is about 30 per cent of all milk produced in 2022-23. That’s been a long-term shift.”
Alex Sinnott, The Weekly Times, 15 November 2023.
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Saputo seeks buyer for King Island Dairy
Saputo is seeking a buyer for its King Island Dairy operations, revealing it is seeking to offload its interests on the Bass Strait isle.
Management announced a “strategic review of its King Island Dairy facility in Tasmania” this morning as well as confirming an additional $27 million towards improvement projects across its sites in Victoria and Tasmania.
The review will consider a range of commercial alternatives, including a potential sale to a third party, with its 63 staff informed of the financial deliberations.
Saputo chief operating officer Leanne Cutts said the processor hoped to find a buyer for King Island Dairy soon.
“In making these investments and strategic decisions, we remain focused on maximising our return for every litre of milk,” she said.
“(This will) further enhance SDA’s position as a high-quality, low-cost processor in Australia.”
Saputo is also in the process of selling its Laverton and Erskine Park processing sites, subject to regulatory approval.
“As King Island Dairy’s historic roots are deeply embedded in the region, we hope to find a buyer for the facility to ensure the continued success of its renowned specialty cheese products,” Ms Cutts said.
“We recognise the potential impact any decision may have on the King Island community, especially our employees and dairy farmers, and we are committed to thoughtfully considering all possible scenarios before any decisions are made.”
Alex Sinnott, The Weekly Times, 8 November 2023.
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Dairy strike: Fonterra offers pay deal to United Workers Union
Dairy farmers are breathing a sigh of relief after the United Workers Union struck a deal with Fonterra.
Union leaders have declared a statewide dairy factory strike over, with a number of in-principle deals from processors on the table.
The United Workers Union hailed the deals with Fonterra, Peters and Saputo as a “cost-of-living pay increase,” with Lactalis also in the final stages of inking a tentative deal.
More than 1400 workers at 13 factory sites went on strike for 48 hours last week, the largest industrial action in the dairy sector since 1985.
Alex Sinnott, The Weekly Times, 27 October 2023.
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NFF conference: Agriculture Minister Murray Watt hits back at farmers’ campaign
Newly elected NFF president David Jochinke said farming was in “the fight of our lives” as he launched the ‘Keep Farmers Farming’ campaign on Thursday, during his at times fiery inaugural speech.
“Our farmers are under siege. NFF’s public campaign … is an embarrassment for Minister Watt and the Albanese Labor Government. Every single Australian is feeling the impact of the pain and hurt being put onto farmers, because the end result of Labor’s bad policies are families being forced to pay more for food at the checkout.”
When he spoke at the NFF national conference on Thursday, Mr Watt said he was “surprised” the peak farm lobby group had launched the campaign.
“I think all of you know that my door is always open to listen, collaborate and for a little fella I think that I’ve got broad shoulders,” he said.
“So I was surprised to read … that the NFF is launching a campaign against the government arguing that, and I quote, ‘food and fibre production is not a central priority for the current Federal government’, that Labor is pursuing ‘a niche ideological agenda’ and that ‘Labor is wilfully ignorant of the plight of farmers’.
Mr Watt said he believed adding nearly $3 billion in new spending towards agricultural initiatives since Labor took office last May “felt like a central priority”, despite a “tight fiscal environment”.
“But I guess that’s just politics … and just like you have good and bad seasons, relationships between governments and political lobby groups will have their ups and downs,” he said.
Jason Gregory and Natalie Kotsios, The Weekly Times, 26 October 2023.
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Milk tanker strike ends, but Saputo, Fonterra, Peters, Lactalis factory workers still out
Saputo’s Gippsland milk tanker drivers have returned to work, ending their 48-hour strike that began Tuesday at 3am.
Dairy Farmers Victoria president Mark Billing said some farmers had been forced to dump milk, but much of the impact had been offset by drivers and middle management from Western Victoria heading to Gippsland to help out.
Transport Workers Union state secretary Mike McNess said the strike action ceased at 3am today, with drivers due to meet Saputo representatives for discussion tomorrow morning.
Mr McNess has previously stated the dispute was over reasonable hours of work and job security, given Saputo’s recent plant closures and announcements of further plant axings.
Meanwhile 1400 United Workers Union dairy factory workers continue to strike at Saputo, Lactalis, Fonterra and Peters plants, which may soon be unable to store more milk, raising the prospect of processors having to dump on site.
The union is calling for a 15 per cent pay rise over three years, with specific demands of Saputo to confirm the future of its operations in Australia.
Alex Sinnott and Peter Hunt, The Weekly Times, 19 October 2023.
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VFF members’ push to dismiss board stumbles in court
A legal challenge aimed at forcing the Victorian Farmers Federation to conduct an extraordinary general meeting — a move which could lead to the sacking of the group’s board — stumbled in court on Friday.
Lawyers for former VFF grains group president Andrew Weidemann argued the peak farming body was legally obligated to conduct an EGM under the Corporations Act after more than 100 VFF members requested it through a petition.
Federal Court Justice Jonathan Beach declined to order the VFF to hold the EGM, and has requested more information from both parties before a final hearing to be held next Friday, October 20.
“I am not going to grant you the form of injunction that you are seeking at this stage,” Justice Beach said.
The state farming lobby has been in turmoil since June, when VFF members, led by Mr Weidemann and former VFF grains group presidents Brett Hosking and Ash Fraser, launched a petition calling for the VFF board to be overturned.
Else Kennedy, The Weekly Times, 13 October 2023.
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Agriculture Minister Murray Watt calls for clarity over Saputo’s Australian future
Saputo need to be clear about which Australian factories it intends to shut, Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt says.
In a speech to Canadian investors last month, company boss Lino Saputo Jnr announced the processor intended to downsize from 11 to five factories in Australia, but did not stipulate which sites were earmarked for closure.
A spokeswoman for Saputo this week said: “At this time, beyond the previously announced SDA network optimisation activities, no decisions have been made regarding its manufacturing footprint.”
The announcement follows moves by Saputo to sell its Melbourne and Sydney processing sites to Coles supermarket.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is examining the deal and recently push back a decision on whether to green light the transaction.
Alex Sinnott, The Weekly Times, October 12, 2023.
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Court appeal: milk meter finding upheld
Milk hauliers using a milk measurement system without permission collected millions of litres of milk during a seven-year period unbeknown to farmers and milk processors, a court has found.
The Federal Appeals Court recently upheld a 2018 decision in favour of milk collection engineering company Flo-gineering against five milk haulage companies — Blu Logistics SA, Wastell Milk Haulage, Wadene, JR Bulk Liquid Transport, and Jurss Robertson — for misleading both processors and producers between 2013 and 2020.
The haulage companies – whose customers included Fonterra, Parmalat Australia Pty Ltd and, at the time, Murray Goulburn – were found to have used an approval number originally given to Flo-gineering, which guarantees the integrity and accuracy of Flo-gineering’s measurement systems for its clients.
In July this year, Blu Logistics and four other hauliers appealed the initial 2018 court ruling, which ordered the hauliers to pay Flo-gineering $465,477 plus agreed interest of $271,498.12.
Tankers visited farms in NSW, Queensland, South Australia, and Tasmania. In the initial ruling, the judge found 26 of the hauliers’ tankers collected milk using an approval number allocated to Flo-gineering without approval, with the judge finding the hauliers had “engaged in conduct that was misleading or deceptive”.
It is understood Blu Logistics and the other hauliers employed an independent certified calibrator, who applied the approval numbers to each of the flow meters on the 26 tankers. Court documents show the terms of the approval required the approval number be used only by individuals authorised by Flo-gineering.
Speaking in court in 2018, former Fonterra senior executive Antony Miller said the accuracy of flow meters was important for the dairy industry, being “the basis upon which farmers are paid” and “is part of an integral system for the milk processors to control inbound milk volumes”.
Madeleine Stuchbery, The Weekly Times, September 28, 2023.
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Agricultural powerhouse: China’s homegrown food boom
Thousands of dairy heifers have been raised in China to lift the nation’s milk production to 40 billion litres.
China has become an agricultural powerhouse, as it winds back imports and strives to boost food security for its 1.4 billion residents.
Growth in Chinese milk production has been staggering, surging from 14 billion litres in 2002 to 40 billion litres today – twice New Zealand’s output. Market analysts say that growth in combination with a slowing Chinese economy has played a big part in the 45 per cent slump in global dairy prices over the past 18 months.
Fonterra NZ chief executive Miles Hurrell recently told Kiwi suppliers that “Chinese processors have been left with no choice but to spray dry their surplus milk, leading to high in-market stocks of whole milk powder.”
China’s cutback in dairy imports has led Fonterra to cut Kiwi farmers’ farmgate prices to unsustainable levels and flood the Australian market.
Peter Hunt, The Weekly Times, 22 September 2023.
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VFF exodus: UDV leaders resign in anger and frustration
United Dairyfarmers of Victoria president Mark Billing and most of his policy council have resigned. Here’s why.
The leadership of the United Dairyfarmers of Victoria has resigned en masse, in frustration at what they say are the ongoing failures of the Victorian Farmers Federation to staff and fund their commodity group.
UDV president Mark Billing and nine of his fellow policy councillors have resigned to form the new lobby group, Dairy Farmers Victoria.
Mr Billing said the group had held off launching DFV for weeks, in the hope the VFF leadership would listen to their pleas for more of the $950,000 in dairy farmer levies to go to dairy advocacy and for greater co-operation on engaging members.
“We gave them ample opportunity to talk, but they wouldn’t sit down with us (policy council),” Mr Billing said.
Peter Hunt, The Weekly Times, 26 September 2023.
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BOM officially declares El Nino
The Bureau of Meteorology has officially declared that major global climate drivers El Nino and a positive Indian Ocean Dipole are under way across the Pacific region.
The climate pattern will increase the chances of a hot and dry summer across most of southern and eastern Australia from October to December.
Meanwhile, amid soaring temperatures and unexpectedly high winds, NSW fire authorities have urged residents to leave the area after upgrading warnings on large sections of the state’s far south coast to “catastrophic” this afternoon.
Jason Gregory, The Weekly Times, 19 September 2023.
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Australian Dairy Farmers urge ACCC to block Coles/Saputo deal
In Short: The nation’s dairy farmer lobby says the ACCC needs to block Coles from buying two Saputo processing plants.
Australia’s competition watchdog needs to bite back at plans by Coles to acquire Saputo’s milk processing plants, the nation’s dairy farmer leader says.
Australian Dairy Farmers president Rick Gladigau has made an eleventh-hour plea to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to oppose the $105 million deal, with a decision set to be handed down next week.
He says the proposed supermarket takeover of the Sydney and Melbourne bottling plants will reduce competition in the dairy supply chain.
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Source: Alex Sinnott, The Weekly Times, 6 Sept 2023.
Global Dairy Trade: Global milk price falls through the floor
In short: China’s dramatic dairy diet has caused international trade figures to fall to levels last seen during the milk market’s 2016 meltdown. Overnight, the Global Dairy Index fell for a seventh straight trading session — but this time the plunge was particularly pointed with a 7.4 per cut to the headline figure.
JMI Wealth director Andrew Kelleher said the huge drop in the whole milk powder index was of particular concern for farmgate futures.
“The real issue is: How long prices stay this low?”
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Source: Alex Sinnott, The Weekly Times, 25 July 2023
Mandatory dairy code of conduct: Lactalis fined by Federal Court
Lactalis has been ordered by the Federal Court to pay a fine of nearly $1 million for contravening the dairy code of conduct.
The French dairy giant was today slapped with $950,000 in penalties for failing to meet some of its obligations in relation to the 2020-21 milk season.
In September 2022, the Federal Court ruled that Lactalis had breached the dairy code by publishing and entering into agreements that allowed the processor to unilaterally terminate an agreement in circumstances that didn’t involve a material breach by farmers.
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Source: Alex Sinnott, 25 July 2023
Amabel and Martijn Visscher: Data drives profits for young Tongala dairy farmers
Building Numbers
One of their first strategic decisions was to rear young stock in a feedlot system, where they could carefully control nutrition.
“We didn’t buy any young stock with the place. And we have seen numbers dwindling over the past couple of years,” Amabel said. “We haven’t been able to keep up with replacements.
“As young people just starting in the industry, these high cattle prices have been really challenging. We got in with being able to buy the land just in time, before the skyrocket (in land prices).
“(With the feedlot) we can make sure we get them joined really early and they start producing milk as soon as possible, because we are able to guarantee the growth rates we need in this system,” Amabel said.
Calves are fed in three groups: 3-6 months, 6-13 months, and 13-months-plus, with heifers joined at 13-14 months using artificial insemination.
“We only do sexed semen and beef semen,” Amabel said. “All of our beef animals we either sell them privately to people who are going to grow them out or grow them out ourselves.”
Their first heifers are due to calve in October.
“Longevity is the ultimate goal; an animal that you have for a long time is the most profitable animal,” said Amabel, adding that they also choose semen and cull based on production.
Uniquely, the Visschers do AI twice a day at each milking, and use data from their heat-detection collars to finetune the process.
“We have the collars on the cows to get them in calf as soon as possible and not have the manual task of identifying heats,” Martijn said.
Investment in the collars was made possible through a grant. The system monitors rumination and activity to pinpoint the perfect window for joining individual cows, which is important with sexed semen, which has shorter shelf life, narrower breeding window and is nearly double the cost of non-sexed.
“The smart thing about the collars” Amabel said “is that they learn from themselves. It learns what each cow’s normal is and will tell you when there is a change from that cow’s normal.”
An auto-draft gate in the dairy works in conjunction with the collars.
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Source: Camille Smith, The Weekly Times, 15 June 2023