dairy news australia august 2012

Australian Dairy Farmers kicks SA out PAGE 8

fAllinG bEhindAustralia lags on world stage PAGE 5

august, 2012 issuE 28 // www.dairynewsaustralia.com.au

builT fOR ThE fARMTelehandler passes testPAGE 32

hOlsTEin disPERsAlRebuilding for the futurePAGE 18

AUSTRALIA’S LARGEST WORKING DEMO DAYS

•World’sLeading MachineryBrands

•RepresentativesfromaroundtheWorld

•FarmingForums

•Hay,Silageand CultivationDemos

•RetailFinanceInformation

•AgronomySpecialists

•TOPCONPrecisionFarming

Sponsored by:

SEE ALL THE MACHINES IN ACTION!

29th-30th August 2012 from 10am

835NewDookieRoad,Shepparton,VIC

PFG IN ACTIONPFG IN ACTIONPFG IN ACTIONPF

G IN ACTION

AUSTRALIA’S LARGEST

WORKING FIELD DAYPFG IN

ACTION

PFG IN

ACTION

29 th-30th August

2012

Entry via a gold coin donation:

DAiry NEwS AUSTrALiA august, 2012

nEwS // 3

nEwS ��3-13

aGrIBUSInESS �� 14-15

oPInIon �� 16-17

BrEEdInG ��18-19

manaGEmEnT �� 20-23

anImal HEalTH �� 24-26

Hay & SIlaGE �� 27-30

macHInEry & ProdUcTS �� 31-33

moTorInG ��34

SA farmer Andy Vickers has used soil tests to improve efficiency and cut costs. PG.20

Victorian farmer John Watson has taken delivery of a new Fendt 822 tractor. PG.31

Tasmanian farmer has been recognised for his low bulk milk cell count. PG.25

Lion won’t budge on northern pricesnorTHErn daIry farmers supplying Lion remain in the dark about this season’s prices as the negotiations between the processor and the Dairy Farmers Milk Co-operative continue.

Lion has released a Tier 2 price for July-Sep-tember of 15 cents a litre, down from up to 23c/litre last season.

Tier 1 volumes have been cut by 9% in NSW and about 10% in Queensland. (Tier 2 price for milk comes into play when the region as a whole exceeds the monthly allocation agreed to by both parties.)

This is less than half that being paid for man-ufacturing milk by processors in southern Aus-tralia.

DFMC and Lion had to embark on the dispute resolution process in a bid to break the deadlock and are seeking “expert determination” as part of that process and are now awaiting his decision.

DFMC chairman Ian Zandstra told suppliers the co-op hopes to confirm the milk prices in the

third week of August.Southern suppliers are paid at tier 1 prices for

all their milk. They also have a guaranteed price model of 2

½-3 cents a litre more than Murray Goulburn’s traditional payment.

Southern suppliers are expected to receive $5.12/kg milk solids this season. Rumours abounded earlier this month that DFMC would create a new co-operative in a bid to free its mem-bers from the exclusive deal with Lion.

However, Zandstra told ABC Radio that DFMC is looking to form a mirror cooperative to trade excess milk. It has been initially formed to help its former SA suppliers, who no longer sell to DFMC since Lion closed its processing plants at Jervois and Murray Bridge.

“The DFMC is forming another entity because most of our relationship with our co-operative is through milk supply agreement to Lion,” Zand-stra said.

“So if we ever wish to supply other processes as we did in South Australia, this is a natural struc-ture to do so.”

Zandstra told ABC Radio Lion was “clearly lag-ging”.

“It’s losing market share, it’s losing big con-tracts, it’s clearly lagging, it wants to pay lower milk prices, well, negotiations are that it must pay a competitive milk price.

“T2 is a different frame in terms of those agree-ments in the milk supply agreement.

“It is milk valued at what could be achieved from the market place and I think we all know that the commodity markets values are going down and this milk is a long way from commodity processes, which are generally in Victoria.

“Lion hasn’t got the factories in New South Wales to utilise this milk so it’s been a hard pro-cess for ourselves as well to wear this lower price that we have here.”

Cohuna farmers Chris and Keith Millar bought 18 cows for an average $1800 at the Fullard Holstein dispersal at Echuca this month. For sale results see pages 18-19.

saleyards


4 // nEwS

FrESH From delivering $100m of savings, Murray Goulburn will invest $200m over the next three years in leading-edge manufacturing facilities for UHT milk, butter, dairy spreads and cheese.

MG managing director Gary Helou said the planned investment, which will soon be considered by the board, would better equip the co-op to compete inter-nationally and deliver the best returns to suppliers.

Helou said MG had made good prog-ress towards lowering its cost base and identifying international growth oppor-tunities over the past 10 months.

He said the next phase in the co-op’s development required significant investment in leading-edge manufac-turing facilities that generate higher value products and enable greater inno-vation.

“This is a significant initiative to rejuvenate and grow MG’s presence in consumer markets, in Australia as well as strategic international markets,” Helou said.

Helou outlined the proposed changes for its UHT milk, butter and dairy spreads, and cheese lines.

MG is currently the market leader in UHT milk in Australia, produced from sites at Leongatha, Vic, and Edith Creek in Tasmania.

“We have identified strong growth opportunities for UHT dairy products in Australia, Asia and the Middle East and we need to invest to double our capacity to approximately 500 million litres,” Helou said.

“Liquid milk consumption in Asia and the Middle East is growing at 5-10% per annum. Demand for pre-mium Australian fresh milk means that MG is ideally placed to leverage its scale advantage across the Asia Pacific region.”

MG plans to establish world-class UHT facilities that incorporate one-step milk processing, the highest degree of automation, high speed lines and variety of pack formats.

MG is Australia’s largest bulk butter producer and Devondale is the brand leader in butter blends.

“We have been approached by sev-eral Australian and overseas customers who want additional consumer butter and blends supply,” Helou said.

“To meet this demand, we need to significantly increase our con-sumer butter capacity to 20,000 tons per annum and rejuvenate our butter blends plant.

“The board has approved the instal-lation of a new butter packing line at our Koroit plant that will allow MG to become a leading supplier of butter pats

to fill existing and projected demand.“We will further review our total

butter and blends facilities to enable production of innovative new butter blend products and to create con-sumer products directly from cream or use excess bulk butter produced in peak milk supply periods.

“Our goal is to produce the lowest cost consumer butter and blends in Australia and tap into the strongly grow-ing retail and food service markets in Asia and the Middle East.”

MG aims to establish a state-of-the-art, highly automated cheese cut and wrap facility to produce more than

60,000 tonnes per annum of cheese blocks, shred and slices at the lowest cost.

It will evaluate a variety of pack for-mats and processing technologies for this facility to launch a new range of consumer cheese products that meets the demands of time poor consumers.

$200m factory upgrades totarget home, Asia markets

FonTErra SUPPlIErS in Vic-toria, Tasmania and SA have received a final step-up in their milk cheque.

The processor has increased its price by 8 cents a kilogram butterfat and 20c/kg protein – backdated to July 1 last year.

This brings the final full-year price to $5.45/kg of milk solids.

The announcement follows the news last month that the company revised its anticipated final farmgate milk price for Victorian and Tasmanian suppliers for the full 2012/13 season to between $4.70 and $5.00/kg MS.

“This is an upwards revision from our indicative price guidance given to suppliers in May, which is pleasing given the current market conditions,” said Heather Stacy, general manager of Milk Supply.

Dairy Australia has also revised its price forecast, with its manager of strategy and knowledge, Joanne Bills, telling a producer forum last month processing companies had bettered Dairy Australia’s early opening price prediction and she hoped it would step up beyond $5 this year.

Bills told the forum there was light

at the end of the tunnel and that the recent oversupply problem caused by good seasonal conditions would start to correct itself over the next six to 12 months.

The US is now experiencing wide-spread drought with higher grain and corn prices expected to bite.

The view is matched by Rabobank analyst Hayley Moynihan, who believes the dairy commodity markets will firm later this year, and into 2013, with the recent heatwave-induced spike in US corn prices reinforcing that outlook.

“We were talking first quarter 2013

for the recovery [in global prices] to get legs but we brought that forward to the fourth quarter of this year because of the US situation,” she said.

“How soon it starts now hinges on how the season starts in New Zealand and in Australia.

“If we get off to a rocky start then the [price recovery] will be sooner. If we get off to a bolter, then it could be pushed out a bit.”

The Global Dairy Trade index rose 3.5% at the August 1 auction.

The price of whole milk powder increased 3.5% to $US2675 a tonne,

despite larger volumes.Skim-milk powder prices increased

3 per cent to $US2805 a tonne, while the overall offering increased 3.5% with an average winning price of $US2797 a tonne. The rise follows a run of lower prices since April, with the exception of the June auction.

South Gippsland-based Burra Foods has also announced a lift to last season’s price. It lifted farmgate prices by 10c/kg butterfat and 25c/kg protein and announced earlier this week it would close last season at $5.50/kg of milk solids.

Fonterra lifts prices as global picture brightens

Murray goulburn will rejuvenate its butter blends plant to meet increased domestic and international demand.

Ask your vet about the NEW mastitis treatment that delivers two extra milkings into the vat.*

Pfi zer Australia Pty Ltd. 38–42 Wharf Road, West Ryde, NSW 2114. ABN 50 008 422 348. ®Registered trademark of Pfi zer Australia. March 2012. PAL0605/DN

*vs. other intramammary treatments

Time will be on your side when treating mastitis.

PAL0605_Clavulox_Launch_Strip_DN_80x265_v03.indd 1 5/03/12 3:57 PM

former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark negotiated with China.

New Zealand imports to China attract tariffs of 0-7% and this will fall to 0% in the future, he said. Australian exports currently attract a 10-15% tariff to China.

China has lifted its imports from 309 billion tonnes in 2001 to 3831 bil-lion tonnes last year.

“The Government has an obligation to expedite trade agreements. They need to get off their bums and do some-thing in Malaysia, in China.”

He said MG had played its part by establishing offices in the regions where it wants to expand in and gain-ing a greater knowledge of the domes-tic markets in other countries.

Singapore wanted alternatives of supply to the Northern Hemisphere dairy companies, he said.

In 2001, Australia’s share of Chinese dairy imports was 12%, last year it was 7%.

This is in stark contrast to New Zea-land’s share, which rose from 25% in 2001 to 40% last year.

Helou said the only way to double its size was to pay best possible price

to its suppliers and Murray Goulburn would seek to do this through efficien-cies in transport and production, while targeting Asian markets with innovative dairy products.

“Milk transport is an example of how stupid it is. We’re not a trucking com-pany.”

MG was in negotiation with three other suppliers in a bid to reduce the ineffective transport system, where five suppliers could send their own trucks down the same road.


nEwS // 5

MG pays $1.5m to secure new supplymUrray GoUlBUrn managing director Gary Helou has said the coop-erative has paid $1.5 million under its incentive program to attract addi-tional milk.

Addressing the Rural Press Club of Victoria, Helou said the scheme was necessary to fulfil recent contracts secured in Asian markets.

The incentive has angered many existing MG suppliers.

Existing supplier Peter Fitzgerald asked Helou whether the MG board had deviated from true cooperative principals in taking away equal oppor-tunity for pricing at dairy farm level for all suppliers.

“If you’re not bringing all your

suppliers with you, as a true coop-erative should, how are you going to raise the $200m (to be invested in MG plants)?”

However, Helou said the decision had to be made to help secure an extra 200 million litres required to service new markets.

The extra milk would come from existing suppliers, with any shortfall topped up by new suppliers, he said.

“We offered the short-term growth incentive to attract immediate milk into this year’s plans,” Helou told the audience.

“We offered incentive program to existing suppliers as well as new sup-pliers. Murray Goulburn has tradi-

tionally sat back from a market point of view and said whatever the season produces, whatever our farmers pro-duce, that’s what we’ll take. So we’ll sit back...and that then defines what we do in the marketplace.

“I said ‘this is not the way. I’m not going to be a production led busi-ness’.”

Helou said Murray Goulburn and the Australian market had to grow and that growth had to come from “market driven thinking”.

As a result of the offices MG has established in Dubai and Asia this year, it has secured an additional 200 odd million litres of milk based business in the past 3-4 months, he said.

“I need security of supply and I know that I can’t get that from the existing pool of suppliers,” Helou said.

“So the options were for me – walk away from the business or do some-thing as fair as possible in the interest of our shareholders and the industry.

“So we put in a growth incentive short-term to get sign up of addi-tional milk. It’s low cost, big return. We spent $1.5 million. It’s a very small down payment.

“The benefits are in favour of all shareholders and secured business this year. I can’t walk away from that.”

It is believed MG has now stopped the incentive scheme but this has not been confirmed.

Australia must expand or witherTHE aUSTralIan dairy industry must reverse its production decline and think on a global scale if it wants to secure its future, according to Murray Goulburn managing director Gary Helou.

Helou says the Australian industry needs to lift production to 15 billion litres a year and he wants MG to supply half of that.

Helou, addressing a Rural Press Club of Victoria breakfast this month, said Australia, New Zealand, the EU and the US are the world’s dominant dairy regions and Australia was continuing to fall off the pace in terms of production and global presence.

The recent Rabobank survey of the largest dairy companies globally places New Zealand co-op Fonterra fourth (US$15.7b in turnover), behind Swiss company Nestle and French compa-nies Danone and Lactails.

There was no Australian company in the top 20.

Helou said a country needed a com-pany in the top 10 to garner world influ-ence.

Unfavourable comparisons with our nearest neighbour did not finish there, Helou said.

Australian milk production has declined in the past decade from 12 bil-lion litres a year to about nine billion litres a year while New Zealand has grown annual production from 10 bil-lion litres to 19 billion in that time.

This drop in production saw Austra-lia’s share of world trade fall from 16% in 2000 to 5% last year, while New Zea-land’s share grew from 19% in 2000 to 34% in 2010.

Helou said this fall could not simply be attributed to production loss caused by the drought.

He said the industry’s deregulation was handled badly – especially com-pared to the formation of Fonterra – but an oversupply of processors, a domes-tic focus and trade sanctions have been negative influences.

The Government has to play a lead-ing role in negotiating trade agreements and reduction of trade sanctions, like

gary Helou, Murray goulburn managing director.


6 // nEwS

THE FEdEral Coalition would develop a national reg-ister of foreign-owned agricul-tural land.

The register is part of its dis-cussion paper on foreign invest-ment announced earlier this month.

The Coalition also proposes Australian regulators run the ruler over any foreign acquisi-tion of agricultural land valued at $15 million or more. The cur-rent trigger is $244 million.

The Foreign Investment Review Board would also scruti-nise any proposals where invest-ment represents 15% or more in an agribusiness valued at $244 million or exceeds $53 million.

National Farmers Federa-tion president Jock Laurie said the paper showed the Opposi-tion, like the Government, was listening to the concerns of the community, and taking the issue

of foreign ownership seriously.“In April, the NFF and our

members called for a national land register that makes it com-pulsory for all foreign persons or organisations that acquire or transfer an interest in agricul-tural land and water to report the sale – in order to gain clarity on the purchases of land and water and have the ability to monitor trends,” Laurie said.

“In June, the Government responded, stating that they would establish a working group to consult on the development of a foreign ownership register.

“The Coalition has proposed to go one step further, with their discussion paper outlining the establishment a national land register.”

Laurie said the NFF did not wish to deter foreign investment, but wanted greater transparency.

“We remain concerned about

foreign-owned entities purchas-ing Australian agricultural land for the purposes of securing their own future food availability, so we welcome the Coalition’s pro-posal of disclosure of any direct or indirect foreign ownership.”

Laurie said the national land register had to be implemented to give a broader picture of for-eign investment in agriculture.

Victorian Farmers Federation president, Peter Tuohey, said the paper supported VFF policy of establishing a national register of foreign-owned interests, set-ting up a number of options on how this could work.

“The biggest problem is we don’t really know what’s hap-pening with foreign investment – there’s nothing established to measure it properly other than ad-hoc surveys,” Tuohey said.

“A register would help allay fears and make sure we can

manage foreign investment in a way that’s in line with our national interest.”

Farmers have been concerned at the high level of foreign own-ership of farmland which has reached 11.3%, based on an Australian Bureau of Statistics survey.

The Victorian Farmers Feder-ation will analyse the discussion paper and consult its mem-bers to develop a submission in response to the options set out by the Coalition Government.

Farm groups support foreign investment register

cHInESE comPany Shanghai Pengxin is delighted with the Court of Appeal decision which will allow its pur-chase of the Crafar farms in New Zealand to go ahead.

Hoping the decision earlier this month marks the end of the legal battle, spokesperson Cedric Allen said the company wanted to get on the land, put on the gumboots and start running the farms.

The actual running of the farms will rest with Milk New Zealand Farm Management Ltd, a 50/50 joint ven-ture between Shanghai Pengxin and Landcorp Farming.

There are about 14,000 cows on the 13 dairy and three dry-stock farms. The size of the acquisition by foreign interests has caused concern throughout New Zealand.

Each organisation will supply three directors and there will be an independent chairperson. The role of that com-pany will be to run the overall ‘milk business’ and will include managing the sale of any surplus farms.

Allen said while the company was effectively locked in to supplying milk to Fonterra until the end of the 2012-13 season, it planned to settle on a company or companies to process its milk for the following season.

“We are putting together a team to deal with the pro-cessing side of the business to see if we can finalise an agreement with a processing company to produce the sort of products we want.

“We may do a deal with Fonterra, or another process-ing company, or with two different processing companies. Alternatively we might set up a new joint venture as we can’t own more than 50% of a processing company.”

Allen said as soon as it got the go ahead from its lawyers Shanghai Pengxin would sign the deal with the receivers. “We are itching to get going.”

Meanwhile Michael Stiassny, a partner in KordaMen-tha, the receivers for the Crafar farms, told Dairy News he’s also delighted with the outcome of the Appeal Court.

“This has gone on far too long. We would like to com-plete our job which is to realise the assets for the best price possible,” he said. But KordaMentha must wait until the appeal period lapses.

Chinese company buys NZ farmsPETEr BUrkE

www.performanceprobiotics.com WE BUILD HEALTHY COWS

Australia’s cheapest calf milk replacer.But don’t question the quality...

LUCKYINSTANT CALF MILK REPLACER

BALANCED NUTRITION FOR GROWTH AND HEALTH IN CALVES

Available direct and from Australia’s leading resellers.

FREECALL

1800 118 872

TO ARRANGE YOUR

FREE

SAMPLE!

National Farmers Federation president Jock Laurie says the NFF did not wish to deter foreign investment but wanted greater transparency.


nEwS // 7

UnITEd daIryFarm-ErS of Victoria president Kerry Callow has raised her concerns about the increas-ing complexity of payment systems.

Callow was speaking at a Young Dairy Devel-opment Program work-shop in Warrnambool last month. Her concerns reit-erate those of other dairy farmers grappling with more complex payment options.

“Over the years as fac-tories aimed to improve their own efficiencies they have introduced a number of additional incentives as market signals,” Callow said.

These include seasonal, productivity and quality

incentives in the form of premiums.

Callow said factories had introduced a range of payment options designed to tailor a milk price best suited to individual farm businesses.

Although she said this approach may not nec-essarily be wrong, she questioned whether the “increasingly complex payment systems” might have unintended conse-quences.

“It is harder to com-pare –how do you know you have the best deal?

“As we are faced with one adjustment after the other I wonder where we are heading and if we are really better off.”

Callow said that a flat-ter production curve might make a factory more efficient but could increase the cost of pro-duction on farm as farm-

ers move to less seasonal milking patterns.

She advised farmers to fully understand their con-tracts and payment sys-tems and seek advice if they need to.

“The UDV doesn’t set the farm gate price or the payment options but we are talking to the com-panies about pricing and encouraging farmers to treat any document that requires a signature as a contract.

“If you don’t under-stand it, seek advice before you sign it.”

Callow said many pay-ment options came with obligations on the farmer and she warned that “a higher price does not always translate to more profit”.

“I’m surprised at how many times people say `I didn’t know that was in the deal’,” she said.

STronG dEmand and a slow-down in US production should lead to improved prices for farmers.

Dairy Australia manager strategy and knowledge, Joanne Bills, delivered the message to a Young Dairy Development Program workshop in Warrnambool last month.

Bills outlined the drivers of milk price and future predictions for demand and supply.

Bills and representatives from Warrnambool Cheese and Butter, Murray Goulburn and Fonterra explained how commodity prices, world supply and demand and the high Australian dollar have

impacted on this year’s opening price.

However, there is light at the end of the tunnel, with Bills saying the recent oversup-ply problem would start to correct itself over the next six to 12 months.

“Rebalancing the supply chain has started. The United States’ increase in supply has been a killer for international markets but the good news is that US production growth is slowing,” she said.

“The US is more susceptible to rising grain prices, particularly

for maize, and these are starting to bite.”

Bills said this change would be matched by a “very robust demand”.

“The export market remains strong for the foreseeable future. There is a solid platform for price recovery, although some volatility will continue,” she said.

Milk processor representatives at

the workshop said they were keen to continue pursuing growth mar-kets in China.

“Imported product remains at a premium in China,” Bills said.

She said the high but fluctuat-ing Australian dollar continued to play a key role in influencing the market and that a 21% fall in aver-age commodity prices in $A terms since June 2011 and the growth in global supply had led to this year’s lower opening prices.

However, she said processing companies had bettered Dairy Aus-tralia’s early opening price predic-tion and she hoped it would step up beyond $5 this year.

“We are part of a global market which is very susceptible to sup-ply-demand issues which leads to volatility but with significant pop-ulation growth and an expanding middle class, the 10-year outlook predicts a 40% growth in demand for dairy exports.”

Complex payment systems confusing farmersrIck BaynE

Farmers in the audi-ence echoed Ms Callow’s sentiment about the com-plexity of payment sys-tems.

However, processor representatives at the meeting, including those from Warrnambool

Cheese and Butter, Murray Goulburn and Fonterra, said the systems were designed to work for individual farmers, present various options and accurately predict income based on opening prices.

Supply correction means $5/kgMS within reach

Jo Bills

rIck BaynE

Factories have introduced additional incentives over the years to improve their own efficiencies. ARE YOU

FEEDING FOR PROFIT?At CastlegateJames we have supplied Australian farmers with premium stockfeeds for more than 100 years.

With a national distribution network and friendly local reps, we are committed to working with you to increase your bottom line.

Our extensive range of quality, innovative products includes Brewers Sweet Grains, Super Grains, Hominy Meal, Proteena Golden Feed, Mill Mix, Barley Maltings, Protein Meals, Pellets, Syrups, Pulses and many more.

For more information call us today on 03 8311 2200 or visit www.castlegatejames.com.au

With a national distribution network and friendly local reps, we are committed to working with you to increase your bottom line.

Our extensive range of quality, innovative products includes Brewers Sweet Grains, Super Grains, Hominy Meal, Proteena Golden Feed, Mill Mix, Barley Maltings, Protein Meals, Pellets, Syrups, Pulses and many more..

For more information or to locate your local representative call us today on 03 8311 2200 or visit www.castlegatejames.com.au

For These & More Dairy Farm Solutions... FREE Ph: 1800 124 034 www.technipharm.com.au

“we make farming ezy”

Standard:

650 H x 500 D x 700mm L

Extendable:

650/850 H x 600 D x 800mm L

Slimline: 710 H x 460 D x 1005 -

- 1330mm L

DAIRY CADDY

TOP TECH™

GATE

PASTURE

GAUGE

CASTRATORS

HOOF CARE

HoofcareHandler™

Makes taking

care of hooves a

breeze...

#1 high lift gate for your

rectangular yard

“Cows are relaxed and produce more

milk, and it’s easy to separate mobs”

Equipped

with Unique

Intellisense

System!

Every

touchdown

measures

& calibrates

- all automatically

Newtek®

Animal ControlUnit

TIREXTRIBAND ®

EZEBLOODLESS

CASTRATOR ®

ORDER TODAYBuy now from

$850 - $1595*

SWHTEATSPRAYER

BACKING BAR

for Herringbone Shed

PT Plus™

PACIFIER

MILKCHECKER™• New back-lit screen • Auto temperature compensator• Select cows for drying off therapy • Handy pocket-size - with wrist strap • Superfast digital ‘easy to see’

results

*Conditions apply. All prices excl. GST,insurance & freight.

ONLINE SPECIALONLINE SPECIAL

Normally$1495

$1000$1000 Trouble with ear-tagging,

hooftrimming, mouthing,

castrating, branding?

INVEST IN

A PACIFIER!

UP TO 180KG

TRIBAND ® GREEN

ANY SIZE

STAINLESS

STEEL

NEW

www.technipharm.com.auwww.technipharm.com.au

“we make farming ezy”

TH1314M 3/7/2012


8 // nEwS

SoUTH aUSTra-lIa has been removed as a member of Australian Dairy Farmers.

The national dairy lobby voted to remove SA at a board meeting earlier this month, citing “con-duct prejudicial to ADF”.

The SA Dairyfarmers Association did not attend the meeting.

In a statement, ADF

president Chris Griffin said ADF Directors and its constituent members examined information and deliberated whether SADA’s conduct caused injury, harm or loss to ADF.

“Since the concern was raised in May, SADA has been given every oppor-tunity to respond to the concerns in person or in

writing and declined to attend today’s meeting,” Griffin said.

“After careful consid-eration, the ADF Board resolved by an absolute majority that SADA did engage in conduct prejudi-cial to ADF and that they be removed immediately as a member.

“It is ADF’s role to pro-vide strong leadership and collective represen-tation for all dairy farm-ers and so will continue to consult with all state dairy organisations for feedback and input and this will be reflected in our program of work.

“ADF will continue to work for the collective benefit of farmers regard-less of whether individuals or state organisations are signed up members.”

Although Griffin did

not release details of these concerns, they include:

■ SADA allegedly advising other industry bodies and the media of ADF’s internal matters.

■ SADA reportedly engaging directly with processors.

■ SADA’s failure to pro-vide a replacement for the ADF board after SADA president David Basham’s resignation.SADA has rejected

these claims.Basham has told media

SA dairy farmers will not be disadvantaged and plans to work with the National Farmers’ Feder-ation.

It had also contacted Dairy Australia (DA) to become a class B member. ADF is also a class B DA member.

Basham said if SADA

becomes a class B member of DA then it would be consulted on the DA stra-tegic plan.

Basham also said SADA split from ADF because it wanted to run a better campaign against the supermarket $1/litre price war.

Basham said SA would now be able to open dis-cussions with supermar-kets on reversing the effects of the discounting war started by Coles.

“A lot of pressure should have been put on Coles and Woolworths when the discount war began and now we need to be talking to the super-markets about how to help them get out of it and lift the prices, because con-sumers are locked into the $1 price,” Basham told Adelaide Now.

“The campaign was totally disorganised; and we are so far down the track, it is going to be hard to change. “We have written to the Federal Minister for Agri-culture, Joe Ludwig, that we are out and want to work directly with him to cover the gap left by the federal organisation.”

The schism has already caused problems with the proposed restructure of the ADF, with United Dairy Power saying it would no longer provide money on behalf of its suppliers to the restruc-ture.

Under the reform, 14 dairy processors would provide $1.125 million to the Australian Dairy

Industry Council for whole-of-industry issues. This would double the ADF funding.

The state lobby groups will vote for a second time on the proposed changes this month.

This comes after mem-bers failed to vote on the changes to the ADF restructure in May.

The proposal includes a smaller board elected by members, with a national board sitting beneath it and policy advisory groups.

If the constitution is passed, it would take effect immediately. How-ever, if the changes were voted down, the ADF would be down-sized.

ADF pulls pin on SA involvement

Chris griffin

David Basham

BEC FEED SOLUTIONS Pty LtdCUSTOMER SERVICE 1300 884 593

www.becfeedsolutions.com.au

Proud Distributors Of

Kynofos®21

MetiPEARL™ LysiPEARL™ CholiPEARL™


nEwS // 9

THE laTEST Murray-Darling Basin Plan remains an exercise in maximising buybacks, according to the Australian Dairy Industry Council.

Irrigator groups and the Victorian and NSW governments have also dismissed the latest ver-sion of the plan, which follows the release of the third draft in May.

State Ministers are trying to reach agree-ment on major points before referring it to Fed-eral Water Minister Tony Burke this month.

Burke can then make further changes or take it straight to Federal Parlia-ment.

Victorian Water Min-ister Peter Walsh has expressed his disappoint-ment that the Murray-Darling Basin Authority has not addressed issues raised by the Water Min-isters.

The new plan has included an adjustable Sustainable Diversion Limit (SDL) mechanism but both the Victorian Farmers Federation and ADIC have rejected it in its current format.

The adjustable SDL mechanism recognises less water can be used to water wetlands, by using pumps, weirs and levees.

“But we need far more clarity around how the mechanism will be struc-tured and who approves and credits adjustment projects,” Victorian Farm-ers Federation Water Council chairman Richard Anderson said. The VFF has been lob-bying for an Adjustment Mechanism to be incor-porated in the plan since 2008.

“Now it’s in the plan, we need the MDBA to put some flesh on the bones of this adjustment mech-

anism, to ensure it deliv-ers,” Anderson said.

“They’ve got to give us the detail behind the adjustment mechanism to prove they’ve got it right. “Water savings and envi-ronmental benefits achieved through engi-neering and better river management will help reduce the volumes of water the authority pro-poses to slash from irriga-tion communities.”

ADIC chair Chris Grif-fin said the dairy industry supported an adjustable SDL, but not the proposed formula.

ADIC Basin Response Taskforce chair Daryl Hoey said the MDBA was trying to move the goal-posts on environmental offsets and infrastructure savings at the 11th hour.

“It is disturbing that the MDBA is refusing to assess The Living Murray environmental works as potential offsets, despite promising to do so in its hydrological reports in February,” Hoey said.

“Equally concerning is that any additional savings from new infrastructure works or on-farm efficien-cies won’t count as reduc-tions against the 2750GL benchmark.

“That leaves buybacks as the only option to close the gap.

“The dairy industry is already facing signifi-cant pain of adjustment in water affordability and availability even if the Government did not buy back another drop,” Hoey said.

“Yet here we have the MDBA coming up with a formula to support contin-ued buyback tenders.”

Hoey said the dairy industry supported:

■ A 2100GL cap on water recovery in the form of entitlements, including

Buybacks still underpin Murray-Darling Plan

buyback; current and future infrastructure savings projects; and, current and future on-farm works.

■ A Commonwealth

commitment for no further buybacks before the SDL adjust-ment review, unless the proposal is community-led, community-sup-

ported, and agreed by the relevant State.

■ The Living Murray works fully included in the assessment for potential SDL offsets.

■ An explicit work pro-gram that pools the remaining buyback and infrastructure fund-ing, and prioritises its investment into envi-

ronmental works and measures, improved river operations, and further water-saving infrastructure and on-farm works.

Daryl Hoey

Make huge energy savings with our smart technology

Increasing electricity costs will impact dairy farmers substantially.You can cut electricity usage and produce free hot water to help you save energy.

Find out how our world-leading technology can cut your electricity costs.

GEA Farm TechnologiesThe right choice

Call 1800 789 100 for the name of your nearest dealer

Email [email protected]

www.gea-farmtechnologies.com.au

GEA Milking & Cooling

GE1

1200

GEA Farm Technologies

Vacuum on Demand Energy SaverOnly generate as much vacuum as you actually need at the time. The VoD EnergySaver uses a frequency controller to regulate the speed of your vacuum pump, saving up to 80% of energy use. Only pay for the vacuum that you actually need for milking.

Stable vacuum for better udder health, plus decreased vacuum pump noise and greater environment protection.

Free hot water from SuperheaterWestfaliaSurge Superheater uses heat extracted during milk cooling to heat water. Fully insulated and with a double-wall heat exchanger, it uses a 455 litre water tank. Stainless steel exterior enables easy cleaning. Two anode rods

with each unit protect the tank from minerals in the water supply.

Single unit heat exchanger and water tank means reduced installation time and space saving. Two distinct heat exchanger circuits allow heat recovery

from two cooling units with one Superheater.

CL vacuum pumpNew coated lobe vacuum pump is

designed for long milking times, lower operating temperatures and more efficient performance. Exclusive internal coating reduces exhaust temperatures. Non-stick lobes more readily release milk vapour build-up. Matched to

‘Vacuum On Demand’ control, it offers high energy savings and low

maintenance costs.

GE11200_Energy Saving 280x187_DN.indd 1 31/07/12 7:14 PM


10 // nEwS

Solar PanEl systems and thermal heat recov-ery systems could be the answer for energy con-scious dairy farmers look-ing to save their farm business a dollar.

In response to rising electricity costs and the Federal Government’s introduction of a price on carbon, economists from the Victorian Department of Primary Industries (DPI) have analysed five commonly used technologies in dairy sheds.

DPI farm business economist Claire Swann said the potential for improving energy effi-ciency on dairy farms was often overlooked but on an average sized dairy farm there were technol-ogies that could be prof-itable and reduce energy consumption.

“To estimate the rising

cost of electricity on an average sized farm we set up a hypothetical case study farm based in South Gippsland,” Swann said.

“Over 10 years we ana-lysed a five kilowatt and 30 kilowatt solar panel system, a flat plate and evacuated tube solar hot water system, thermal heat recovery system, liq-uefied petroleum gas water heating and vari-able speed drives on oil vane and blower vacuum pumps.

“Except for variable speed drives on new oil vane vacuum pumps, all of these technologies were profitable investments.

“The most profitable technology was a 30 kW solar panel system, how-ever access to the large capital outlay required for this system may be prohib-itive to some farms.

“We found that the

most profitable tech-nology to reduce energy for water heating was to install a thermal heat recovery system to the refrigeration unit on the milk vat.

“Solar hot water sys-tems were also profitable, with the evacuated tube system being $2001 better off after 10 years than an equivalent sized flat plate system.”

Swann said with the cost of electricity expected to rise, the dairy indus-try had a strong interest in understanding how on-farm energy costs could be reduced.

“Before making any change to their farm busi-ness it is important pro-ducers understand the actual benefits and costs of any of these technol-ogies on their individual farm and do their due dili-gence.”

Solar panelsslash bills

QUad (4-wHEElEd) motor bikes have overtaken tractors as the leading cause of death on Australian farms.

Dairy Australia‘s Dr Pauline Brightling, who manages The People in Dairy program, said quad bikes were very useful for many every-day tasks on dairy farms, but their safety could be dramatically improved by following a few simple steps.

“The first is to think twice before jump-ing on the quad. Ask yourself, is the quad the most suitable equipment for the job?

“Dairy farmers usually have several vehicle options – a ute, quad bike and a tractor at least. Don‘t just assume the quad is the best option because it is the most convenient,” Brightling said.

“Select the vehicle that has the lowest risk in the given circumstances. For exam-ple, the ute is the option for transporting more than one person.

“And the ute or tractor may be a better option for towing a heavy load.”

Brightling said quad bikes shouldn’t be overloaded and farmers should take par-ticular note of the weight and stability of spray tanks.

“Specify the jobs for which the quad is to be used, the conditions of operation including speed, load and tow limits and the areas on the farm on which the quad is to be operated; specify no-go zones.”

Brightling said there were trends on farms towards safer alternatives, such as using quads fitted with a suitably tested crush protection device (CPD) or replac-ing quads with side-by-side vehicles.

“Side-by-side vehicles are worth seri-ous consideration. They may be more expensive to buy than quad bikes but they are more stable, more versatile and come fitted with seat belts, a small tray and an approved roll over protection structure.

“They have all terrain tyres, suitable for a range of paddock conditions, and a lower centre of gravity.”

Quad bikes most dangerous

Economists have analysed dairy shed technology to reduce power bills.

Vicstock TASMANIA TEAM

Your team of Dairy SpecialistsBernard Atkins

North West / State ManagerDairy, Beef, Stock advisor, Stud Stock

specialist

Ph. 0417 593 158

Peter CollinsSouth / Southern Co-ordinator

Dairy, Beef, Sheep

Ph. 0427 547 145

Haydn BeanNorthDairy, Beef

Ph. 0438 678 206

Adam CrawfordNorthDairy, Beef

Ph. 0400 550 412

Anthony McDougallNorth East

Dairy, Beef

Ph. 0438 502 188

Head Office Geelong (03) 5222 5688Will Crozier ( Director) Geelong 0429 672 372Tom Hunt Geelong 0417 009 169 Bernard Atkins Tasmania 0417 593 158

Also find us on Facebook

www.vicstock.com.au

VICSTOCK GLOBALLocated in the heart of Geelong Victoria, this exciting new company not only sets itself as a global supply chain specialist in the Agribusiness industry and new player in the export market, it also brings with it years of experience and knowledge in the Agribusiness industry. Principal and Man-aging Director of Vicstock Pty Ltd, Mr Will Crozier has recently established Vicstock Global as part of the Vicstock group of companies to spearhead Australian agricultural products into Asia and the World

Vicstock’s British Virgin Islands (HK) company Vicstock International Limited has opened the door to Asia and beyond by the hard work of directors Mr Bruce Tang and Mr Harold Sim. Vicstock Global Exports will be headed up by VGE director and partner, Mr Tom Hunt, who is keen to get the first orders confirmed and airborne by July 2012.

The new supply chain venture will be backed up by our experienced livestock team on the ground servicing the livestock and dairying districts of NSW, Victoria and Tasmania and also our new and expanded role in the grain belt of Western Australia!!!

For more information, please refer to our new updated and current website:

www.vickstock.com.au


world nEwS // 11

Don’t punish dairy with ETS – Fonterradon’T allow an emissions trading scheme to undermine the dairy sector’s global competitive-ness. That’s the dairy industry’s message to the Government after it announced agricultural emissions will not be included in the ETS at least until 2015.

Industry leaders warn that heaping extra carbon costs on New Zealand farming undermines the sector – a burden most overseas producers do not have to carry.

Fonterra says it recognises the reality of climate change and that global emissions must be reduced. The co-op is targeting a 20% reduc-tion in emissions intensity across its supply chain by 2020.

But group general manager global sustainability Bruce Donni-son says most of the world’s dairy producers don’t face extra carbon costs.

“We have been concerned that applying additional carbon costs on agriculture here – when they

are still not faced by the majority of producers elsewhere in the world – simply undermine the competi-tiveness of the New Zealand agri-cultural sector.”

He accepts the bulk of emis-sions are on-farm and it needs to tackle them there.

“We have consistently held the view that providing informa-tion and supporting our farmers to reduce emissions will always have more impact than increasing carbon costs.

“Our farmers have contributed nearly 25% of the $43 million being invested by New Zealand in mitiga-tion research and they want practi-cal solutions.

“This work will continue, as will the efforts being made in Fon-terra’s milk processing plants to drive down emissions, especially by energy efficiency.”

New Zealand Fonterra dairy farmers were already directly paying their way in the ETS, with $3700 a year in carbon costs for fuel, energy and their share of the carbon costs being paid by Fon-

terra for processing emissions. This compares to a typical household’s costs of about $133 a year. If prices returned to the expected $25 per New Zealand unit, the ETS would have cost the average dairy farmer $8000 per annum from 2015, he adds.

The Government says key changes to the ETS announced last week reflect a balanced and respon-sible approach to reducing green-house gas emissions. Changes are keeping the one-for-two obligation in place until after this year.

This means participants in the scheme will continue to surrender units for half the carbon they emit. Agricultural emissions will remain out of the ETS until at least 2015. DairyNZ says the Government decision is sensible and pragmatic.

“We are pleased to see the Gov-ernment taking a considered view of where our country sits, relevant to our trading partners, to ensure we can make progress while still being competitive,” says DairyNZ general manager policy and advo-cacy Simon Tucker.

“The dairy industry is commit-ted to a strategy of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions inten-sity and maintaining its position as world leaders in low carbon inten-sity dairy production.”

New Zealand’s dairy sector is finding practical ways to reduce emissions by spending heavily on research, Tucker points out. It is quite possible to make good prog-ress by efficiency improvements on farms. “But we do not yet have a reliable silver bullet.”

DairyNZ annually spends nearly $1m on research on reducing meth-ane and other agricultural gas emis-sions via the Pastoral Green House Gas Research Consortium.

A similar sum is going into a seven-year DairyNZ-led research project where dairy cows are being evaluated to see how efficiently they can convert feed into milk while reducing emissions.

“DairyNZ maintains New Zea-land’s dairy farmers should not face a price on carbon until our trading competitors face similar and equiv-alent obligations,” Tucker says.

SUdESH kISSUn

NZ babyfood sold into Chinaa nEw infant formula, made from New Zealand milk, has been launched in China.

Canterbury-based Carrickmore Nutrition says New Zealand’s strong food safety and consumer demand for quality is the starting point for the new venture.

Launched last week at the Shanghai Children and Baby Maternity Products Expo, the product high-lights New Zealand’s food safety laws and clean, green reputation. It is being marketed as formula made from fresh New Zealand milk.

Carrickmore Nutrition managing director Chris Claridge says there are Chinese owned and a few New Zealand owned milk powder companies selling New Zealand originated infant formulas.

“However, the fact we’re selling formula made from fresh New Zealand milk to our children as well as those in the rest of the world, shows the confidence we have in our product.

“We are pleased to have a New Zealand prod-uct which is safe, nutritious and truthfully labeled. Following a thorough testing process, Carrickmore Infant Formula has met New Zealand and Chinese regulatory requirements.”

Milk for the infant formula is supplied by Fonterra and is packaged in Auckland. Strict quality control enables Carrickmore to guarantee the safety and integrity of our Carrickmore Infant Formula, says Claridge.

veanavite.com.au

Give your herd the foundation for a lifetime of performance.The Veanavite range of feed and milk replacer solutions enhances the development of newborn calves to young calves to ensure maximum growth, natural self-defence development and reproductive performance, all critical to the productivity of your animals later in life.

Contact us for further information, including our on-farm nutrition advice services. Call Rivalea Australia on (02) 6033 8000 or visit the website.

® Veanavite is a registered trademark of Rivalea (Australia) Pty Ltd.

The buildinG blocks for sTronG, producTive cows.


12 // world nEwS

staffordshire farmers and their tractors protest against planned milk price cuts.

Uk mIlk processors have bowed to farmer pressure and postponed cuts to the farmgate milk price.

Farmers were due to face a price cut between 2.5 and 3.5c/L from August 1. However, farmer groups mobilised members and staged protests through-

out the country.The UK’s largest dairy

co-op, First Milk was the first to announce it was backing down.

Chief executive Kate Allum said it had a respon-sibility to farmers to show leadership in this situation and remove any uncer-tainty.

“On that basis, we have decided to immediately withdraw the planned August price cuts [result-ing from] moves by our liquid customers. This has been a turbulent time for the whole industry, but unless we immediately grasp the nettle, the prog-ress we are seeing right

now will be short-lived.“Dairy farmers have

spoken with one voice over the last few weeks, and they’ve made it clear they reject the exist-ing model where they are price takers and favour working together to gain an equal seat at the negoti-ating table. It is therefore

critical the whole dairy supply chain now looks to develop better structures and relationships for the short, medium and long term.”

Arla Foods, Robert Wiseman Dairies and Dairy Crest also dropped plans to cut the farmgate price.

UK processors bow to farmers’ milk-price protests

While welcoming the processors’ decisions, farmers have vowed to keep pressing retailers and processors for a fair price. Food sector unions have joined farmers in launch-ing the SOS Dairy Cam-paign.

NFU president Peter Kend-all acknowl-edges great successes so far, but says the battle is far from over.

Farming leaders also wanted some guarantees from retailers that pay-ments for milk were not being balanced against payments for other dairy products such as cheese, Kendall said.

“This is a unique coalition and our suc-cess to date in reversing those planned price cuts for August 1 is a sign of strength and solidarity. However, there is a long way to go and we need to build on the successes of the past few weeks. We will be working hard to complete the contractual code of best practice and then we need to ensure those key elements are adopted.

“Rest assured we will continue to name and shame retailers and other buyers of milk who do not pay their dairy farmers a price for milk that meets the cost of production.”

The UK National Fed-eration of Women’s Insti-

tutes, backing the farmer campaign, said its mem-bers would also pressure retailers. NFWI chair Ruth Bond said it wanted a fair milk price for British dairy farmers.

“We challenge milk proces-sors to visibly demon-strate how money is pass-

ing down the chain so that dairy farmers benefit from the recent price commit-ments of some retailers.

“We will be mobilis-ing our membership to put pressure on retailers and processors to ensure a fair price is paid to, and received by, British dairy farmers. The movement we have seen in recent weeks is welcome but the problems with the supply chain are a long way from being solved.”

next steps ■ Putting the meat on the

bones of terms agreed on the contractual code of best practice between farmers and processors.

■ Ensuring pressure mounts on retailers and processors still not paying farmers a price that reflects the costs of milk production.

■ Checking that monies promised by the supply chain are making their way back to farmers.

Farmers have vowed to keep pressing retailers and processors for a fair price

CUSTOMER SERVICE 1300 884 593

BEC FEED SOLUTIONS Pty Ltd PH 07 3723 9800 FAX 07 3271 3080

www.becfeedsolutions.com.au

MetiPEARL™ | LysiPEARL™

Rumen Protected Amino Acidsfor Modern Dairy Nutrition

MetiPEARL™ and LysiPEARL™ are designed specifically for prevention of the limiting amino acids, methionine and lysine, being lost in the rumen and allowing the release and absorption of these essential amino acids in the small intestine.

MetiPEARL™ and LysiPEARL™ are produced from applying spray freezing technology to methionine and lysine. A technology application which:

Prevents degradation of amino acid in the rumen and allows release and absorption in the small intestine.

Effectively and efficiently supplements cows’ amino acid supply.

Ensures correct supply and balance of crucial amino acids.

“Lysine and methionine have been identified most frequently as first limiting essential amino acids”

(NRC, 2001)


world nEwS // 13

US opens protected landUS aUTHorITIES are opening up protected land to help farmers hit by a crippling drought.

Financial and technical help is also on offer now that disaster areas have been declared in 29 states.

The US Department of Agriculture says it is opening opportunities for haying and grazing on lands enrolled in conser-vation programmes.

To help farmers and ranchers affected by drought, Agriculture Sec-retary Tom Vilsack is using his discretionary authority to allow extra acres under Conservation Reserve Programme (CRP) to be used for haying or graz-ing under emergency con-ditions.

CRP is a voluntary pro-gramme that provides producers annual rental payments on their land in exchange for plant-ing resource conserv-ing crops on cropland to help prevent erosion, pro-vide wildlife habitat and improve the environment. CRP acres can already be

used for emergency haying and grazing during natu-ral disasters to provide needed feed to livestock.

Vilsack says given the widespread nature of this drought, forage for live-stock is already substan-tially reduced. “We will allow lands not yet clas-sified as ‘under severe drought’ but that are ‘abnormally dry’ to be used for haying and graz-ing. This will increase available forage for live-stock.”

The USDA has desig-nated 1297 counties across 29 states as disaster areas, making all qualified farm operators in the areas eli-gible for low-interest emergency loans.

Increasingly hot and dry conditions from Cali-fornia to Delaware have damaged or slowed the maturation of crops such as corn and soybeans, as well as pasture and range-land.

According to the most recent US Drought Monitor report, 88% of US corn and 87% of its

soybean crops are in drought-stricken areas. The resulting increase in grain prices is threatening livestock and dairy operators with high input costs. Feed costs make up 50% of total working expenditure for the average US producer, and corn is in general about 60% cent of total feed inputs.

The US is the largest world exporter of corn, soybeans and wheat;

prices are already rising.Economists says the

knock-on effect of such soaring prices was already being felt around the world, where drought has also hit other grain exporters who are starting to cancel previous sales and leave hungry coun-tries in the Middle East and elsewhere scrambling.

However, the US corn growers claim there are

“numerous inaccuracies and exaggerations, espe-cially about the impact on food supply and retail food prices”.

National Corn Grow-ers Association president Garry Niemeyer says corn, even at its current price, is an inexpensive food ingre-dient. “The corn in a box of cornflakes only costs about a 10c, and there’s just over 25c worth of corn

in a pound of beef,” he says. Corn is also widely used in ethanol and other biofuels production in the US. Niemeyer says corn users are responding to market signals.

Ethanol production and exports are down. In addition, there is currently an ethanol surplus in the US and that will further reduce demand on the 2012 corn crop, he says.

us secretary of agriculture tom Vilsack.

daIry rEmaInS a sticking point in a free trade deal between New Zealand and India.

But Trade Minister Tim Groser said farmers in India, the world’s largest producer of milk, should not be con-cerned that allowing New Zealand dairy products into the country would affect their livelihoods.

Speaking last month at ANZ India Viewpoint Launch and Business Forum in Auckland, Groser expressed frus-tration at the time being taken to finalise the deal. The last round of negotiations in June in New Delhi saw useful progress but New Zealand was still waiting to complete the exchange of revised goods offers with India, initially scheduled for March, and necessary to enable progress.

Indian dairy farmers are wary of allowing New Zealand milk into the country.

But Groser pointed out New Zealand produces the same amount of milk as the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. New Zealand milk would be used to develop sophisticated food ingredients rather than compete directly with farmers in Uttar Pradesh, he said.

“So our milk will not be competing with milk supplied by Indian farmers.”

Groser later said the dairy industries in the two coun-tries were like “talking chalk and cheese. We are interested in the high end, developing sophisticated food for upper and middle class income earners.”

He also said an FTA would also allow Fonterra to invest in dairy farm technology in India as it does in China. Fon-terra plans to have at least 30 dairy farms in China within five years.

“A free trade deal will allow Fonterra to give long term commitment in India,” said Groser.

ANZ India chief executive Subash DeGamia said India’s economy was slowing with annual growth of 5-6% expected this year. But it remained one of the fastest grow-ing economies.

Dairy snag in trade deal talks

INTRODUCING THE BRAND NEW...

SEEDMATICAIRPRO 4132T MK2

®

TALK TO YOUR ACCOUNTANT ABOUT THE CONSERVATION TILLAGE REFUNDABLE

TAX OFFSET

Contact your local Reese Agri Aitcheson dealer for details, or free phone 1800 140 196Brendan Prentice 0400 540 300

www.reeseagri.com.au

SUPERIOR PASTURE DRILLS

The Aitchison 4132T MK2 Airpro folds down to a narrow 2.75m transport width this together with large flotation tyres ensures easy and fast transport even over narrow farm roads or bridges.

›› Excellent trash clearance

›› Straighter lines & unique Aitchison boot design

›› European airseeder technology

›› Transport width 2.75m

›› Large capacity seed & fertiliser hoppers

›› Direct drill into existing pasture

›› Direct drill into maize stubble

›› Able to drill in arable conditions

›› Better contour following abilities

›› Sowing width 4.8m

Aitchison uses the world renowned Aitchison inverted ‘T’ boot system mounted on a coil spring and disc coulter undercarriage.

Despite a sowing width of 4.8m the Aitchison 4132T MK2 can be comfortably towed by a

120hp tractor.


14 // aGrIBUSInESS

Fonterra ranks fourth in worldFonTErra IS the fourth-largest dairy com-pany globally in Rabo-bank’s rankings released last week but the bank expects vigorous competi-tion in the coming year as companies ‘jostle’ to posi-tion themselves for chang-ing markets.

Although the Global Dairy Top 20 chart was still dominated by OECD companies, the ‘biggest strides’ were made by Chi-nese giants, says the bank.

Yili, which joined the top 20 only last year, moved up four places into 15th, and Mengniu, moved up two places into 16th.

They were ‘riding the wave of domestic market sales growth’, the bank says.

Mergers and acqui-sitions have prompted some OECD com-panies to strengthen their posi-tion, and Rabobank expects the trend to continue in the next 12 months.

But as Rabobank reports “increasing urgency” in the fight for market position, West-pac’s latest report says the biggest news in commod-ity markets is the wors-ening US drought and skyrocketing grain prices.

“For grain reliant dairy [and meat] producers in the US this will feed through to higher costs, further squeezing margins for dairy producers,” says Westpac senior economist Anne Boniface.

The Black Sea region important for wheat mar-kets, and India, have reported adverse condi-tions, says Boniface. A possible El Nino weather pattern in New Zealand would also make it diffi-cult to repeat last season’s double digit growth in milk production.

Boniface says there could be further short-term falls in price but lower growth in supply and improved eco-nomic growth in China should see prices improve towards the end of the year.

But meanwhile Rabo-bank is warning that while

most top global dairy companies are in the OECD, most growth lies beyond OECD boundar-ies. “The ability of these companies to respond to changing global market dynamics will determine their prospects for sur-

vival and success.”

Although companies have been respond-ing for some time to these trends, “an increased sense of

urgency has entered the game of late”. Market trends have accelerated and each new acquisition or merger narrows the remaining field of targets, it says.

There has been a wave of merger and acquisitions over the last 18 months, much of it cross border, with most of the companies in the top 20 having bought other companies or entered joint ventures.

“Rabobank expects to see companies continue to vigorously pursue merger and acquisi-tion targets in the next 12 months as they jostle to position themselves for growth and profit in a changing market environ-ment.”

Significant moves have included: Nestle’s takeover of Pfizer’s nutrition business; Lactalis’s takeover of Parmalat; FrieslandCampina’s takeover of Alaska Milk in the Philippines; Arla’s planned merger with Milk Link (UK) and Milch-Union Hocheifel (Germany); Saputo’s (Canada) takeover of US cheese maker DCI.

■ Nestle (Switzerland) US$25.9b turnover

■ Danone (France) US$19.5b

■ Lactails (France) US$18.8b

■ Fonterra (NZ) US$15.7 b

■ FrieslandCampina (Netherlands) US$13.4b

■ Dairy Farmers of America US$13b

GloBal ToP SIx

top placing: Fonterra is the fourth largest dairy company in the world.

Economic growth in China should see prices improve towards the end of the year.

www.coopersanimalhealth.com.au

Call Coopers Animal Health for more information on TOLL FREE 1800 885 576

® Registered trademark

Stop the Shedding & halt it Spreading• Protect your cowS

• Protect your family

• Protect your farm


aGrIBUSInESS // 15

InTErnaTIonal daIry markets have in recent months been character-ised by dramatic growth in milk output, the result of which has been a significant retreat in commodity prices.

This has directly affected farm gate pricing in Australia’s dairy exporting regions, where opening milk prices are some 8-10% lower than those announced at the start of 2011/12.

For an insight into the causes of such dramatic worldwide supply growth last season and an indication of what might come next, we need look no further than across the Tasman, to New Zealand.

When it comes to the international trade in dairy commodities, NZ is a key player.

Over 20% of the world’s traded dairy commodities originate from our neigh-bour across the ‘ditch’.

Whilst NZ is a relatively small dairy producer compared to the powerhouses of India, Europe and the US, its limited domestic market means that around 95% of what it produces is exported. With international trade representing such a small proportion of the volume of dairy products produced around the world each year, 95% of 18 billion litres gives NZ sig-nificant clout on the global dairy market.

Near perfect seasonal conditions over the 2011/12 production year have allowed NZ’s farmers to maximise their pasture production.

As NZ dairy production systems are almost wholly pasture-based, this has been the magic ingredient for a big year, with production growing by over 10% in the year to May 31.

This equates to an extra 1.8 billion litres that, given a flat domestic market, was virtually all destined to find its way onto world markets.

Trade figures show this unfolding: NZ exports of WMP grew by 3% in the year to May, while SMP grew 5% and cheese by 9%. China is the biggest destination, as NZ enjoys preferential access due to the China-NZ Free Trade Agreement.

Other major destinations included the Philippines, the US, Australia and Venezu-ela.

Global dairy markets are currently in a transition phase as the Northern Hemi-sphere season winds down and the South-ern Hemisphere ramps up.

Despite the drought in the US, and the economic challenges in Europe, many traders are awaiting indications of how the NZ season will shape up before commit-ting to forward sales or purchases.

Few analysts expect NZ to experience growth of the same magnitude again in 2012/13.

Having had favourable seasonal con-ditions for two seasons in a row, the like-lihood of near perfect weather for a third seems low.

Early indications suggest the North Island is experiencing wet and cold con-ditions that may lead to pasture damage – but any effect this may have on produc-tion remains to be seen.

Farmers themselves are increasingly cautious, with a recent Federated Farm-ers of NZ survey finding 39% expect gen-eral economic conditions to worsen in the next 12 months, whilst 40% expect their own farm’s profitability to suffer.

As in Australia, falling dairy commodity prices have resulted in a reduced farm gate price outlook for the season ahead.

Thus, the incentive for NZ farmers to retain livestock in the face of still-lucra-tive export opportunities and to invest fur-ther on farm to support continued growth is reduced.

Whilst events such as the drought in the US, and the euro zone debt crisis are under careful watch, the scale and timing of a dairy commodity price recovery is likely to hinge on the production decisions these NZ farmers make, and the weather conditions under which they make them.• John Droppert is industry analyst with Dairy Australia.

GLobAL imPACTJohN DroPPErT

Dairy NewS aUSTraLia june, 2012

With season 2011/12 only a few weeks from ending, attention is now focused on 2012/13 milk prices as farm-ers consider strategies for the coming year. In some domestically-focused regions, renegotiated contracts incor-porating lower prices and reduced ‘tier one’ access are undermining farmer confidence and supply stability. For many farmers in export-oriented regions, a lower price outlook relative to the current season not only adds to the challenges of doing business, but seems to contradict the positive medium term outlook of Asia-driven dairy demand growth.

Dairy Australia’s indicative outlook for southern farm gate milk prices – published in the recent Dairy 2012: Sit-uation and Outlook report, is for an opening price range of $4.05-$4.40/kg MS and a full year average price range between $4.50 and $4.90/kg MS. The report considers the wider market pic-ture and summarises the many factors at play; the key theme of the current sit-uation being that of re-balancing in the dairy supply chain.

In regions of Australia focused on producing drinking milk, many farmers face a re-balancing market in the form of renegotiation of supply contracts and reduced access to ‘tier one’ supply.

Shifts in private label contracts and pro-cessor rationalisation have seen milk companies adjust their intake require-ments and pricing to meet the chang-ing demands of a highly pressured retail marketplace. Lower contract prices and a lack of alternative supply opportuni-ties present challenges in a market with limited manufacturing capacity. Despite these challenges, the underlying domes-tic market is stable, with steady per-cap-ita dairy consumption and a growing population providing a degree of cer-tainty beyond the current adjustments.

In the seasons following the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent com-modity price recovery, farmers in export-oriented regions have seen solid global supply growth (see chart) - with higher-cost competitors in the North-ern Hemisphere amongst those expand-ing output as their margins increased. This season, favourable weather con-ditions have further enhanced milk

flows. 2012 milk production in the US is up around 4% on 2011 for the year to April (leap year adjusted), whilst early data suggests EU-27 milk production finished the March 2012 quota year up 2.3% on the previous year. New Zealand production is widely expected to finish this season up 10% on last year - a huge market influence given 95% of NZ milk is exported. Argentina is also enjoy-ing solid production growth, but a sig-nificant supply gap in Brazil prevents much of this additional milk from leav-ing South America.

Despite wider economic uncer-tainty, demand has remained resilient as importing countries like China and

those in south-east Asia and the Middle East maintain consistently higher eco-nomic growth rates that support increased dairy consumption. How-ever, the surge in supply has outpaced demand growth in the market.

This situation has seen the scales tip in favour of buyers in dairy mar-kets, with commodity prices retreat-ing steadily over recent months. Butter prices are down some 30% from their 2011 peaks, whilst powder prices have lost more than 20%. Farm gate prices have subsequently been reduced in most exporting regions. The average basic farm gate price for milk in France for example, dropped 12% from 32 Euro

cents/litre in March (AUD 41c/L) to 28 Euro cents/litre (AUD 36c/L) in April. Profit margins are under pressure in the US, and in NZ Fonterra has announced the final payout for the 2011/12 season has been cut from NZ$6.75-$6.85/kg MS to NZ$6.45-$6.55/kg MS (AUD$4.96-$5.04).

Effectively, global dairy markets are rebalancing. Lower prices will both slow production growth and stimulate demand, and as this occurs we will ulti-mately see a price recovery. Key factors to watch on the global scene will be the rate at which milk production overseas slows in response to lower prices, the impact of the current financial worries on consumer confidence, the path of China’s economic growth, and the value of the Australian dollar.

Demand for exported dairy prod-ucts remains a positive and will con-tinue to grow with the middle class in large emerging markets such as China, with changes in diet and with increasing urbanisation - and also in conjunction with global population growth. Locally, the domestic market is supported by a growing population and stable per-capita consumption. Whilst the dairy market is currently a challenging place to be a seller, all signs indicate that bal-ance will ultimately return.

agribusiness // 17

austraLian FooD company Freedom Foods Group Ltd is to build a new milk processing plant to cash in on growing demand in Asia.

The plant, to be built in southeast Australia, will be the first Australian green-fields expansion in UHT in 10 years.

Freedom’s wholly owned subsidiary Pactum Australia will run the plant. Some of its products will be sold in Australia.

The company says given Asian consum-ers’ rising incomes and improving diets, demand there will grow for qual-ity dairy products from low-cost production bases such as Australia, whose milk is well regarded.

The new plant will allow Pactum to meet growing demand for UHT dairy milk, and add to capacity for value-added beverages at its Sydney factory. Pactum is expanding its capabili-ties at the Sydney plant

to provide portion pack (200-330ml) configura-tion for beverage prod-ucts.

The NSW location will provide access to the most sustainable and economic source of milk. Pactum has strong links to the Austra-lian dairy industry and will expand its arrangements with dairy farmers for supply of milk. The new plant will increase scope for Australian milk supply – value-added, sustainable and export focused.

Initially the plant will produce 250ml and 1L UHT packs from a process line capable of 100 mil-lion L. The processing and packaging plant will emit less carbon, use less water, and be more energy-effi-cient than equivalent UHT facilities in Austra-lia and SE Asia. Pactum expects site preparation to begin in October 2012 and start-up by mid-2013.

Pactum makes UHT products for private label and proprietary customers.

Freedom Foods planttargets Asia

Malaysia FTA benefits dairyaustraLian DairY, rice and wine exporters to Malaysia are the biggest winners in a free trade agreement (FTA) signed between the two coun-tries last month.

The deal, signed after seven years of negotia-tions, allows a liberalised licensing arrangement for Australian liquid milk exporters and allows access for higher value retail products.

It guarantees Aus-tralian wine exporters the best tariff treatment Malaysia gives any coun-try. It also allows open access arrangements from 2023 for Australian rice with all tariffs eliminated by 2026.

The National Farmers’ Federation says the trade deal will improve inter-national market access for Australian agricultural goods.

“After seven years of negotiation, the NFF is under no illusion of how challenging it has been to complete this FTA with Malaysia,” NFF vice presi-dent Duncan Fraser says.

The FTA will fill a number of gaps within the

ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand FTA (AANZFTA).

“Protectionist senti-ment over agricultural goods is rife and grow-ing across the globe, so in this context it is pleas-ing Australia has managed to forge an agreement with Malaysia that has dealt with some sensi-tive agricultural issues not effectively covered by AANZFTA,” says Fraser.

“While under the AANZFTA agreement most of Australian agri-culture’s key interests had tariffs bound at zero, dairy and rice are two sec-tors where incremental market access improve-ments have been negoti-ated under the Malaysian FTA.

“This trade deal was also particularly impor-tant for sectors such as dairy that have been facing a competitive dis-advantage in Malaysia compared with New Zea-land which already has a completed FTA with Malaysia in place.”

The FTA also sig-nals some administrative benefits for Austra-lian agricultural export-

ers through streamlining of rules-of-origin dec-laration processes and improved marketing arrangements for certain commodities.

The Malaysian market is worth about A$1 bil-lion in Australia agricul-tural exports – including being its fourth-largest sugar export market and fifth-largest wheat export market. With an annual economic growth at about 5%, Malaysia forms an impor-tant part of the ‘Asian Century’ story and the opportunity this presents for Australian agricultural producers, says Fraser.

Despite the comple-tion of this agreement, much remains to be done for Australia’s farmers to tap into the full potential of the Asian region and beyond.

He says the NFF will now throw its attention towards ensuring agricul-ture remains front and centre in completed FTAs with South Korea, Japan, China and Indonesia as immediate priorities.

“These are all markets with enormous growth opportunities and where significant barriers to trade in agriculture still exist, not only through tariffs that restrict trade

but also through technical or so called ‘behind the border’ restrictions.”

The FTA was signed on May 22 in Kuala Lumpur by Australia’s Trade and Competiveness Minis-ter Craig Emerson and his Malaysian counterpart Mustapa Mohamed.

Emerson says Australia will be as well-positioned in the Malaysian market as Malaysia’s closest trad-ing partners in ASEAN, and in some cases better. The FTA will guarantee tariff-free entry for 97.6% of current goods exports from Australia once it enters into force. This will rise to 99% by 2017.

incremental change in milk production (year-on-year)

Export demand remains strong

Sealing the deal: Malaysian trade minister Mustapha Mohamed with Australian counterpart Craig Emerson after signing the deal.

gLobaL impacTJohN DropperT

016-017.indd 17 6/06/12 1:41 PM

Weatherwill impactNZ growth

For years Newton Brothers Orchards was growing faster than their business infrastructure could support. They needed to invest back into their business so they could expand domestically and compete internationally, with a bank that understood their vision. Today, their progressive approach has seen them grow into one of the best fruit orchards in WA.

µ To learn about their success, watch the full story at bankwestagri.com.au/fruit

That’s Seriously Happy Banking

They’ve taken the time to come and understand our business The Newton Brothers Orchards Fruit growers, Manjimup WA.

“ ”

Bank of Western Australia Ltd ABN 22 050 494 454 AFSL / Australian credit licence 236872. BBB0269-FPC-1505

Happy Banking


16 // oPInIon

mIlkInG IT...

rUmInaTInG

EdITorIal

16 // oPInIon

Advertising Hyde Media Pty Ltd PO Box 237, Seymour, VIC 3661 Phone 03�5792 1314

Advertising ManagerTrish Millington 0488�558 937 [email protected]

Agency sales Max Hyde 0408�558 [email protected]

Editor Stephen Cooke 03�9478 9779 or 0427�124 [email protected]

Publisher Brian Hight

Managing Editor Adam Fricker

Production Dave Ferguson Becky Williams

Published by RNG Publishing Ltd

Printed by PMP Print

Dairy News Australia is published by RNG

Publishing Limited� All editorial copy and

photographs are subject to copyright and

may not be reproduced without prior written

permission of the publisher� Opinions or

comments expressed within this publication are

not necessarily those of the staff, management

or directors of RNG Publishing Limited� www.daIrynEwSaUSTralIa.com.aU

Head Office Top Floor, 29 Northcroft Street, Auckland 0622, New Zealand

Phone +64�9�307 0399 Fax +64�9�307 0122

Postal address PO Box 3855, Shortland Street, Auckland 1140, New Zealand

Serve of common senseIt’s always refreshing to hear someone talk common sense�

In this case, Mildura-based chef Stefano de Pieri saying that both sides of the Murray-Darling Basin debate should meet somewhere in the middle�

de Pieri is a darling of the country’s restaurant scene, many of whom it is fair to say live in our cities and are out of touch with actual food production�

It’s important that his message will carry some weight� Essentially, he’s saying a healthy river system is important but this can be achieved without the removal of water from productive use�

It’s one thing for a president of a farm lobby to say this, another for someone with such a high-profile in the cities�

His message makes sense – hopefully more people will listen�

Permeate with that?Seems you can’t buy any milk these days without being reminded, usually via a sticker on the carton, that it is permeate free�

It’s a reminder of how powerful the tabloid current affairs shows are – beat-ups on the “industry’s secret additive” have been featured on A Current Affair and Today Tonight and news outlets followed�

Now, all milk in the country is virtually permeate free�

Hopefully a positive story on Today Tonight will have a similar impact on milk consumption� Dairy Australia generated extensive media coverage, including a slot on TT, saying there was no need to skimp on full fat dairy foods�

If this leads more people to stock up on extra milk, then do we declare these shows friend or foe? Looks like it depends on who’s feeding them�

cream with that?Full-fat latte drinkers should no longer feel guilty with new research suggesting there is no reason to avoid high-fat dairy foods and they may actually offer health benefits� For decades dietary advice has recommended the consumption of reduced-fat milk and dairy products based on the belief saturated fat in dairy foods increases the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease� But a world first scientific review challenges these recommendations concluding there is no compelling reason to avoid dairy fat�

Dairy Australia said the study reinforced the importance of taking a whole food approach rather than looking at single nutrients in foods�

It reminds us of a sign in a cafe once that said anybody that orders cake with a serving of whipped cream will not be served a skinny milk latte�

Hills no longer aliveAN AUSTRIAN court has banned the use of cow-bells as they are disturb-ing residents’ sleep�

Judge Erich Kunder-graber ordered a farmer in the state of Styria to remove the bells after locals complained they couldn’t sleep because of endless clanging�

Initially the owner refused to remove his cows’ bells, arguing they were an Austrian tradition and helped to calm the animals�

However, Judge Kundergraber visited the field near Stallhofen, in the foothills of the Alps and ruled in favour of the farmer’s neighbours�

The cows were left free to roam the field at night but could be heard clearly throughout the village, especially as the cowbells banged and scraped against their metal feed-ing trough�

IT WOULD seem “permeate-free milk” is the new black.You can’t go near a carton of milk these days without reas-

surance that no permeate will cross your lips.It didn’t take long for Coles and Woolworths to join the party

after seeing their rivals adopt the marketing strategy.The move to have various milks processed without any added

permeate has been described by the Queensland Dairyfarmers Organisation as a double-edged sword for the industry.

They believe it will increase costs to the processor as the quantity of permeate previously used in processing those milk products will have to be replaced by full priced raw milk from the dairy farm.

While this will increase processor cost, it will also create an increased demand for raw milk.

The QDO hopes this will be reflected in increased tier one milk requirements in dairy farm supply contracts for the year ahead.

It’s unclear what impact the new fascination with “permeate-free milk” will have on farmers, but if recent dealings involving supermarkets are anything to go by, it’s hard to believe it will be overwhelmingly positive.

Now the supermarkets have joined the program, will they pay the extra cost that is required to produce this higher qual-ity milk product?

In a fair marketplace, those who want to be supplied with a product of higher quality with higher specifications must expect to pay more for that product.

It’s not a fair marketplace though.Will the extra cost of this product be returned to the proces-

sors and from there on down the value chain to the farm gate, as it should? Or will the large supermarkets use their position of dominance in the marketplace to get things all their own way, without any additional return to the fresh milk production and supply chain?

If supermarkets want permeate free milk for their custom-ers then they need to pay the processor more than current rates which are below cost of production.

A higher quality product at $1/litre would be obscene and would further erode industry confidence.

If our consumer watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, was more than a toothless tiger, they could ask questions about the extra cost required to produce permeate-free milk.

The processors that supply the milk for the supermarket-branded cartons stole a march by offering permeate-free milk first. Now that their masters have followed, and could demand more milk for little or no extra costs, have they made a rod for their own back?

Permeate-free a double-edged sword


oPInIon // 17

Seeking catalyst for changeIn THE food world, we can often pre-dict what is going to happen in the future here by monitoring what is going on in the UK right now.

Think about the growth of private label brands – it happened in the UK 10 years ago; Australian supermarkets even imported key staff from UK retailers to replicate their programs here. It didn’t work there; and it won’t work here – but that’s a story for another day.

Recent research in the UK has shown that people are buying less Brussels sprouts, lettuce, leeks and cauliflower; and British farmers are producing fewer fruit and vegetable crops, tomatoes, cucumbers and spring onions. Food tastes are so changing and the eco-nomic relationship between farmers and the retailers they supply so out of kilter, that farmers are looking to grow other crops, do other things.

In a report just released, Catalyst for Change, the National Farmers’ Union says Britain’s self-sufficiency in vegeta-ble production fell from 73% in 1998 to 60% in 2010; and it is only 38% self suf-ficient in fruit. Poor returns are driving fruit, vegetable and potato producers into more lucrative cereal production.

The report blames “poor supply chain practices and a short-term approach to relationships between

growers, intermediaries and retailers” for removing the financial incentive for the growers to continue growing.

NFU deputy president and potato grower Meurig Raymond said: “This is not about growers versus retailers, but we have to bring an end to damaging activities or risk losing huge swathes of British horticultural production.

“Some retailers are making efforts to invest in the future of British farming, but our report shows that all too often this good work is being undone in pur-suit of higher profits.

“Unless action is taken now we could see less home grown fruit and vegeta-bles on supermarket shelves. This will mean more imported produce, less choice and ultimately higher food prices due to a lack of investment on farm.”

NFU horticulture and potatoes board chairman Sarah Dawson said: “British growers want to do business with retailers, yet the sector is being driven to its limits and is evidently not coping with the strain. Against a back-drop of higher costs, lower profits and a falling market share we desperately need to find better ways of doing busi-ness …”

Sound familiar?Australian farmers are facing exactly

the same pressures. They are being squeezed by a duopoly-dominated retail market, where the prices they receive often don’t cover the cost of production let alone provide them with a margin. Yet the mark-up at checkout still deliv-ers high profits to the retailers and cheap prices to consumers. The Aus-tralian Bureau of Statistics tells us so.

The latest consumer price index gives us an annual inflation rate of 1.2%, the lowest for 10 years. While there was a slight rise in the price of vegetables in this quarter, this is off the back of a mas-sive drop in fruit and vegie prices over the past year. According to the ABS, the price of fruit and vegetables plunged nearly 22% in 2011-12.

I like to think that most Australians are fair-minded and not totally driven by price; that they expect to buy food

that, by default, is grown in Australia where possible and at a price through the supply chain that allows the pro-ducer to make a living.

No sensible person really believes that food prices can continue to fall when everything else goes up in price. Like everyone else, farmers’ input costs are continually rising – but farmers have no way of passing these increases on.

f they really stop and think about it, most people realise that $1/litre milk is unsustainable; and that the end result of a ‘down, down, down’ type strategy will be to drive Aussie farmers out of business.

Both major retailers announced their half year results last week – and, sur-prise surprise, both reported increased profits.

Retailers and processors say that they want to support Aussie farmers – it is now even a key theme in market-ing programs. They say that they only import fresh produce when Australian products are unavailable. But what does ‘unavailable’ actually mean?

Generally, it doesn’t mean that there is no Australian product in the market-place. In normal times, we can grow pretty much everything somewhere in Australia, pretty much all year round. More often, it means that the retailers

and processors are not willing to pay a price that allows farmers to cover costs of production or – heaven forbid – even make a profit.

Imports of fruit and vegetables have doubled in the last decade and now make up more than 20% of what we consume. Australian farmers are being driven out of business as we speak. In the last few months, at least three major mainland fresh produce grow-ers have been placed into receivership – and that’s just the big ones that make the news.

Many smaller growers just shut up shop with no fanfare, as their farms become uneconomical.

The British report makes a number of recommendations for change, includ-ing

■ long term supply contracts to inject stability into the supply chain;

■ greater price certainty for grow-ers through price formulae, market trackers and fixed prices agreed in advance for a specified volume of crop or for the season; and

■ supermarket promotions linked to actual production.We should take note. It is already

happening here.• Jan Davis is CEO of the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association.

oPiNioNJAN DAviS

Milk ReplacersPalastart Green - Premium Quality Molasses based Milk ReplacerPalastart Blue - Economical Molasses based Milk ReplacerDaisyvite - Traditional non Molasses based Milk ReplacerSupplementsPalastart Boost - Specially Formulated Milk FortifierPalastart StartUp - Colostro-Immune Feed SupplementGut HealthPalastart Stop - Specially Formulated Scour TreatmentPalastart Turbo - Probiotic Paste for Calves

PRobiotec NutRitioNalS

Pty ltdFor more information about

Probiotec’s Calf Rearing Products call 1800 067 919

or visit www.probiotec.com.au

Your Calf rearing SpeCialiStS

Probiotec’s unique range of products supplies everything needed for a successful calf rearing season.


18 // BrEEdInG

a SalE top of $2600 was reached three times at the dispersal sale of the Holstein and crossbred herd of the Fullard family of Bamawm Extension, northern Victoria, earlier this month.

The complete milking herd dispersal of Bruce,

Doris, Shane and Faye Ful-lard averaged $1679 for 209 head including fresh cows and heifers, spring-ers and dry-cows. The sale grossed $350,900.

A sale top of $2600 was reached three times, firstly to a 4-year-old. The ABS Roy freshly-calved

cow sold to L.Culton, Deniliquin, NSW.

Also fetching this price was a pair of freshly-calved 2-year-old. The heifers, both by USA sire Ralma Focus, were pur-chased by Ben Kincaid, Leitchville, Vic.

Other noted sales

Fullard Holsteins top at $2600

JErSEyS Sold to $10,000 at the Cedar Vale second stage dispersal sale of Winnie and Shane Oslear at Gerrin-gong, NSW last month.

The 62 lots averaged $2348 and grossed $145,550.

In the breakdown, 22 cows av $2686, 5 joined heifers av $3340, 9 unjoined Jersey heifers av $3189, 4 bulls av $1350 and one embryo package sold for $1600.

Sale top of $10,000 was paid for the 9-month-old heifer Cedar Vale Action Belle.

This imported Canadian ET heifer is

from Giprat Belles Jonquil EX94, a well known daughter of Duncan Belle and full sister to noted sire Belles Jade. She was purchased by Homelands Jerseys of Invergordon, Victoria.

Next top of $5200 was the outstand-ing joined heifer Cedar Vale Blackstone Poppy from an EX 91 Jace dam, pur-chased by K & M Atkins of Johns River.

The Atkins also bought Cedar Vale Astound Melys VG88, backed by one of the breed’s deepest pedigrees, for $4000.

The Henderson Family of Epping,

NSW, paid $5000 for the outstanding young cow Cedar Vale Astound Violet EX90.

A.Salway of Cobargo selected Cedar Vale Astounds Countess, backed by another very deep pedigree, for $4700.

Local breeder Robbie Wilson, Jam-beroo, selected Cedar Vale Babe (ET), a Ressurection heifer from the Kaarmona Babes, for $4500 while Pat Buckley of Singleton paid $4000 for Cedar Vale Ressurection Sally backed by 2 EX dams.

Outside vendor Stuart Lockhart sold the successful Ayrshire show heifer Sha-

dyglen Mods Toff backed by 5 genera-tions of EX & VG dams for $5300 to the Eagles partnership of Goolagong.

Selling agents were Dairy Livestock Services.Tarantella

The Plunkett Family of Tamborine, Queensland, dispersed their mostly unregistered herd of Holsteins, Jerseys and crossbreds last month.

Sale top of $6000 was paid for an outstanding young cow, Tarantella Reece Paula, who had a PI of 121 and was due again in January to Shottle.

She was purchased by Moxey Farms of Goolagong, NSW, who bought a fur-ther 60 head, including the top-priced joined heifer, a Bolton from a Gordon dam with a PI of 118 for $3200.

S & S Paulger of Kenilworth, Qld, paid next top price of $4250.00 for Tar-antella diehard Pansy, a Semex on-farm winner due again to Shottle.

Local breeder Jodie Love of Beaudes-ert, Qld, paid $4000 for Tarantella Pay Hokeypokey.

Selling agents were Dairy Livestock Services.

Cedar Vale Jersey dispersal tops $10,000

included a fresh 2-year-old by Coldsprings Gabe and a 3-year-old by ABS Tennyson, both for $2400.

A Holstein by Gran-J Oman McCormick sold

for $2300. Fresh cows sold mainly from $1600 up to $2300. Most in-milk heifers sold from $1700-$2000. Dry-cows about a month away from calving

sold to $2500, some springing heifers in-calf to a Holstein bull sold for $1700 while cows due to calve in the next month mostly sold from $1300-$1700.

Buyers were from all parts of Northern Victoria from Swan Hill to Strath-merton and Southern Riv-erina of NSW. The sale agents were Dairy Livestock Services.

John and Matt Haitsma, Rocherster, bought 14 cow for their expanding herd.

the Dairy Livestock services team put cows under the hammer at the Echuca saleyards this month.

“Better Genetics – Better Health”Use Aussie Reds to increase the genetic potential in your red herd

For more information – WEB www.aussiereds.com.au • EMAIL [email protected] • PH Field Rep, Steve Snowdon 0417 138 508

Our minimal Holstein policy in our progeny test bulls makes them an ideal choice for your crossbreeding programProgeny Test Bulls now available from: • Agrigene • Alta • Genetics Australia • Semex

Australian Red Dairy Breed4 dams

of current progeny test bulls


BrEEdInG // 19

cowS Sold to $16,000 and 67 lots averaged $3510 at the Sensei Holstein dispersal at Warra-gul last month.

In the breakdown, 26 cows average $3758, three joined heifers av $4433, 33 yearling heifers av $348 and seven 2012 born heifers av $2443.

Toolamba buyers Geoffrey and Christine Peatling of Moonshay Park, picked up the top-price Holstein Fairvale Damion Josie 4-ET for $16,000.

Calved two weeks, the 2-year-old was fourth in the All-Australian heifer competition at Inter-national Dairy Week last year and recently classi-fied VG85.

She is a daughter of Melbourne Royal Winner Fairvale Gibson Josie 10 (ET) VG88 and was praised for her great size and udder.

Unmated heifer Sensei Damion Cordellia-ET sold for $12,000 to a Gippsland buyer.

The Peatling family also bought freshly calved Pooley Bridge Goldwyn Posey 2 IMP-ET GP84 for $9000.

This freshly calved cow was from the renowned Windy Knoll View PAla family and had several top daughters sell. They included Sensei Shot-tle Posey at $5000 to Louden Farms, Modella; Sensei Sanchez Posy (ET) at $5000 to Kevin Gass, Cooriemungle; and Sensei Sanchez Posey to Ben McInnes, Gunbower.

Sensei DAmion Satin (ET), a daughter of Leader RJ Satin, sold at $6500 to Mitch Holsteins, Bamawm.

Krishlaye Densel Pacify, a show champion heifer, sold for $6000 to A.Harrison, Leongatha.

Carisma Gibson Cathy, the IDW All Breeds Youth Show Champion, sold for $6000 to P & J Price, Leongatha.

Dumbarton Damion Perfection, a top young cow from the Shotimes family, sold for $6000 to Wildwood Dairies of Lardner.

Eclipse Goldwyn Tabaret sold for $5000 to Brodie McGilvray, Cohuna.

The sale agents were Dairy Livestock Services.

Sensei cows top $16,000

aUcTIon rESUlTS

STUD SALE TOP AVERAGE

Tarentella $6000 $2158 (222 head)

Sensai $16,000 $3510 (69 head)

Cedar Vale $10,000 $2348 (62 head)

Fullard $2600 $1679 (209 head)

SalES calEndar

DATE SALE WHERE

Aug 30 Early Spring Spectacular Sale Shepparton Selling Ctr, Vic

Sept 13 Day-Jen Jersey Dispersal Sale Shepparton Selling Ctr, Vic

Oct 8 D&B Kallady 2nd Stage Dispersal VLE, Koonwarra, Vic

Oct 15 Gippsland Spring Jersey Spectacular Sale Warragul Selling Ctr, Vic

Oct 19 McNamara Dairying Special Spring Sale Colac Selling Centre

Oct 23 Almervista Jerseys Dispersal Sale on-property, Drouin Sth, Vic

Nov 23 Globull Fusions First Edition Holstein & Jersey Sale Berry, NSW

Nov 29 Midway Park Ayrshires Final Sale Tatura, Vic

Nov 30 North West Stars of the Future Sale Echuca, Vic

Inseminate heifers for genetic gaindaIry FarmErS who want to speed up the rate of genetic gain in their herds should consider inseminating their maiden heifers.

Michelle Axford from the Australian Dairy Herd Improvement Scheme said inseminating maiden heifers helps in two ways.

“Firstly it increases the number of replacement calves available, and that allows more opportunity for culling,” said Axford.

“Secondly, it reduces the generation interval, that is

the number of years between mother and progeny. Heifers represent the most modern genetics in the herd, and their progeny are available a year earlier if they are inseminated and their calves kept as replace-ments.”

However inseminating maiden heifers relies on excel-lent calf rearing and heifer nutrition so that they achieve their target mating weight by 14 months of age, or even younger for later born calves.

“Inseminating maiden heif-ers is a good strategy for speed-

ing up genetic gain, but it may involve planning ahead to improve heifer growth rates,” she said.

Another important step to fast tracking genetic gain is to ensure enough quality replace-ment heifers are reared, and that starts with the number of AI straws ordered.

“Most people think in terms of ‘how many straws do I order?’ but the more important question is ‘how many replace-ments do I need in three years time?’,” she said.

Axford recommends farm-

ers 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,” she said.“Then it’s just a simple rule

of thumb – allow six straws for every replacement heifer,” she said.

“If you use some of those straws over maiden heifers

you’ll not only have enough replacements, you’ll have the added benefits of speeding up genetic gain and having a larger pool of early-born calves to keep as replacements,” Axford said.

Inseminating maiden heifer is a good way to fast track genetic gain, but it relies on excellent calf and heifer rearing practices.

ABSa b s r i s i n g s ta r s

www.absglobal.com/aus l [email protected] l Ph: 02 6049 9200 l Fax: 02 6026 2387semen orders only, freecall 1800-abs-bULL

Investing Locally Thinking Globally

Goldwyn x LUCKYSTRIKE x Igniter

VindicatePhoto: VG-85 dtr owned by Harris family, Vic.

N O . 1 T Y P E N E W R E L E A S E S I R E W I d E R u m P S W I T h g R E AT S L O P E V E RY E A S Y T O h A N d L E c O W SS P O T O N T E AT P L A c E m E N TB L A c k c O W S W I T h P L E N T Y O f S T R E N g T h A N d c A PA c I T Y

SHOTTLE x CONVINCER x Shormar

ThrottlePhoto: 2nd lactation dtr owned by Gristedes family, Vic.

S h O T T L E ’ S h I g h E S T S O N f O Ru d d E R S !E x T R E m E S u R V I VA L & d A u g h T E R f E R T I L I T YB E A u T I f u L u d d E R SS u P E R q u I E T E A S Y T O W O R kW I T h c O W Sm E d I u m f R A m E d c O W S W I T h g R E AT u d d E R S

SHOTTLE x Granger x Missile

dobermanPhoto: Double A Doberman 53478 GP-80. Photo: Beth Herges

c A LV I N g E A S E S I R E W I T h E x T R E m E f E R T I L I T Yh u g E A P R W I T h E x T R E m E T Y P EV E RY S T R O N g L I g A m E N T S O N S h A L L O W u d d E R S

Jace x Alf x LESTER

EltonPhoto: Merseybank Eltons Claire EX-92 owned by Hazelwoods, Tas.

E x T R E m E R E L I A B I L I T YB I g , P O W E R f u L , d E E P - B O d I E dc O W SE x T R E m E u d d E R c L E f T & T E AT L E N g T hh I g h c O m P O N E N T J E R S E Y m I L k

A2 A2

A2 A2

DNA_ABS_0612.indd 1 6/06/2012 8:51:33 PM


20 // manaGEmEnT

SUrroUndEd moSTly by non-dairy farming operations, the Bloomfield dairy farm near Lucindale in south-east South Australia is showing what can be achieved with a bit of ambition and some soil nutrient tips.

The farm was con-verted from a beef opera-tion three years ago and is building towards a goal of 1000 cows producing 10 million litres of milk a year.

Share farmers Andy Vickers and Belinda Wright came on board when owner Russ Robin-son decided on the con-version. Vickers had been share farming at Callen-dale Station some years earlier, and also help-ing out with the Tumbe Munda beef operation.

The owners were look-ing for more return from their land and thought dairy would be the answer.

After three years they are starting to realise their ambitions.

“Things are start-ing to roll now; this is the first year we have heifers coming in,” Vickers said.

The farm has a dairy block of 540ha, including about 170ha under irriga-tion. The property aver-ages about 28 inches of rain a year and irrigation is important to their success.

It started with 800 Hol-stein Friesian cows, but because there were no heifers coming through, dropped back on that number before growing again to almost 900 this year with the influx of heifers.

“The goal is to have 1000 cows producing 10 million litres,” Vick-ers said. “This year we’re about eight million litres with an average per cow production of about 10,500 litres, so with the heifers coming through we should be able to achieve that.”

“We want to breed more heifers rather than buy in more cows so we know what we’re dealing with,” he added.

The per-cow produc-tion has improved over the past few years from around 9000 litres as management practices advance and the herd has settled in.

The farm has a perennial ryegrass pasture-based system and brings in wheat as first preference, or barley if wheat prices are too high. Each cow is fed a little over 2.2 tonnes.

“The farm’s biggest asset is its dryland because of the yields we can get,” he said. “We’ve got up to 12 tonne utilisation which is a great result.”

Vickers and Wright are joined by three full time staff, plus a part-timer and a casual.

The farm benefits from new infrastruc-ture, including a 60 stand Rotary platform, 32,000 litre vat capable of holding daily milk production in peak periods, four centre pivots for irrigation, a 100 per cent recyclable irriga-tion system and well built cow tracks and fenced laneways, pivots and pad-docks.

The dry land is strip grazed to ensure adequate grazing measures for both cows and pastures.

The farm has also ben-efited from a soil nutrient project run by DairySA for more than 40 dairy farms in the mid and upper areas of south east South Aus-tralia.

Soil tests were paid for on Bloomfield as part of the project and revealed

huge variations in nutrient levels between paddocks, often including neighbour-ing plots.

“I guess the soil type changes very rapidly in south-east South Austra-lia,” Vickers said. “We’ve got about 20 different paddocks and the tests showed us we needed to make some changes to our nutrient management to get the balance right.”

The farm had phospho-rus levels down from 70 and some as low as 20 and very high levels of potas-sium.

“On one pivot we had three different phospho-rus levels even though the grass grew the same and you couldn’t really see the difference,” he said. “Some paddocks had high P, some had none.

“We had to adjust the amount of fertiliser to level it out.”

The test results were used to adjust the fertiliser regime to make it more efficient and economical.

“Off the top of my head I’d say we’re using about a third less phosphorus now,” he said. “Nitrogen has stayed about the same but there has been a big saving in phosphorus.”

The success of the tests and the resulting savings prompted Vickers and Wright to pay for similar tests on their own cattle rearing farm.

“In today’s economic environment it’s another tool to help you save some money,” he said.

“It has given us a true indication where we are going. If it helps you grow more grass, the more profit you can make.”

Follow-up soil tests have been carried out on the farm but the results are not yet available. “It

will be interesting to see the changes in the soil after we adjusted our fer-tiliser rates,” he said.

“It’s definitely worth doing the program. The potential for dairy in this area is huge. There’s no magic thing to make it work but anything like this helps to implement changes for the better. It looks like being a good season for us.”

He added that the soil test program would ben-efit from more follow-up work to ensure necessary changes are implemented on farms.

“It would be good to go one step further and have an agronomist come in behind the test results and give professional rec-ommendations on what you should do about them to fix up any problems,” he said.

Project coordina-

tor Kylie Boston said the three-year and $300,000 Reducing Soil Acidifica-tion Through Nutrient Management in SA pro-gram was helping dairy farmers to reduce salin-ity and the risk of nutri-ent loss while maintaining fertiliity.

The program is funded by the Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry: Caring for Our Country and runs till 2013.

“It sets the scene for farmers to adopt man-agement strategies to improve their soil acid-ity and their productivity,” Boston said.

In total, 42 farms have been involved in the proj-ect. Its next phase involves assessing the impacts of changes to farm nutrient application and fertiliser plans.

“This summer we will do more soil tests, which will be about two years after the first tests, to see what improvements have been made from their change nutrient manage-ment,” Boston said.

The project is due to finish in June 2013.

Soils tests aid dairy expansion

who: Andy Vickers and Belinda Wright whErE: Lucindale whAT: Dairy expansion

rIck BaynE

andy Vickers

soil test results were used to adjust the fertiliser regime to make it more efficient and economical.

andy Vickers (left) in discussion on the Lucindale farm he share farms.

• APackomilktankandsystemtosuitallherdsizes,pickupschedules,andentrytemperatures

• Simpleonebuttonoperationtoactivateeithercoolingorwashmodes

• Packo’sPatentedfullyautomaticRotojetcleaningsystem,ensureseverysquareinchof theinsidevesseliscleanandhygienic.

• Thechoiceisyours-Directexpansionoraglycolchillingtank

• Pre,instantcoolingsystemsavailable

New & Secondhand systems / Wash system upgrades for any make-model tank

Dairy-Tech Refrigeration

CallDairy-TechRefrigerationtodayforanohasslequotation

Phone0356623277emailpgoiris@dairytechrefrig.com.auWebwww.dairytechrefrig.com.au

The dedicated milk cooling specialistRegisteredPackoDealerAustralia


manaGEmEnT // 21

THE colEman family has been placed in the 100 lowest bulk milk cell count levels in the coun-try this year – twice.

Brothers Jim and Matt Coleman run sepa-rate herds of 200 cows on two Gippsland proper-ties – at Maffra and Deni-son – in partnership with their parents, Gerald and Teresa.

Each farm is man-aged as a separate entity – Jim at Maffra and Matt at Denison - and the busi-ness also has one full-time and two casual employees.

Such is the attention to detail by both brothers that both farms received the highest accolade in the Countdown Downunder BMCC awards.

Both farms are located in the Macalister Irriga-tion District, about 15 minutes apart, running 200 mainly crossbred cows each.

The cows graze pre-dominantly on irrigated perennial rye grass and clover mix all year round, with grain, silage and hay supplements.

Jim and Matt said they strive to produce the best quality milk day in day out and to maintain premium quality standards set by the milk company.

The Colemans’ farm-ing business works on the theory ‘prevention is better than cure’ and attention to detail in all areas of mastitis manage-ment is critical.

They devised their strategies to manage mas-titis through consultation with local veterinarians.

When they identify clinical cases they take samples to understand what bacteria they are dealing with.

Matt has been involved in trial work which has exposed him to different methods of testing and he regularly reads farming publications for the latest information in treatment and management.

General milking hygiene is important in managing mastitis so teat dip is used with an iodine based mix at the end of each milking using a teat dipping cup.

However, Matt believes that the intro-duction of a teat sealant is responsible for the signif-icant change in how farm-ers manage mastitis.

Both farms undertake a blanket dry cow of the herds at dry off and use Teatseal on maiden heif-ers at 23 months of age before their first lacta-tion.

Matt started using Teatseal on the maidens after overseas and local trial data showed that Teatseal worked on heif-ers and took the instance of mastitis down from 20% to 2% in the first lac-tation.

Matt said the extra workload of teat sealing heifers may be off putting to farmers but his results have been outstanding and set up his heifers for a low cell count lactation cycle.

During lactation, mas-titis is treated as soon as it is found with an intra-mammary treatment. Intra-muscular antibiotics are used in more severe cases.

In a bid to reduce the incidence of mastitis, the brothers:

■ Use green filter socks to help locate the usu-ally white mastitis lumps

■ Regularly serviced milking plant

■ Rubber inflations changed at the recom-mended 2500 milkings

■ Well maintained cow lanes

■ Stall gates fitted at the dairy to assist with cow flow and comfort

■ Avoid over milking the cows

■ Maintain the cows body condition and general heath at all times, with support from agronomist/herd health advisor

■ Take time not to rush the cows when bring-ing them into milk

■ Strip test the herd when needed

■ Herd test regularly ■ Cull cow or dry-off

infected quarter of the cow after she has had three clinical cases in the current lactation in the same quarter

Colemans crack top 100

who: Jim and Matt Coleman whErE: Maffra and Denison whAT: Low cell count Jim, gerald and Matt Coleman have

finished in the top 100 of the dairy australia low Bulk Milk Cell County milk quality awards.

This is one of the many examples of the dairy service levy at work. For more information on this and other levy investments visit www.dairyaustralia.com.au

Increasing grain prices make secure feed contracts even more important for good farm management.

Contracts with feed suppliers need not be a legal minefield with unnecessary administration. They can be very useful instruments that go a long way to managing quality, supply and price risks.

A verbal contract over the phone is a legally binding contract, it does not need to be written down and signed. However, it is much better to convert it to writing in some form so there is some documentation to refer to if later clarification is needed. A letter, an email or a fax will be suitable. Remember to store the paperwork in a safe place.

What should the contract contain? The details to cover include the price- don’t forget to specify the GST, the quality, the amount and delivery and payment methods. Here’s an example: “A total of 100 tonnes of ASW grade wheat at $420/tonne plus GST delivered on-farm in four 25-tonne loads in the first week of March, April, May and June. Payment will be on 30-day terms from the end of each week of delivery.”

Seek to negotiate payment terms with your feed suppliers to suit your cash flow, your milk cheque and your overdraft arrangements.

Is your agreement or contract solid? Put it to these tests: Will your supplier stand by the contract if the market prices rises $100/tonne above the contract price? Will you stand by the contract if the market

price falls $100/tonne below the contract price? Does it guarantee supply only if the season is OK? If any problem arises, who manages it – the buyer or seller? Are there well-defined quality specifications or will you need to feed test post-delivery?

A useful tool for tracking feed prices is the fortnight Hay and Grain report available for free on the Dairy Australia website. This report provides an independent and timely assessment of grain and hay markets in each dairying region.

Visit www.dairyaustralia.com.au/HandG

Stay in contact with the supplier during the season. You also have the option of using an agent.

Even when the contract has been drawn-up, someone needs to be responsible for ensuring and monitoring the delivery of the feed. Among these tasks are:

arrange pick-up trucking schedule and ensure necessary equipment (eg auger) is available

• arrange feed lab analysis

• weigh loads and get weight certificate

• arrange payment schedules for supply, freight and storage

• monitor supplier/buyer risk in the event of a major price/supply shift.

Feed contracts: it’s all about security

GlEnFynE daIry farmer Nigel McConnell was surprised when soil test results showed alarming levels of acidi-fication in some of his paddocks.

The tests were done as part of a soil acidity project in the Timboon area funded by Corangamite CMA and Heytesbury District Landcare Network and managed by WestVic Dairy.

They showed soils across McCon-nell’s farm were desperately in need of attention because of acidification.

Each of the 10 dairy farms in the pilot project was given the opportunity through a range of soil tests to obtain a snapshot of their soil pH status and soil nutrient levels and to develop nutrient maps for phosphorus, sulphur, potas-sium and soil pH.

“We have been fairly vigilant over

the years to monitor soil fertility” Nigel explained, “and the soil test results for phosphorus and sulphur were well on target, with only potassium needing some attention in some paddocks”.

The key nutrient results for phos-phorus on McConnell’s farm were gen-erally high, with many paddocks in excess of an Olsen P of 30.

Potassium levels were varied with some zones marginal to adequate and two zones where Colwell K levels were less than 100 (deficient). Sul-phur levels (KCL-40 test) were gener-ally high across most of the farm with levels above 18.

However, the surprise was in the seriousness of soil acidification. Levels below pH 5 (CaCl2 test) are considered marginal for good pasture growth and could respond to lime but McConnell’s paddocks ranged from 4.1 to 4.7.

Of similar concern were the alu-

minium saturation levels on the same areas which ranged from 4% through to an alarming 15.5%. Local soil advi-sory services at DPI in Warrnambool suggest that levels of less than 1% are desirable, and at levels below 3% most pasture species are unaffected.

“We had done some tests before to check fertility but not for acidity,” McConnell said.

“It was a bit of a surprise to see the aluminium levels so high but doing the program was very beneficial because we identified a problem and could do something about it.”

He said soil acidity and aluminium toxicity were the main limitations iden-tified in limiting his pasture production.

After attending a workshop at Timboon as part of the project, McConnell ordered 300 tonne of lime to address the acidification and strategically apply it at rates up to 2t/ha.

“Because we had the soil test results, I realised the importance of lime and could justify the expense,” McConnell said.

“It won’t fix the problem overnight and we may have to apply a little more lime but it will pay off in the long term.”

Project facilitator from WestVic Dairy, Jeff Lawes, said that while lime

and liming is an inexact science, as gen-eral rule of thumb, local soil advisory service providers suggest that apply-ing 2.5t/ha of lime (incorporated will give a quicker response) will raise pH (CaCl2) by about pH 0.7 - 0.8 in sandy soils, about pH 0.5 – 0.6 in loam – clay loam soils and about pH 0.4 in heavier clay soils.


22 // manaGEmEnT

Tests open eyes to soil acidityrIck BaynE

Western Victorian farmer Nigel McConnell says he could justify the expense of lime after soil tests revealed his paddocks had high levels of acidification.

Repair pugging by spring sowingSPrInG SowInG is a great way to repair your damaged paddocks, accord-ing to Wrightson Seeds agronomist Darrel Rowe.

Traditional autumn sowings can fail in a cold and wet winter and wet pad-docks are easily damaged by stock and machinery.

Spring sowing is a viable option to either establish new pastures or to improve existing pastures that have underperformed or been damaged.

Rowe said that spring sowing of perennial pastures is gaining momen-tum and support across a wide range of dairy operations and is delivering real success for farmers.

“Especially if you have access to irri-gation or if you’re in an area that has good spring rainfall, warmer soil tem-peratures in spring will mean a spring sown pasture is going to be faster to

establish than an autumn sown pas-ture,” Rowe said.

“It’s also going to give farmers better control of winter germinating weeds and allow for better establishment of perennial clovers.”

Clover growth in winter is always slow compared to ryegrass, meaning clover seedlings tend to get shaded out, Rowe said.

“On the other hand, sowing down clover in spring generally has a greater success rate, primarily because the clover is establishing in warmer con-ditions, which are better suited to its growth.

“So rather than trying to establish clover seedlings in winter, plants estab-lished in spring will go through the next winter season as an established and pro-ductive plant.”

In dairy pastures with clover con-

tent around 30%, nitrogen fixation can be as high as 200kg N per hectare per year, contributing savings of $100-200 per hectare in nitrogen costs.

Clearly, getting your clover strategy right can really pay off; and a part of this is looking at sowing your clover down in spring.

Rowe said those looking to renovate their pastures after winter could follow these steps to ensure a successful over-sowing of pastures this spring:

■ Soil test to identify any nutrient deficiencies that may affect pasture establishment and production

■ Assess level of damage and deter-mine best pasture mix and strategy for the situation

■ Graze existing pasture hard to reduce trash for drilling and to set back existing plants

■ If heavy pugging has occurred, con-

sider using heavy harrows or rail-way iron to level out the paddock for more accurate sowing depth

■ Over-sow pasture mix with a starter fertiliser (NP) blend, roll under ideal conditions or if drilling has left a rough result

■ If conditions are dry, consider drill-ing deeper into moisture but do not cover as this will bury seed

■ Use Ultrastrike treated grasses and Superstrike treated legumes for protection against key pasture pests such Red Legged Earth Mite

■ Graze new pastures as soon as plants can withstand pulling as this will restrict growth of existing pas-ture and allow new seedlings to establish.Rowe said spring sowing presents a

great opportunity to renovate paddocks damaged by pugging.

If not managed properly, pugging can result in pasture production losses of up to 25%. It also can leave pastures susceptible to invasion by weeds as they will happily fill in the bare patches.

As a guide, Wrightson Seeds recom-mends the following remedial actions:

■ < 10% damage – heavy roller or smudger bar

■ 10 - 20% damage – over-sow with diploid perennial blend at 15kg/ha

■ 20 - 35% damage – over-sow with diploid medium term blend at 20kg/ha

■ 35 - 50% damage – over-sow with diploid short term blend at 25kg/ha

■ > 50% damage – new pastures: Over-sow with diploid perennial blend at 25kg/ha Old pastures: Spray out and sow

either turnips or a high quality forage rape as a brassica crop.

Get the most from your pasture with..

Ph: 1800 333 010 Fax: 1800 024 267 Email: [email protected] David Smyth—Dairy Sales Manager 0409 187 112

Want to know more about our

products?

See our website

www.clf.com.au

Molafos 15 / 15S, Molafos M Dairy, are products de-Molafos 15 / 15S, Molafos M Dairy, are products de-signed specifically to fill the nutritional gaps found in signed specifically to fill the nutritional gaps found in some pastures. Molafos Dairy Transition and Molafos GT some pastures. Molafos Dairy Transition and Molafos GT

(Grass Tetany) are two more specialised(Grass Tetany) are two more specialised products for Dairy Production.products for Dairy Production. Molafos Dairy Transition is Molafos Dairy Transition is designed to aid dairy cows in designed to aid dairy cows in their rest period prior to calving, buildingtheir rest period prior to calving, building

mineral reserves needed after calving. Molafos GT in-cludes magnesium and anionic salts which help reduce the risk of Grass Tetany.


manaGEmEnT // 23

Dancing with your animalsmIlkInG cowS is just like dancing, says a lead-ing dairy consultant, Josh Wheeler.

It might sound odd but Wheeler says there are similarities such as learn-ing the steps, repeating them until you are used to them and maybe unlearn-ing some steps that aren’t really right.

In essence he says, milking and dancing are

about routine and about it becoming second nature. The key message is, estab-lish a routine in the shed that works for you and the cows – and perhaps some special music.

Wheeler is an expert in milking management among many things, and says dairy farmers need to take time out to review their work pat-terns and the environment in which they work. He made his comments at a recent seminar organised

PETEr BUrkEby the Smaller Milk and Supply Herds (SMASH) in Manawatu.

“The first thing farm-ers have to realise is that the dairy shed is just a fac-tory and the task is har-vesting milk from a cow and putting it in vat. So farmers have got to look at the most efficient ways to do that. If I was work-ing as a kiwifruit packer everything would be built around me for my comfort so I did a good job.

“So farmers need to stand back and look what they are doing within their routine and how they can uncomplicate it to reduce the effort they have to make to get the milk out of the cow.”

Wheeler illustrated his point with a series of graphics showing how time and effort could be saved or wasted by making relatively minor adjust-ments to the layout in a typical herringbone shed.

These included the loca-tion of the backing gate switch and where teat sprayers are located, which might sound small but can turn milking into a more satisfying experi-ence. Some changes will be inexpensive, others may cost a bit more, he says.

“What I’m trying to challenge people about

is to sit down and draw their routine for milking the cows. What points do I have to go to and how many steps and how many times am I going to have to do it?” he asks.

The benefits can be sig-nificant: he’s seen cases where the milking time has been cut by 45 min-utes. “But it’s not only time; it’s about having a

routine and a workplace more comfortable for the person doing the milking.”

Josh Wheeler

“ It’s about having a routine.”– Josh Wheeler

Utilising data to improve pastureadvancES In technology are allowing dairy farmers to use a combination of data from their own farm and cli-mate records to ‘learn’ from seasonal yields.

This new learning function will enable farmers to deter-mine the causes of poor pasture performance and to iden-tify ways to improve yields.

FutureDairy senior research fellow, Dr Cameron Clark, highlighted some of the opportunities offered by new technologies for improved pasture production at the Dairy Research Foundation’s annual symposium, held at Camden, NSW, last month.

“Technology is transforming pasture management from an approach of ‘working from averages’ to dealing with individual paddocks,” Clark said.

“This is important, given the large range in pasture yields between paddocks. For example, the best paddocks typically yield double that of poorer performing paddocks on the same farm.

“Advances such as automatic pasture meters have greatly increased the amount of data available to farmers but the challenge is to convert this data into meaningful information for making management decisions.”

Clark said software programs had been developed to ‘learn’ from pasture data collected across a farm, also drawing upon climatic records. They can help determine the cause of low pasture yields and define areas for simi-lar management.

“This is likely to be an ‘add-in’ function to the pasture management or feed budgeting programs currently used by many dairy farmers and their advisors.”

Clark said these advances allow dairy farmers to place greater focus on soil: for example, customising soil testing and fertiliser application at the paddock level and select-ing the most suitable paddocks for cropping.

“The application of these technologies on farm is in its early stages but it has the potential to dramatically change the way we approach pasture management on dairy farms,” he said.

FutureDairy researcher, Dr Cameron Clark.

Managing mastitis isn’t black and white.We all know mastitis is a complex problem. There’s a lot to manage and each situation must be tailored for the right outcome. No matter what mastitis problem you’re facing, Pfizer Animal Health has a range of treatment options to help you effectively control mastitis and get milk back into the vat faster. Next time your herd is a little off colour, talk to your vet about the Pfizer mastitis range.

More options. Better outcomes.

First line treatment Flexible treatment option

Trusted sustained action formulation

For severe and hard to cure cases

Dairy Health. Performance. Growth.

www.pfizeranimalhealth.com.au 1800 335 374Pfizer Australia Pty Ltd 38–42 Wharf Road, West Ryde NSW 2114® Registered trademark of Pfizer. PAL0620/DN

PAL0620_DN_260mmx187mm_v1.indd 1 6/08/12 1:14 PM

Honestly, I have become quite frustrated when I go to speak at these discussion groups. It always feels to me that it is those who are the best farmers in the district already who are attend-ing, when I know there are many other farm staff and farm owners who would, in my opinion, benefit more from going along, if only they would make attendance a priority.

I was lamenting this with one of the drug com-pany representatives the other day, and I asked her how she maintains her enthusiasm when it seems that the only ones lis-tening and attending are the best farmers already anyway.

She answered me so simply that I sat back on my chair and drew breath. She said: “Did you ever think that the reason why they are the best farmers in the district is because they are attending the dis-cussion groups, listening to the vets, taking advan-tage of the great resources available to them from Dairy Australia, drug man-ufacturers, the local gov-ernment services etc.”

It really hit home to me that the farmers who seem like they least need to attend the dis-cussion groups, the calf workshops, the breeding forums, the pasture walks, the lameness workshops etc are actually in some ways the ones who need it the most.

They already know that

for them to stay ahead of the curve, to strive for better production and profitability, they must always seek the next bit of knowledge to help them in their quest.

For those of you who already are regular attend-ees at industry functions, keep it up.

The successes you are enjoying are related to your ability to assimilate information from many sources and implement it on your own farm.

It gives you the jump on the others and hope-fully your dairy vet is striv-ing to do the same by regularly attending confer-ences, taking the time to meet with the reps and lis-tening to, and responding to your concerns.

For those of you who don’t make the time to invest in your own self development or that of your staff, for heaven’s sake, get out there and

make sure that you get to as many field days, discus-sion groups and vet talks as possible.

You will enjoy the company of like minded farmers, facing their own struggles, get an opportu-nity to learn about some new ideas or strategies and soon you too will be one of the district’s best farmers.

Get online and surf around for what is hap-pening in your area, read your milk factory newslet-ters and put those remind-ers up on the calendar (or in your iPhone for the younger ones), talk to your milk supply manager or field officer about discus-sion groups or field days that they may know about, and ask your vet if they are holding any farmers meetings, or even better, suggest a topic and get a few dozen farmer mates together and I am sure your vet will be happy to run a farmers’ night.

Also check out the resources available for dairy farmers from Dairy Australia. They are worth-while, and it is your money that has been spent put-ting the information together, it is up to you to make sure that you benefit from that investment.

I hope to see you soon around the place at a meeting, conference or discussion group.• Rob Bonanno is the past president of the Australian Cattle Veterinarians Assocation and a director of the Shepparton Veterinary Clinic.

THE laST few months have been pretty busy for me. I have been to the Hunter Valley for the Aus-tralian Cattle Veterinari-ans annual conference, to Canberra for the Austra-lian Veterinary Associa-tion’s annual conference and to Lisbon, Portugal for the World Buiatrics Con-gress (WBC).

The WBC is held some-where in the world every two years and countries bid for it similarly (but less corruptly) to the Olym-pics. It is a chance for vets from all around the world to get together and hear about the latest advances in the cattle veterinary world.

In 2014, Australia will host the WBC in Cairns and I am lucky enough to be on the organising com-mittee for that event.

Attending confer-ences is one of the many ways that veterinarians keep abreast of the latest advances in diagnosis and

treatment of disease. On just about any day there are dozens of online tuto-rials, email list serves from all over the world, Webi-nars, face to face meetings, conferences and visits from the drug manufac-turers representatives to tell us about new products and services.

In a large practice like mine, we share infor-mation from all these sources, plus discuss the clinical cases we are seeing out in the field. On top of that, we connect with other local vet clinics at meetings, via the local DPI vets and we call each other up if we see something out of the ordinary, even if

only to gloat.How is this relevant to

dairy farmers?Over the years of

my career, I have been asked to speak at many farmer discussion groups and meetings and have delivered content for Murray Dairy and Dairy Australia.

Often these events are free, or at a very minimal cost, and they are usually paid for from Dairy Aus-tralia funding, which is your dairy levies at work.

Unlike veterinarians who must perform a mini-mum number of hours of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) in order to maintain registra-tion to practice as a veteri-narian, dairy farmers have no such obligation in order to be able to milk cows.

There are so many things to do on a dairy farm that I can under-stand how hard it can be to get away to all of the farm discussion groups

etc available, but I believe it is absolutely essen-tial that you make the effort to continually grow the knowledge base with which you farm.


24 // anImal HEalTH

Discussion groups vital

ANimAL hEALThrob boNANNo

Talk to your milk supply manager or field officer about discussion groups or field days that they may know about, and ask your vet if they are holding any farmers meetings.

Rob Bonanno says there are many farm owners and staff who would benefit from attending discussion groups.

IN UDDER WORDS...

Spring is the time many young dairy stock are susceptible to a variety of parasites and diseases. Planning prevention programs during spring for these highly valuable stock can greatly reduce longer term productivity issues.In young calves that are transitioning to pasture based diets, the maternal antibodies they received from colostrum will be declining and without an effective vaccination program these cattle may be susceptible to disease. Older yearlings will now require annual boosters against these same diseases – including clostridial disease (especially pulpy kidney and blackleg) and leptospirosis. The benefit of controlling Leptospirosis in cattle is that it helps to prevent infection in your family and farm workers – infection is passed from cattle to humans in urine.Clostridial and Leptospirosis vaccines require two initial doses four to six weeks apart for full protection of cows and calves, followed by an annual booster – although some require more frequent vaccination against pulpy kidney or Leptospirosis, depending on when they are first given.

Often Coopers are asked whether the full two shot program is required in young calves – the graph below shows the typical protection gained after 5 in 1 or 7 in 1 vaccinations and shows the risk you take if you don’t give booster vaccinations:

The booster dose gives sustained protection, keeping antibody levels above the protective level until next year’s annual booster.Leptospirosis can be a serious threat to cattle as well as a risk to humans. Prevention of Leptospirosis in humans relies on vaccination of cattle to minimise the shedding of Leptospires in the urine – using a 7 in 1 vaccine will also protect cattle against the major clostridial diseases. Coopers have recently re-launched Cattlevax® 7 in 1 to the Australian dairy market.

Ca t t l e vax 7 in 1 is highly effective in preventing leptospirosis in cattle and reduces the risk of transmission of infection to humans – helping to protect your family and workers.

With Leptospirosis, it is vital that producers break the cycle early and vaccinate young stock before they pick up the disease.

Coopers Cattlevax 7 in 1 is now available at your local vaccine stockist. For further information on your vaccination programs, talk to your local Coopers Animal Health Representative on 1800 885 576.

® Registered Trademark

Protect your most valuable cattle

Sensitising 2nd Dose (1st Booster) AnnualDose After 4-6 weeks Booster1 2 3

6 weeks safe protection level

PROTECTION (WEEKS)

1

2 3

Sensitising Dose

Boo

ster

Dos

e

Ann

ual B

oost

er

0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 54

52weeks


anImal HEalTH // 25

‘Fussy’ cow health routine slashes bulk milk cell countSTEvE FowlIE’S name has become a regu-lar fixture in the annual Australian Bulk Milk Cell Count awards.

For the past five years the northern Tasmanian farm run by Steve and his wife Sharon has made the top 5%, including a top 1%

ranking in 2011.They have again made

the grade in 2012, a suc-cess he attributes to dili-gence across a range of measures and following the advice of experts.

Fowlie has farmed the 120ha property at Forest South for the past 16 years after moving across from a dairy career in New Zea-land.

It’s a good farming location but has the chal-lenge of a wet and muddy spring which makes the property prone to mastitis.

“It gets very muddy underfoot and most farms around here would have a mastitis problem of some degree,” he said.

While his farm didn’t have an excessive masti-tis issue, Fowlie was deter-

mined not to let it get out of hand and enrolled in a Countdown Downunder program about five years ago.

“If farmers want to reduce mastitis and improve their cell count, that’s where I recommend they start,” he said.

“You learn so much and as long as you prac-tice what you learned on your farm, you won’t have a big prob-lem.”

He also advises work-ing with local vets to keep up-to-date with latest information to ensure cows remain in good shape.

The course and consul-tations have paid off, lead-ing to changed practices that resulted in a huge reduction in average cell count from about 150,000-170,000 a year to an aver-age of 70,000-80,000 a year, and even lower in spring.

“We didn’t have a massive problem but we wanted to target half the factory average. A lot of

the times we’re about one-third,” Fowlie said. The Fowlies supply Cadburys factory which has a cell count cut off of 250,000.

After completing the Countdown Downunder course and consulting his

local vets, he implemented a range of measures to ensure ongoing good milk quality.

“I’d say it is multi-fac-tored. You need to get a range of things correct,” he said.

High on the agenda was the use of teat sprays and Teatseal on cows and heifers at dry-off time in conjunction with dry cow therapy.

“We reduced mastitis by 75% in our heifers in the first season,” Fowlie said.

He describes the farm as having “constantly muddy conditions around

calving time” which expose cows to higher risk of infection and greater prevalence of leaking milk around calving, aggravat-ing the threat of mastitis.

“We’ve got to keep on top of it, so we started drying the cows and using Teatseal and then we used Teatseal on the maiden heifers which made a huge difference,” he said.

After talking to vets and confirming the suc-cess of the process, it was extended to all 370 cross-

breed Jersey and Friesian cows on the farm.

“I basically apply Teatseal at drying off which gives a natural seal at the end of the teat,” he said. Heifers get

Teatseal; cows get Teatseal and dry cow therapy.

Reducing mastitis has had a positive impact on the business. “We are more productive and we’re culling less,” Fowlie said. “Our production has gone up year after year and we’ve cut down to only culling two or three a year because of high cell counts.”

Fowlie says all farmers should keep a close watch on mastitis, including looking out for symptoms such as swelling, heat in the quarters, sickness or discomfort, and deco-

loured or lumpy milk. If a problem is detected

he isolates the cow from the herd and starts treat-ment, which includes intra-mammary infusions and, if needed, muscular injections.

As part of his milk quality campaign, Fowlie regularly uses teat spray, takes special care during cup removal and tries to avoid letting the cows get wet after cups are removed.

He admits he is “pretty fussy” about maintaining healthy cows and a healthy environment for them.

For example, he changes the rubber liners in the shed three times per year at the correct time in his 30-a-side cowshed.

“I am pretty fussy, but you have to be if you want healthy cows and better production.”

He also adjusts feed-ing patterns to ensure a healthy herd.

“We feed them more dry matter, cut back on the grass and give them more hay. We feed about 800kg of grain per cow, which is working pretty well.

“At point of calving we reduce feeding with more hay and less grass to stop cows bagging up too much.”

The farm has a ryegrass pasture-based system.

The Fowlies are sup-ported on the farm by his teenage sons and two part-time workers.

rIck BaynE

Changed practices on steve Fowlie’s farm have resulted in a reduction in average cell count from about 150,000-170,000 a year to an average of 70,000-80,000 a year, and even lower in spring.

As part of his milk quality campaign, Fowlie regularly uses teat spray, takes special care during cup removal and tries to avoid letting the cows get wet after cups are removed.

who: Steve and Sharon Fowlie

whErE: Forest South

whAT: Mastitis control

For more information contact Pfizer on 1800 814 883. References: 1. Vogel, Gary. 1995. The effect of ionophores on feed intake by feedlot cattle. pp. 281-288. Symposium: Intake by Feedlot Cattle. Oklahoma State University. P-942. ^Rumensin is a registered trademark of Elanco Animal Health. Pfizer Australia Pty Ltd. 38-42 Wharf Road, West Ryde, NSW 2114. ABN 50 008 422 348 ®Registered trademark of Pfizer. PAL0633/DN

Cattle prefer Bovatec®

• Bovatec® reduces feed intake less than Rumensin^1

• Bovatec® aids in the improvement of milk production of dairy cows on high protein pasture and lot fed rations• Bovatec® controls the clinical signs of coccidiosis and reduces faecal shedding in growing cattle

PAL0633_DN_100x265_v01.indd 1 30/07/12 11:39 AM


26 // anImal HEalTH

Profit from mineral shotsdaIry cowS injected with trace mineral supplements can return sig-nificant production gains, including a reduction in mastitis, new research con-ducted by the prestigious Cornell Uni-versity in the United States shows.

The study, which was presented to veterinarians and scientists at the 27th World Buiatrics Congress in Lisbon, Portugal last month, demonstrated sev-eral benefits of injectable trace miner-als on the health and production of dairy cows.

During certain critical events dairy cows are under considerable stress, which can reduce the amount of trace minerals they can absorb through the normal dietary process or via daily oral supplements.

These trace minerals, including zinc, selenium, manganese and copper, can help bolster a cow’s immune system and increase overall health.

In the Cornell University study, 1416 cows were selected for a field trial involving three large commercial dairy farms.

The cows were injected with Vir-bac’s Multimin Injection for Cattle, a trace mineral supplement, at critical

times including: at dry-off; 30 days prior to calving; and 35 days in milk. Multi-min Injection for Cattle is an injectable source of zinc, manganese, copper and selenium, which bypasses the rumen for direct uptake through the blood. (The US Multimin product used in the study contains 20 mg/mL more zinc than Multimin in Australia.)

The aim of this study was to see whether the Multimin injection would provide any production benefits.

None of the cows in the study had been treated with Multimin previously. Each of the participating farms had well-managed dairy herds with good oral mineral programs in place. All par-ticipating cows were fed a diet that had been formulated to meet or exceed the NRC nutritional requirements for lac-tating cows.

The most significant result of the study was a reduction in the somatic cell count from 299,660 to 218,964. This reduction indicates better overall health in the cow and higher quality milk.

Clinical mastitis was reduced by almost 5.7 cases per 100 cows in cows that had calved more than once. The less severe but still production-reduc-

ing subclinical mastitis was reduced by 1.6 cases per 100 cows.

The incidence of endometritis – an important cause of reduced herd fer-tility – fell by 5.6 cases per 100 cows to 28.6%. Stillbirths decreased from 6.1% to 4.3%. These two results demonstrate that an injection of trace mineral sup-plements can increase overall fertility in dairy herds.

Lead researcher, Dr Rodrigo Bic-alho from the Department of Popula-tion Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences

at Cornell University, said “Our moti-vation was to use a trace mineral sup-plement to boost the immune system of lactating Holstein cows, improving overall health, milk production and reproduction.

“As an academic, I went into the study with a neutral view of what results we would see and I was very pleased when we found a significant reduction in somatic cell count along with reduced incidences of mastitis, endometritis and stillbirth calvings in the herd.

“This translates to greater dairy production and herd numbers, with a reduction in treatment costs for dairy producers.”

According to Dr Rodrigo Bicalho, different benefits appeared at different times, with calf survival the first benefit to be seen, followed by improved uter-ine health and then improved udder health.

Rob Bonanno, a director of the Shepparton Veterinary Clinic and a former dairy farmer, said the results of the study were of great interest to Aus-tralian dairy farmers despite the test conditions being different from stan-dard Australian dairy cattle conditions.

“Cornell University is a leader in its field and this study is clearly extremely rigorous,” Bonanno said.

“The numbers within the study show that there is only a 0.005% chance that these results occurred naturally rather than as a result of the Multimin treat-ment.

“That’s an extremely low chance thanks to the rigour of the study itself – so we can be confident that the Mul-timin treatment was the cause of the improvements.”

a Cornell university study has shown dairy cows injected with a trace mineral supplement can return significant production gains.

Dectomax® kills the worms that count in dairy areas

Reference: 1. Based on worm egg counts and larval differentiation conducted 2001–2011. Pfizer data on file. Pfizer Australia Pty Ltd, 38–42 Wharf Road, West Ryde, NSW 2114. ABN 50 008 422 348. ® Registered Trademark of Pfizer Australia. 04/12 PAL0651/DN

From thousands of tests conducted across Australia,

we know that Ostertagia spp., Haemonchus placei

and Cooperia spp. make up to 90%1 of the worm

egg count in the dairy areas of New South Wales,

Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.

Dectomax provides long-acting performance

against the worms that count.

For more information call 1800 814 883

or visit www.dectomax.com.au

INTERNAL PARASITE DECTOMAX (days of activity)

Cooperia spp.* (Small intestinal worm)

35 days

Ostertagia ostertagi (Small brown stomach worm)

35 days

Trichostrongylus axei (Stomach hair worm)

35 days

Haemonchus placei (Barber’s pole worm)

35 days

Oesophagostomum radiatum (Nodule worm)

21 days

*Provides up to 21 days of persistent activity against Cooperia oncophora as per label claim.

NSW

VIC

TAS

SA

PAL0651_DN_200x265_Outline_Dairy_v02.indd 1 4/06/12 3:24 PM


Hay and SIlaGE // 27

“a loT of grain growers all think they’d like to own a dairy,” Jarrod O’Sullivan says with a laugh.

The difference with O’Sullivan, the Austra-lian Fodder Industry Association chairman, is he decided to have a go, purchasing a dairy farm at Mooroopna with his family two years ago.

O’Sullivan, his parents Greg and Aileen, and his brother Damian are grain and fodder growers based in Goornong, cropping on properties in northern Victoria and NSW.

They grow oaten hay for the export market and other grains as the season, and markets, dictate.

More canola has been sown this year to capital-ise on attractive opening prices.

All fodder is sold to the export trade through WA company Gilmac, which has established an export plant in Goornong.

They made 500t of oaten hay last season, with 95% sold for export. Any-thing too high in moisture is sold to the dairy market, which as of two years ago, includes their dairy farm.

(The dairy farm is a mirror company so all feed is purchased at market rates.)

They will milk 340 cows this year under the man-agement of Jarrod’s part-ner, Mel, who oversees two full-time staff and casuals.

O’Sullivan said grain growers assume they’d make good farmers because they have surplus grain and fodder on hand that fails to reach pre-mium grades.

“They still tell me that now when I see them. I say to them, if it’s that easy, why can’t you sell that quality to dairy farmers now?”

O’Sullivan milked a cow for the first time when they bought the farm and it has been a steep learning curve. They had to stock the farm with equipment and cows from scratch, although it came with a 30 head swingover dairy.

The farm uses a Partial Mixed Ration (PMR) year-round and calves three times a year to capital-ise on the more lucrative winter market.

Utilising a PMR and a feed pad near the dairy enables O’Sullivan to capi-talise on his knowledge of producing and preparing high quality feed.

The PMR is a maize/silage base with medium/high grain component, usually canola meal, adding lucerne or vetch for protein. When there is pasture, the same ration is provided minus the lucerne.

“There has been good synergy between the busi-nesses. Knowledge on the feed side is the main one, knowing what the dairy

wants and what the herd needs.

“A good understanding of nutrition is helping on the other side of the busi-ness as well.

“It helps us understand what quantity of fodder or forage we need to make.”

They calve three times a year – 60% in March to capture the winter milk market, 30% in July and 10% in December to keep milk flow going. The batch calv-ing also helps them manage their staff time and his time.

Although the prop-erty wasn’t stocked when purchased, it did have a 450 cow feed pad, which was on the O’Sullivan shopping list.

“The feed pad was on the shopping list, we needed somewhere we could run this sort of system. A pure grass-based farm didn’t appeal as we wanted to utilise our knowledge.”

The mixer wagon, feed pad and PMR suit the off-

peak contract favoured by more processors, who want to flatten the supply curve.

They are currently milking 280 cows and will peak at 340 this year with a final target of 450 in mind.

Quality feed is pur-chased wherever cheapest and not necessarily from the family.

They are currently

growing their maize requirement in summer on the dairy farm and cows graze on annual rye-grass in spring, although they enter the feed pad year round.

The ration is changed to accommodate spring pasture. They spend more time in the feedpad from the start of summer, with access to some nearby

New dairy presents fresh challenges for grain grower

holding paddocks.The herd comprises

mainly Holsteins but they also purchased some crossbred cows because of the price and O’Sullivan said they have been fan-tastic.

“We will stick with a mix of Holsteins and crossbreds now as it has been going well.”

They will plant more

lucerne this year.O’Sullivan will pur-

chase more cows when time to boost herd num-bers and is aiming to maintain and lift produc-tion through better quality feed and management.

With the current herd now settling down after the initial move two years ago, he is looking forward to some stability and fine

tuning the feeding system for now.

They are importing half their feed but will reno-vate more land this year to grow more maize silage and expand the areas for rotation.

“The dairy industry is certainly challenging, it’s not an easy industry to make money in, but there is money to be made in it.”

who: Jarrod O’Sullivan whErE: Ardmona whAT: Mixed feed

NEW! Concrete Float Cover

WATER & FEED TROUGHS, BUNKER SIDES

Round Cattle & Sheep Water Troughs 400 or 600mm high, 4’, 6’ & 8’ diameter Large 4”, easy-drain outlets High strength, reinforced concrete

NEW! Double length trough 8.6m

The most practical feed-out option!

Rectangular Water Troughs Three sizes – 3.0, 4.3 & 8.6m long Dished, easy-drain base Hinged, concrete float cover

AG-CRETE INDUSTRIES Ph: 03 5450 4400 www.ag-crete.com.au

Feed Troughs Save up to 30% of your feed! 3m long. Custom height sides for orders over 50.

Grain Bunker Sides Strong, sturdy & portable 3.0mL x 1.0mH x 0.55mW Use for grain, fertilisers & more

Ring us now for a great deal!

All orders in September will receive subsidised freight!


28 // Hay and SIlaGE

SIlaGE IS PICKLED pasture. When pasture is ensiled, its sugars are con-verted into lactic acid by bacteria. It is the lactic acid which pickles the pas-ture, allowing it to be preserved for a lot longer than it would have been if left in the open air.

For good silage preservation, we need a rapid drop in pH to a level where there will be no butyric fermentation, so the silage is stable until it is needed.

This DairyNZ article describes the preservation process which makes pas-ture into silage.

Understanding this helps us under-stand what we must get right to make high quality silage. Aerobic respiration

The first phase takes place while pasture is wilting in the field, and while there is oxygen in the stack. Plant enzymes, and bacteria, use the oxygen to turn sugars and proteins into energy.

This produces heat, an increase in numbers of bacteria, and a loss of nutri-ents from the pasture.

Sugars and proteins are lost from the silage when left too long in the field or not covered in the stack. They are not available for cows to eat later on, and the loss of sugars can have a big bear-ing on how well the silage preserves.

Compaction and quick covering of the silage to remove oxygen is a key to minimising respiration losses.

An American trial showed that immediate sealing of a silage stack saw all oxygen used up after 5 hours. A sim-ilar stack left unsealed for 48 hours took 90 hours before all oxygen was used. The potential respiration losses are huge. Lactic fermentation

Once all the oxygen has been used up, anaerobic lactic bacteria (which only function when there is no oxygen

around) begin to multiply in numbers. As they do so, they turn sugars into lactic acid, which results in a drop in silage pH. This is shown as the solid line in the diagram on the next page.

A low pH preserves the silage, by pre-venting butyric fermentation.

If butyric fermentation is prevented, the pH will stay low. The silage will be stable and well preserved. The pH needed for stable silage changes with DM% (water content) of the pasture.

• Very low DM pasture (<15%) is unlikely to reach a pH low enough to become stable.

• As DM% increases, the pH needed for silage to become stable also

increases. For 25- 35% DM pasture, a stable pH is 4.3 – 4.6 , but for 35-45% DM pasture a stable pH will be 4.6 – 5.0. Butyric fermentation

If the pH is not low enough for the silage to become stable, then butyric fermentation will occur.

It is shown as the dotted line on the diagram on the next page.

Butyric fermentation results in the breakdown of nutrients in the silage, and a drop in the palatability of the silage for cows.

Butyric fermentation is caused by other anaerobic bacteria (Clostridia), which live in higher pH conditions than the lactic acid bacteria.

They turn lactic acid into acetic and butyric acid, to get energy. They also get energy by breaking down protein into ammonia.

The reduction in lactic acid and increase in ammonia during butyric fer-mentation causes the pH of the silage to rise again.

This makes the stack more suited to further butyric fermentation.

The only way to prevent butyric fer-mentation is to avoid soil being har-vested with your crop, wilt pasture to about 30% drymatter which is also important to prevent seepage and have a silage pH which is low enough to stop Clostridia functioning.

Maximising your silage return

a rapid drop in pH is needed for optimum silage preservation.

0% finance100% fantastic

things are really moving at your local new Holland Dealer. and for good reason. Because now you can get 0% finance* across all round, large rectangular and small square balers. That’s a great rate that can save you a lot in the long run. And if you think about it, at 0% there’s no reason not to jump on this fantastic offer. so hurry into your new Holland dealer today. Own a bright future

*30% deposit, 2-year term (monthly or annual repayments). Offer is available to business customers only and subject to credit approval. Terms and conditions apply. Contact your local dealership for details.


Hay and SIlaGE // 29

Watch out for hay qualitywITH Hay consumption at its seasonal peak and supply tight, dairy farm-ers are warned to be wary of highly variable quality and are advised to make a visual assessment and obtain a nutritional anal-ysis of the hay prior to buying.

Dairy Australia’s Feed-2Milk program manager,

Dr Steve Little, cautioned dairy farmers to care-fully consider hay quality before buying as a lot of hay currently available was from the 2010 season with highly variable quality, particularly if it has been stored outside.

“Many dairy and beef producers across south eastern Australia are cur-

rently sourcing hay sup-plies which they expect to be feeding into August.”

When buying hay in a tight market, doing a feed budget will pre-vent buying more or less than will be required. Dr Little suggests doing a feed budget based on real-istic estimates of daily cow maintenance energy

requirements, feed already on hand, expected pasture growth rates and likely wastage at feedout.

“Look at the nutri-tional value for money rather than just the price tag. Start with a visual assessment, looking for signs of mould and check-ing the moisture content,” he said.

High moisture feeds are more susceptible to mould growth before har-vest or during storage.

“Various types of moulds produce mycotoxins which can be harmful to cow health and productivity. Avoid buying any mouldy hay, grain or other feed,” Dr Little said.

“If you are happy with the visual assessment of hay, the next step is to send a sample to the lab for nutritional analy-sis. The results will allow you to decide if the asking price is good value, given its nutritional content.”

For those in a hurry, the RAPID Feed Analysis Service generally provides

results in one to two working days (available through dairy companies in Victoria and southern New South Wales).

“Yellow bags for feed samples can be obtained from your factory field officer or transport office.” Visit www.dairyaustralia.com.au/feedreport

Composting spoiled haycomPoSTInG SPoIlEd hay might not be up there with the London Olympics in terms of big events but over the past year people have been turning out in droves to field days at places where you don’t usually find a crowd.

Held at Bridgewater, Pyramid Hill, Terang, Macarthur (near Hamilton) and Glen Alvie (near Wonthaggi), the field days attracted more than 400 people.

Department of Primary Industries (DPI) Productive Soils Specialist Declan McDonald said the field days were popular because at the time tens of thousands of hay bales had been spoiled in the 2010-11 Victorian floods.

“We wanted to help producers recoup some of their investment so we looked at using hay bales to fill old gul-lies, spreading hay over the surface of paddocks and allow-ing pasture to grow through, and composting the spoiled hay but the demand for the field days still exceeded my expectations,” Mr McDonald said.

“Of these options, composting had the greatest poten-tial to return benefits to the farm so this became the focus of the field days and a step-by-step guide which we have just released.”

DPI Senior Research Scientist Kevin Wilkinson said he was aware of about 50 dairy farmers in South West Victo-ria who were on-farm composting and using the compost on their pastures to complement their traditional nutri-ent management program.

“Anecdotal evidence suggests these farmers are man-aging to maintain productivity by using less inorganic fer-tiliser but it’s important for us to scientifically validate this,” he said.

“While the field days were a great way to get science out into a paddock and show people the opportunities and lim-itations of using on-farm composting, people have been asking what’s next.

“We are joining forces with Monash University to trial and demonstrate on-farm composting practices in South West Victoria using dairy effluent and manure.

“In time, we hope our work will create a reliable source of evidence based information that dairy farmers can use to make informed decisions about how to increase carbon in their soils and reduce fertiliser inputs on their farms.”

Composting spoiled hay can return benefits to the farm.

Call Tapex Pty Ltd on (03) 9361 8100 for the name of your nearest reseller

email: [email protected] www.tapex.com.au

Consistent film thickness through five layer technology, high UV

blend and 70% stretch

You can trust Tapex

TA11

140

“I use Silotite... anything else is stretching it”“We’ve used Silotite film for years and it has lots of advantages that I really like. It can be stretched up to 70% from its original length, you’d hardly believe it, but the film pulls the bale in tighter than the twine does. The UV protection is formulated for Australian conditions and that means that it will last longer on a wrapped bale in the paddock or the shed. It takes the worry out of the job.”

Mark Crozier, Newham, VIC

TA11203_SILOTITE_190x277_CN.indd 1 18/07/12 8:12 PM


30 // Hay and SIlaGE

Making the best silagemany QUESTIonS are asked every year about making and storing silage. Following are answers to some of the more common questions but bear in mind that there are often many factors to be taken into account when answering silage related questions.What is the correct DM content for each form of silage? Stack silage: Long chop silage (loader wagon)

30–35% DM. Precision chop silage 30–40% DM. Baled silage: Round bales 40 – 50% DM. Large rect-angular bales 45 – 60% DM.How can I tell if the forage is too wet to ensile? Stack silage: If moisture drips/runs from a hand-ful of forage (chopped into 2 – 3 cm lengths) and squeezed for about one minute, it’s way too wet. Moisture oozing out of a silage cart during trans-port or from the stack during rolling. Slight

dampness on rolling trac-tor wheels indicates cor-rect DM content. Baled silage: Tractor blowing exhaust smoke. Baler has trouble turn-ing in chamber. Bale ends blackened during baling. Perimeter of bale glistens in sunlight due to mois-ture on the bale exterior. Bales (1.2 m x 1.2 m) are almost impossible to stand on their ends by one man.If my silage is not wilted enough, and rain is coming, can I still ensile it?Yes, but to ensure a good

fermentation (pleasant, sweet smelling silage), apply an inoculant (or other appropriate silage additive) from reputa-ble companies. Apply at the recommended rate per tonne fresh weight acknowledging extra cost due to extra weight of the water.If my hay is not quite dry enough, and rain is coming, can I make silage out of it?If the crop has been on the ground for many days (eg. 4+ days) and/or has been severely affected by

rain, the crop will be prob-ably depleted in plant sugars, essential for ensil-ing. Wrapping may/may not allow a crop to be sal-vaged as high DM silage. Applying a buffered acid silage additive (or other appropriate silage addi-tive) at baling may assist the fermentation pro-cess. Applying an ordinary silage inoculant probably won’t assist due to lack of sugars, their food. Baling as hay using a hay preser-vative and not wrapping is now an option with these preservatives becoming

Frank mIckanavailable.How do I know if the stack is rolled enough?The forage will not be depressed by the rear wheels more than a few centimetres as they pass over the stack. Rolling slowly rather than quickly aids compaction. Fin-gers can be pushed into only the first joints into an opened stack face.How do I know if the bales are baled tightly enough?Bales should hold their shape some time after baling when left on their round side. Fingers can only be pushed into the first joints into the ends of bales.Should I cover the stack during harvest?Ideally, yes. The rolled stack will contain a certain amount of air, no matter how tightly compacted, allowing plant respiration and microbial bacteria activity to occur, resulting in DM and quality losses. Carbon dioxide + water + heat are given off and rises as hot air! This heated air rises out of the stack to be replaced by cool air. A plastic sheet dragged over the stack and with tyres placed around its perime-ter, will greatly slow down this cycle.When should I cover the silage stack after har-vesting is finished?As soon as rolling is com-pleted. Cover with plas-tic and place weight such as tyres, sand bags or dirt over the entire stack sur-face and seal edges air-tight. Are there alternatives to using tyres for seal-ing and weighting plastic sheets?Ideal: A thin layer (3 – 5 cm) of soil over the plas-tic over the entire stack surface and 5 – 10 cm over the plastic edges. Pain-ful to remove soil but con-sider throwing some grass seed on top to act as han-dles to easily remove soil at feed out.

Make “sausages” con-taining dirt, sand, pea

gravel, etc. out of last year’s sheet plastic and lay in overlapping rows along plastic edges, at overlaps and in rows across the stack surface.When should bales be wrapped?Within reason, as soon as possible after baling to several hours later. Never leave them unwrapped overnight and, if unavoid-able, stand bales on their butt to make wrapping possible the next morning.How many layers of plas-tic on round and rectan-gular bales?Four layers ALL over the bale at 55% stretch with NO underlapping. Six layers are recommended if transporting bales, if being left in paddocks on stub-ble or if bales are to be car-ried over to give two years safe storage.When can I open my silage after it is made? Stack silage: Silage requires at least 6 – 8 weeks for the whole stack to ferment if compacted tightly and sealed airtight within hours after har-vest is completed. If mate-rial is too dry, not rolled well, only covered and not sealed, etc. fermentation will take several weeks longer. If opened earlier, the open area of the stack will be flooded with air and fermentation will be affected with loss of dry matter (DM) and nutri-tive value.Baled silage: Individu-ally wrapped bales can be opened anytime as long as the bale is consumed within the day. Fermen-tation won’t be complete but won’t matter. By day 2, it will be heating and start-ing to go mouldy. Treat large square bales under sheets of plastic as a stack and don’t open for 6 – 8 weeks.When can I send silage samples for feed analy-ses?After the above opening periods and, ideally, sev-eral weeks longer in case the fermentation is taking longer which commonly

occurs. The results will be incorrect if sent earlier.• Frank Mickan is the fodder and pasture specialist with the Victo-rian DPI, based at Ellinbank.

NEWdriveGUARD

MF Mowers and Mower ConditionersThe Massey Ferguson series of professional mowers and mower conditioners are now even better!

Every model now has the best protected cutterbars in the industry. Should the cutterbar encounter an obstacle in the paddock, the new revolutionary driveGUARD system protects it from getting damaged – minimising downtime and expense.

www.masseyferguson.com.au | Freecall 1800 802 914is a worldwide brand of AGCO Corporation.

CUT WITH CONFIDENCE

Revolutionary shear point

HOW IT WORKSWhen the mower disc becomes jammed by a foreign object, the driveGUARD shears off reliably at the predetermined breaking points. This interrupts the power train, and the mower disc turns freely.

MODEL LINE UPMowers Width Options Mount

2.82m – 3.50m Side Mount3.00m – 4.00m Mid Mount

Mower Conditioners

Width Options Mount3.00m – 4.00m Semi-Mtd3.00m Front 3PL8.30m Butterfly

NEW MASSEY FERGUSON DRIVEGUARD PROVIDES SUPERIOR PROTECTION

For more information contact your local Massey Ferguson dealer today!

“THE HardEST thing about this tractor is to stay awake while you’re driving it”, says John Watson of Cobram East in northern Victo-ria.

“The comfort, quietness and smoothness have far exceeded what I expected.”

He is talking about the brand new Fendt 822 of which he took deliv-ery in mid-April, trading in a 3-year-old CASE Puma 180. This tractor represented a huge change in technol-ogy, even in that rel-atively short time, he said.

John and Haylee were milking 260 Holsteins out of a total herd of 400 when we visited in June and putting 6000 litres per day into the vat.

Last year they ran 550 cows but moved 210 of them about 4km away when they started up another dairy on another property. That other farm is now up to 300 cows.

“When we build back up to 350 cows on this farm,” John said, “we’ll do 200 to 230,000kg of milk solids.”

With their expansion plans, they discussed the machinery options for a couple of months before making the purchase deci-sion. “I was yet to hear anybody with any negative comments about

the Fendt,” John said, “and in the end the dealer played a big part. The package from Cobram Farm Equipment was too good to turn down.”

The Fendt 822 uses a 6.056 litre six cylinder engine, rated at 200hp,

which ramps up to 220hp if needed under load.

“The big thing people say is that it is expensive, but when you con-sider the extras that come with it, to build up other tractors to this level would be more expensive. It even has a GPS system, including autosteer, which can come on line

in September. Working at night, the lights are far superior to what we’ve been used to,” said John.

“This will only be operated by me, Haylee and my dad, Peter. I am going to spend 90% of the time in it. I wanted the most comfortable and quiet unit. I hadn’t driven one before I owned it. There’s so much room around you compared with our previous tractors. And the vis-ibility is great. So far it’s done 130 hours.”

Fendt says the ease of opera-tion in the cab owes a lot to the new touch screen ‘Varioterminal’ which unites all the tractor, imple-ment and Variotronic functions

in one terminal to make demanding work more manage-able.

They claim a huge reduction in the number of hand movements each working day as operators make all settings and adjust-ments from one central operating unit on the right-hand armrest.

The 800 series Vario tractors are equipped with a headland man-agement system, so that drivers can activate automated operating sequences at the headlands with the touch of a button. The sequence can be edited and adjusted individ-ually when the tractor is at a stand-still.

“It has absolutely incredible transmission and the fuel economy is unbelievable,” added Watson. “We recently baled and wrapped 45 bales an hour over three days, using the McHale Fusion baler/wrapper. We used 11½ litres of diesel per hour.”

John Shannon, from Cobram Farm Equipment, explained that, with Fendt’s Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) technology, the exhaust is treated with Adblue, a solution containing urea which converts 95% of nitrous oxides into non-toxic nitrogen and water to comply with emissions standards and lowering fuel consumption.

The Fendt 822 seems bigger than your average dairyman’s trac-

tor, and Watson explained they need the horsepower for deep ripping for lucerne and the Case tractor wasn’t quite big enough.

“We need it mainly for ground work and it doesn’t matter what load is

on it – if you want more speed it doesn’t range change, because of the variable transmission.

There’s no jerkiness through the gears. You just set the speed and it holds it, regardless of hills, slopes up and down, sideways. There are very few moving parts compared with other tractors.

“We do a lot of deep ripping and heavy work that loads the transmis-sion up. The main work for it will be cultivation, running the baler/wrapper, and it has been brilliant with our trailed boom sprayer. We plan to laser 300 acres on the other farm, that’s one of the reasons that we went as big as we did. We’ll get a laser bucket when we need it. Everything is going bigger these days, like air seeders and fertiliser spreaders.

“In the long run it will save us a lot of hassles. We haven’t bought much else in the way of big gear from Cobram Farm Equipment, other than the McHale Fusion, but the service that we get far exceeds anything that we’ve had from anyone else – and that plays a big part.”


macHInEry & ProdUcTS // 31

workiNG CLoThESChriS DiNGLE

Smooth Fendt has all the extras for Cobram farmer

who: John and Hayley Watson whErE: Cobram East whAT: Fendt 822

John Watson with his new Fendt 822.

Have a master chef in the calf shedWestfaliaSurge Automatic Calf Feeders provide a better way to rear strong healthy calves. Save time, labour and effort: freshly prepared feed, temperature controlled, precise feed monitoring and dispersal, automatic cleaning

GEA Farm TechnologiesThe right choice

GE1

1221



Total solutions

for dairying

Looking for the most efficient upgrade?Choose WestfaliaSurge IQ clusters for faster milk out, improved udder health, cleaner milk.

“We are milking 280 cows an hour, without pushing it. We can put the cups on three cows in the time that it took to do two.”

John Watson, Cobram VIC.

High-quality products for manure handlingHoule electric effluent pumps and agitators - a full line of equipment to cover all applications

GEA Farm Technologies

Call 1800 789 100 for the name of your nearest dealer

Email [email protected]

GEA Farm Equipment Houle

GE11221_72x390_DN.indd 1 6/08/12 6:28 PM


32 // macHInEry & ProdUcTS

Farm-specific telehandlerFarmInG IS clearly in view in the design of AGCO’s new Massey Fer-guson MF 9400 series tele-handlers.

Such features as a boom-float function for floor scraping or uneven surfaces, a curved rear window (patented), and a short and wide chas-sis, distinguish this farm materials-handling machine.

The boom-float func-tion engages as required, and the option of boom suspension looks set for popularity – protecting

the machine and operator from jarring, particularly during transport.

The series has two models: MF 9407 (100hp) and MF 9407 S (130hp) – both ‘clean sheet’ design with new technology and features “from the axles upwards,” says MF’s gen-eral marketing manager James Lang.

“The design offers the best visibility on the market through the unique curved rear screen. They are also very compact, agile and manoeuvrable. The short,

wide chassis (2.87m wheelbase) provides sta-bility, while the later-ally, side-mounted engine offers access for service.”

Land says the “com-pletely new” boom design and mounting pivot, and powerful new hydraulics, make the series ideal for purpose.

A newly designed boom and mounting fur-ther optimise loading efficiency. The boom con-figuration has a low rear pivot point for a clear view of the rear right-hand side; up to 190L/min

closed-centre load sensing (CCLS) hydraulics with proportional joystick con-trol and boom float and boom suspension option.

MF offers a choice of tool carriages to fit exist-ing attachments from a wide range of manufac-turers.

Both models are pow-ered by Perkins 4-cyl. Engines mounted later-ally and to the side, giving good access for cooling and servicing, the maker says. A cooling pack, which folds up for cleaning, is mounted at the front

of the engine compart-ment, above the hydraulic pumps and the fan can be reversed for cleaning.

Four-wheel steering is standard and dual-range hydrostatic transmission gives true 40km/h road speed. Both models take wide tyres.

The patented, curved side and rear window (no can pillar) in the MF 9400’s new cab, coupled with its low (1.75m) boom-mounting position means no restrictions to views to the rear right side.

Air conditioning and

pneumatic seat suspen-sion are standard.

The hydrostatic gear-box (4-speed) is a new one and allows 40km/h top speed. It has two mechan-ical gears with electric selection, and a two-speed

splitter for each speed. A new 190 litres/min

closed centre, load-sens-ing (CCLS) hydraulic pump provides best in class flowrates, MF says.www.masseyferguson.com.au.

larGE Tank capacity and various fit-out options on Silvan’s new Broadacre Fieldmaster trailed sprayer make this suitable for large farms and contractors, the company says.

Silvan business manager Hayden Mills said this unit can be set up different ways with a large variety of com-ponents. That results from customers saying they needed a bigger sprayer to suit larger properties and more com-plicated jobs.

Hence the 1000L and 2000L tanks and options for bolt-ing-on numerous components and/or switching gear to enable the sprayers to suit a number of tasks.

For example, boom options can range from a 6m field boom to a 12-15m hydraulic folding boom.

Users may also choose to attach a manual or electrically controlled pump, both capable of 121L/minute at 2000kPa.

Mills says the sprayer is capable of handling agricul-tural sprays or liquid nitrogen. And it can mix urea and water for spraying.

“There’s plenty of room at the front of the sprayer to take a water transfer pump,” says Mills. “The transfer sta-tion will take water from the bottom of the tank and blow it back in to help mix any solid fertilisers you put into the liquid.”

Single and tandem-axle models are available, depend-ing on users’ needs to limit impact on paddocks. But, says Mills, with a dry weight of only 440kg its impact should not be great.

The sprayer was launched early this year. Since then modifications – requested by customers – have included extra valves and electronic controls.Tel. 07 849 6030 www.silavan.com.au

Trailed sprayer suits large jobs

Hayden Mills is pictured with silvan’s new Broadacre Fieldmaster trailed sprayer.

innovators in agriculturewww.lely.com

ONLY LIMITED AVAILABLE!The 20YRS celebration package comes with the Rumination and Reproduction module and more special features to support you in managing your herd. Interested in this unique offer? Please contact your Lely Center.

EVOLVE.

Lely Astronaut 20YRS celebration package

Astronaut 20 years advert_A4_25-02-12.indd 1 5/31/2012 1:34:25 PM

Talk to your Lely Dealer regarding tailor-made Lely Finance to suit your cash flow – Conditions apply. Lely Australia Pty. Ltd., 48 Mackay St, Rochester, VIC 3561 Ph: (03) 5484 4000

13749-LELY_Dairy.indd 1 17/07/12 2:07 PM


macHInEry & ProdUcTS // 33

THE nEw TYM 903 model is designed to give performance, productiv-ity and comfort to farmers and growers looking for real value for money.

From the Perkins power plant with its torque and efficiency, to the tireless Power shuttle which is ideal for front end loader work, the new TYM 903 and 1003 models offer a great pack-age. The 100hp model also offers Powershift change-on-the-go and Bosch 3-point linkage precision control system as standard; features normally only seen on higher priced tractors.

The TYM 903 comes with a large, flat platform air-conditioned cabin,

radio/CD player, roof hatch and integrated front end loader joystick for an uncluttered and easy-to-use cabin.

Operator friendly fea-tures such as finger light buttons controlling PTO and 4WD functions, hi-back seat with adjustable sus-pension and power shut-tle ensures a TYM 903 will meet all the requirements of the most demanding farmer in comfort.

The TYM 903 is powered by the latest Green Tier-III 4-Cylinder 4400cc Perkins engine diesel engines pro-ducing 91hp.

Power Shuttle transmis-sion is standard with three mechanical range ratios, all

synchronised to the four speed box, giving speeds from 1.1 to 40 km/h at rated engine revs; practical and progressive speeds suitable for a wide variety of uses.

The separate shuttle-lever duplicates all speeds in forward and reverse, ideal for loader work and head-land manoeuvring. Creeper provides speeds as low as 0.4 km/h.

The TYM 1003 (100hp) has a versatile three-speed

PTO providing 540 rpm in “economy” mode which maintains PTO speed at 25% lower engine revs, when less power is required, saving 15% on fuel and creating a quieter, more relaxed, driving environ-ment.

The entire TYM range of Tractors come standard with a 3-year 2000 hour warranty plan for peace of mind. Tel. (02) 4389 1477

TYM 903 gives value for money

IndEPEndEnT aGrIcUlTUral machinery distributor PFG Australia will showcase its range of hay, silage and cultivation machinery during two days of working demonstrations in Sheppar-ton.

The event, PFG in Action, will be held over two days from Wednesday, August 29 from 10am to 4pm at New Dookie Rd, Shepparton.

Billed as Australia’s largest work-ing field days, it includes Taarup, Vicon, McHale, Great Plains, Simba, Maschio Gaspardo and Drillrite machin-ery.

Tractor power will be provided by Deutz-Fahr, SAME, Yanmar and Kioti.

Commentary at each on-field work-ing demonstration will be delivered via a mobile sound system.

PFG Australia’s Tim Lawrence said

the field days offered a fantastic oppor-tunity for buyers, potential customers, dealers, manufacturers and agronomy specialists to compare machines and share opinions in the run up to the season.

“We’ve got a brilliant range of machinery from around the world on a 50 acre site which includes paddocks sown with grass,” Lawrence said.

“You will see some great machines in action and great results. We will also be offering some very attractive deals over the two-day period.

“These top-selling brands are well known worldwide and the best way to find out why is to see for yourself.”

Enquiries and registrations from around Australia already indicated a high level of interest.Tel. (03) 9368 8888.

Shepparton hosts PFG Australia in action

ImProvInG THE pre-cision of nutrient supply will help cows produce milk and milk components more cost effectively.

Balancing the amino acids in protein in the cow’s feed intake is gain-ing increased attention and interest to lift milk production, improve milk composition, and increase herd profitability.Protein & amino acid supply

The protein digested and absorbed from the cow’s small intes-

tine comes mainly from rumen bacteria that pass out of the rumen with the normal flow, along with feed protein that for vari-ous reasons has not been used by the micro-organ-isms in the rumen and so has also passed out of the rumen. This portion of feed protein is called ‘bypass protein’ or rumen un-degradable protein (RUP or UDP).Limiting amino acids

Lysine and methionine are the two amino acids in protein that are most often limiting for milk pro-duction.

Protein meals with

varying levels of rumen ‘bypass’ protein are fed to try and meet the cow’s need for amino acids, but these meals may not be the most cost-effective way to provide lysine and methionine to the cow’s small intestine for use in milk production. Rumen ‘protected’ lysine (LysiP-EARL) and methionine

(MetiPEARL) are cost-effective sources of these limiting amino acids (table 1).Rumen ‘protected’ lysine & methionine

The use of these spe-cific and targeted nutri-ents can enable the correct amino acid balance of the protein being digested and absorbed from the cow’s

small intestine. This can offer a number

of potential benefits including:

■ Increased milk and milk component yield, eg. a recent Austra-lian trial resulted in an increase in milk yield from 39.8 litres to 41.9 litres per day in early lactation cows, ie. +2.1L

■ Increases in milk pro-tein % and milk fat %, eg. a recent Austra-lian trial resulted in an increase in milk fat from 3.45% to 3.64% in fresh cows, ie. +0.2%

■ Potential to lower the crude protein content of the cow’s feed intake

■ Environmental advan-tage by reducing nitro-gen excretion by the cow

■ Possible fertility and health advantages

■ Improved cost-effec-tiveness and increased financial returnsIn summary, the cost-

effectiveness of protein

nutrition may be improved by considering the ade-quacy of supply and the ratio of the amino acids, lysine and methionine.

Rumen protected lysine (LysiPEARL) and rumen protected methionine (MetiPEARL) are more cost-effective sources of lysine and methionine than protein meals.

Improved precision of protein nutrition can increase the production of milk and milk components and/or improve the cow’s efficiency of protein use.• Rick Carter is techni-cal services manager with Kemin AgriFoods.

Improve nutrient supply with ‘protected’ amino acidsrIck carTEr

Protein meals

Indicative Price, s/

tonne

typical rumen ‘bypass’ lysine,

g/kg meal

Cost/kg ‘bypass’

lysine

typical rumen ‘bypass’

methionine, g/kg meal

Cost/kg ‘bypass’

methionine

Soybean Cottonseed Canola

$760/t 9.8 $77.55/kg 2.1 $361.90/kg

$340/t 7.7 $44.16/kg 2.8 $121.43/kg

$450/t 6.3 $71.43/kg 2.4 $187.50/kg

* cost/ kg rumen ‘bypass’ lysine from LysiPEaRL is $37.55* cost/ kg rumen ‘bypass’ methionine from MetiPEaRL is $26.17

table 1. Cost comparison per unit rumen ‘bypass’ lysine & methionine

KUHN Fertilizer Spreader

Sharpshooters

be strong, be KUHNforage harvesting I farms l crops l arable landscape

www.kuhn.com.au

Prices starting from only

$7,469CALL US NOW!(03) 9982 1490

*conditions apply

incl GST

*


34 // moTorInG

New Ford Focus hits road in October

Hyundai Veloster adds brawn to beautyTHE nEw Hyundai Veloster SR Turbo is starting to arrive in Aus-tralian showrooms.

Echoing Hyundai’s ‘New Think-ing. New Possibilities’ philosophy, and demonstrating the company’s Fluidic Sculpture language, the Veloster’s unique design and pack-aging has become an instant suc-cess in Australia.

The Veloster has been leading the sales race in the competitive Sports segment each month since launch.

Now, the naturally aspirated Veloster range is joined by the all-new Veloster SR Turbo delivering enhanced levels of performance and specification.

Powered by the all-new Gamma 1.6-litre four-cylinder twin-scroll Turbo Gasoline Direct Injec-tion (T-GDI) engine, the Velo-ster SR Turbo delivers 46% more peak power (150 kW @ 6000 rpm) and 60% more maximum torque (265Nm @ 1750 - 4500 rpm) than the naturally aspirated 1.6-litre GDI engine found in the Veloster and Veloster + models. The Veloster SR

Turbo is available with the option of a six-speed manual gearbox or six-speed automatic transmission with steering wheel mounted paddle shifters.

Other dynamic enhancements include 300 mm ventilated front disc brakes (+20 mm over naturally aspirated Veloster models) and a recalibrated suspension package to ensure maximum stability while maintaining exceptional comfort.

The motor-driven power steer-ing calibration is unique to Veloster SR Turbo and a quicker rack (2.78 turns lock to lock).

Designed at Hyundai’s Namy-ang R&D Centre in Korea, the Velo-ster range challenges conventional design theories, offering a unique forward-hinged third door for easy rear-seat access located on the pas-senger side of the car and a single door on the driver’s side.

The exterior treatment of Velo-ster SR Turbo ensures it’s a real head-turner when it comes to on-road presence.

An aggressive front grille and

round front fog lamps are compli-mented by 18” alloy wheels with chrome inserts, sweeping side skirts, rear diffuser, rear spoiler and twin circular exhaust outlets. A pan-oramic glass sunroof is a standard fitment.

Inside, the Veloster SR Turbo is fitted with leather/leatherette sports bucket seats and Hyundai’s satellite navigation system is inte-grated into the 7” touch screen LCD display.

The system incorporates SUNA live traffic, lane guidance, junc-tion views, speed limits, speed warnings and camera alerts and includes a complimentary three–year NAVTEQ MapCare plan.

The Veloster SR Turbo will be available in one trim level and is available in six colours, including an exclusive Marmalade (a chame-leon colour that changes depend-ing on the visual angle), Young Gun (matte finish) and pearl-effect Phantom Black, Veloster Red, Bat-tleship and Storm Trooper White. Storm Trooper White (pearl) is a standard colour – no cost option.

THE nEw Ford Focus ST, which will be sold in more than 40 countries around the world, goes on sale in Australia from October.

The Focus ST is equipped with a 184 kW 2.0-litre turbocharged EcoBoost engine.

The frugal EcoBoost unit also means Focus ST is expected to return 7.4 litres/100km and deliver CO

2 emissions of 172 g/km;

a 20% improvement over the previous European Focus ST.

The Focus ST is pow-ered by a 184 kW version of Ford’s 2.0-litre Eco-Boost engine that delivers the power of a larger dis-placement unit with the fuel efficiency of a smaller unit.

It achieves this through a combination of high pressure direct injection, low-inertia turbocharg-ing, and Twin-indepen-dent Variable Cam Timing (Ti-VCT), as well as rede-signed intake and exhaust systems, and unique cali-bration.

The engine also offers strong torque levels in a broad, flat curve peaking at 360 Nm.

The Focus ST’s six-

speed manual transmis-sion produces maximum punch from each gear shift using specially-revised gearing. The sixth gear helps drivers achieve excellent fuel economy on longer runs.

A newly-enhanced sound symposer relays the engine sound directly from the intake into the cabin.

The exhaust system, with unique twin hexagonal centre exhaust tailpipe, has also been tuned to deliver the right sound at the right time, refined at lower revs and a purposeful growl as the revs rise.

The new Sport Steering System variable ratio steering rack helps to reduce steering sensitivity when driving in a straight line and increase sensitivity when cornering.

The steering wheel can be turned to almost full lock without the driver needing to remove either hand to change position; providing more control through tight corners and hairpins.

Torque steer is man-aged by the Electronic Power Assisted Steering

(EPAS) system that is spe-cially calibrated for the new Focus ST and detects and counters torque steer using a more aggressively pitched version of Ford’s Torque Steer Compensa-tion (TSC).

The Dynamic Stabil-ity Control (DSC) offers three distinct settings - drivers can turn DSC on for a tuned version of the system found throughout the Focus range; a reduced or wide-slip mode dis-ables traction control and activates DSC only when absolutely necessary; and finally, DSC can be switched off altogether.

The new Focus ST will be available in Australia as a five-door hatchback and adds a muscular presence to the kinetic design of the standard Focus. It will be available in five colours - Tangerine Scream, Spirit Blue, Race Red, Black, White and Silver are also available.

The Focus ST features a specially-designed steer-ing wheel, gearshift and pedals. The darker head-lining and trim on the inte-rior pillars, an integral part of the ST’s design DNA, adds to the performance driving feel.

Lowered partial leather seats offer exclusive pre-mium features includ-

ing length adjustment and cushion tilt. An all-new bench, made with special

foam, makes sure there is no compromise for rear passenger comfort.

The recommended manu-facturer’s list price for the new Focus ST is $38,290.

ABVs

NEXT ISSUE: SEPTEMBER 2012

SPECIAL REPORT

Genomic-based breeding values have dramatically increased the speed with which farmers can improve their herd. In a special report next month, we examine the August ABV release for the genetics that can help improve your production and productivity.This will run in the September issue of Dairy News, distributed free to all dairy farmers.

TRACTA

3944

8F-AUS

IMAGINE NOT LEAVING YOUR PROFITABILITY IN THE HANDS

OF DYLAN

Spotting that unhealthy cow in the milking shed requires your full attention. Human error costs farmers thousands of dollars a year – not to mention the wasted time spent chasing false positives.

Take the risk out of your operation with the DeLaval blood and conductivity solution. Upgrade your shed now to give you top- of-the-line herd management, and another aid to help the detection of mastitis.

Best of all, because the Alpro™ system is modular, it paves the way for adding future management applications – like in-shed feeding, milk recording, sorting cows and more.

Talk to your local DeLaval dealer today and start imagining more. Call 1800 817 199 or visit www.delaval.com.au

Damage control starts with Cydectin® Pour-On

NO KNOWN

IMPACT ON

DUNG BEETLES^

NIL MEAT

AND MILK

WITHHOLDING

PERIODS

* Victorian Department of Primary Industries† Based on nil meat and milk withholding periods.^On four major species. See label for more details.®Cydectin is a trademark of Virbac (Australia) Pty Ltd

Customer Support: Tel 1800 009 847 www.cydectin.com.au

VBC9012DNBleedSize.indd 1 9/08/12 9:38 AM

dairy news australia august 2012

Documents

dairy farmers milk

excess milk

milk solids

lower milk prices

competitive milk price

milk supply agreement

manufacturing milk

abc radio lion