dairy news australia december 2011

December 2011/January 2012 Issue 21 // www.dairynewsaustralia.com.au

sPReAD THe WORD Program extends dairy’s reachPAges 10-11

New-look Murray Goulburn appoints chairman PAge 3

BATTLeLINesSouthern irrigators copworst of Basin cuts PAGE 4-5

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NeWs // 3 DAiry NEwS AUSTrALiA december, 2011

NeWs ��3-15

OPINION �� 16-17

AgRIBusINess ��18-19

MANAgeMeNT ��21-24

ANIMAL HeALTH �� 25-29

MACHINeRy & PRODuCTs ��30-33

MOTORINg ��34

Northern Victorian farmer Bill Jones uses a Seymour Composter 4000 to reduce his fertiliser bill and improve pastures. Pg.30

Gippsland farmer John Giliam uses a 200m by 20m undercover structure to optimise his production and returns. Pg.25

Norco field officer Bill Fulkerson says kikuyu and setaria could be underrated forages in northern Australia. Pg.22

gIPPsLAND DAIRy farmer Philip Tracy is the new chairman of Murray Goulburn, replac-ing Grant Davies who stepped down at the annual general meeting last month.

Tracy has been a board member since 2009.Ken Jones and Bill Bodman were elected as

deputy chairmen. Jones, Graham Munzel and Peter Hawkins were all re-elected to the board while northern Victorian dairy farmer Nata-lie Akers was newly elected, becoming the first female director of the co-operative.

The meeting caps a period of vast change for the company.

New Managing Director Gary Helou began his new role in October with company secretary

Ian Bird and chief operating officer Paul Kerr announcing their resignations since.

Helou took the opportunity to address Murray Goulburn shareholders at the AGM and also spoke at meetings across Victoria last month.

He said MG would immediately simplify organ-isational structures, which would make the busi-ness more efficient.

He would also focus on improving innovation within the business – a specialty of his former company SunRice.

Helou was CEO of SunRice since 1999, over-seeing its transformation from a co-operative to an integrated global company with strong brands and processed products.

It is now one of Australia’s largest food exporters.

MG reported a strong financial performance for 2010-11. Profit before tax increased to $40 mil-lion from $24.8 million the previous year.

Sales revenue rose 6% to $2.29 billion with export sales of $1.17 billion.

Murray Goulburn’s domestic businesses, including the Devondale brand, recorded com-bined domestic net revenue of $1.12 billion.

Despite the strong Australian dollar, the co-operative was able to lift milk prices on four occa-sions during the year, delivering a final weighted average milk price of $5.64kg per kilogram of milk solids, an increase of 27% on the previous year.

New broom sweeps through

Thought of your New Year’s Resolution yet? Don’t worry, our resident vet, Rob Bonanno, has thought of one for you and it’s bound to prove popular with farm dogs (and cats)� Photo: Clancy Burn.

DAiry NEwS AUSTrALiA december, 2011

4 // NeWs Murray-Darling Basin Plan

THe NeW draft Basin Plan is barely different to the Guide to the Basin Plan released in October last year, according to Victorian Farmers Federation president Andrew Broad.

“Despite continued assurances that socio-economic impacts of the Basin Plan have been incorporated into the Murray Darling Basin Authority’s modelling, the final reduction figure of 2750GL proves this is not the case,” Broad says.

VFF modelling has calculated one

job for every 95 million litres of water in an irrigation community.

“According to our modelling, around 6600 Victorian jobs could be slashed

just on the basis of the 627GL of local reductions alone.”

Broad says not only has the MDBA listed a series of cuts to the surface water entitlements of Victorian irrigators, but their groundwater entitlements are also under attack.

“Through dry periods, groundwater has been vital to the continuation of agricultural production.”

He says the MDBA’s “shared reduction” strategy added an extra layer of uncertainty to the Plan.

“In presenting the downstream component of the plan as a “shared reduction” – which can be acquired from anywhere in the southern connected system – rural communities are still left in the dark as to how much their catchment stands to lose.

“For the southern connected system, a cut of 971GL is the equivalent of closing down every irrigation farm in the region between Boort and Shepparton. A cut of this size will devastate businesses and jobs across rural Victoria.”

Broad says more than 1000GL of Victorian irrigator entitlement has already been conceded to environmental requirements since the mid 2000s.

“There is a better way than stripping more water and jobs from rural communities. The VFF has fought unrelentingly for the shared reduction volume of water to be achieved through irrigation efficiency and environmental infrastructure works and measures.

Broad says the inquiry led by Tony Windsor identified the potential to recover 1776 GL of water through more efficient delivery of environmental water.

“The MDBA should seek to recover this water, not take more away from food production. The buyback of Victorian irrigator entitlement should cease and the draft plan scrapped until a balanced outcome is guaranteed,” Broad says.

New plan creates more uncertainty

THe NATIONAL Irrigators Council says there is no legal requirement for the Government to act on any findings of its proposed 2015 review.

The draft plan states the Govern-ment has already recovered 1068 giga-litres, leaving a gap of 1682GL.

The Murray-Darling Basin Author-ity is proposing that no more than half this gap (840GL) will be met by 2015, at which point a review will consider whether environmental objectives are being met.

However, NIC chairman Stewart Ellis says a review was cold comfort for irrigators.

“We acknowledge the Government’s commitment to review the Plan in 2015, as a good starting point, however there is no legal requirement for the Govern-ment to act on any findings of the 2015 review.”

Ellis has described the draft Basin Plan in its current form as unacceptable. He says it offered no solutions to prob-lems of invasive fish species, riparian vegetation, urban pollution and cold-water pollution; and would also cause flooding events which would have the potential to damage infrastructure.

“It is extremely disappointing that there is no environmental watering

plan in the draft, which begs the ques-tion of how the Government came up with any number when it doesn’t know and won’t know for at least another three years how, when, where, why or what it wants to water?

“The draft Basin Plan fails to acknowledge that over 2.1 million mega-

litres of water entitlements have been recovered from irri-gators in the past seven years and, by 2019, well over four mil-lion megalitres of water entitle-ment will have been taken out of our communities.”

Ellis says the draft plan will cost thousands of jobs, put pressure on food prices and threaten family farms and regional communities.

“The Australian Food and Grocery Council warned the Government that food manufacturing in the Murray-Dar-ling Basin has already reached a tipping point with over 130,000 jobs at threat

of disappearing in the sector in the next nine years.

“If the draft Basin Plan is adopted, in its current form, the Minister will be responsible for failing to deliver on a promise of a balanced plan which takes into consideration equally social, envi-ronmental and economic outcomes.”

Ellis says Australia has the world’s most efficient irrigators and they stand ready to help and ensure the country’s “newest and biggest irrigator” – the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder – does not end up destroying communities and the Basin’s iconic environmental sites.

Government review not legally binding

Dairy in the Basin ■ Over 1900 dairy farms operate in the Basin

State Farm Number

QLD 168

NSW 158

VIC 1551

SA 76

■ Produced over 2100 billion litres in 2010/11 (23% of Australia’s total milk production)

■ More than $920 million total farmgate value ■ Employs more than 12,000 people ■ 21 milk factories operate across the Basin

The “shared reduction” strategy adds an extra layer of uncertainty to the Basin Plan.

There is no legal reqquirement for the Government to act on any findings of the 2015 review.

The VFF says the new murray-Darling basin Plan creates more uncertainty for northern Victoria farmers like Jim mcKeown.

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Murray-Darling Basin Plan NeWs // 5

MuRRAy-DARLINg BAsIN irri-gators will lose 2750 gigalitres of water under the new draft Murray-Darling Basin Plan

But it is those in the southern half of the basin that will be required to hand back the most water.

Under the plan, released late last month, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority has separated the Northern and Southern parts of the Basin – draw-ing a line over the northern perimeter of the Lachlan and Lower Darling catch-ment areas.

Under this scheme, the Northern Basin will have to return 390GL of water while the Southern Basin must return 2360GL of water.

In the Guide to the Basin Plan, released 12 months ago – with much acrimony – the Northern Basin had to return 630GL while the Southern Basin had to return 2370GL.

The latest plan has also outlined local reductions – detailing how much water must be retrieved from each catchment area in the MDB – and shared reduc-tions. The Goulburn catchment must

return 344GL, the Victorian Murray 253GL, the Murrumbidgee 320GL and the NSW Murray 262GL.

In the Northern Basin, the Conda-mine catchment must find 100GL of savings. It has not outlined how the shared reductions (143GL from the Northern Basin and 971GL from the Southern Basin) will be divided.

The draft plan states the Govern-ment has already recovered 1068GL, leaving a gap of 1682GL.

The MDBA is proposing that no more than half this gap (840GL) will be met by 2015, at which point a review will consider whether environmental objec-tives are being met.

Australian Dairy Industry Coun-cil chair Chris Griffin says the MDBA has recognised that the dairy industry in northern Victoria will be among the hardest hit if the Commonwealth keeps buying water to meet the 2750-gigalitre target.

“We urge the Authority and the Commonwealth to use this consulta-tion period to set a sustainable diver-sion limit that balances the needs of

the environment and regional commu-nities.”

ADIC water taskforce chair Daryl Hoey says the water recovery target recently released was around 40% of the annual average water used by agri-culture across the Basin each year.

“This means permanent drought for farmers and regional towns,” Hoey says. “The dairy industry wants the Author-ity to analyse whether the environmen-tal watering objectives can be achieved using the water bought so far and saved

in infrastructure works planned and underway.

“We support strategic water pur-chases for the environment where they are linked to water-saving infrastruc-ture projects. But there shouldn’t be any more general buyback tenders in the southern connected system before the proposed review in 2015, when it will be clearer whether that water is even needed once environmental works and other measures are taken into account.”

Griffin says dairy farmers have

already made great gains in water effi-ciency, but a permanent reduction in water availability on this scale will inev-itably lead to severe and lasting decline in irrigation-dependent regions.

He says the Commonwealth already owned more than 1000GL of water pre-viously used for irrigation.

“This is on top of 800 gigalitres of water saved before 2009, and there’s even more to come from water saving infrastructure projects planned and underway.”

THOusANDs OF people attended community meetings in the NSW towns of Forbes and Dubbo in the week of the Basin Plan’s release to hear how the proposed changes would affect them.

Farming groups will hold community meetings in towns across the Murray-Darling Basin.

The Murray-Darling Basin Authority will also hold public meetings before Christmas to explain the draft plan.

Federal Opposition Agriculture

spokesman John Cobb says he hopes the turnout will give the Labor Govern-ment a wakeup call as to how much the proposed Plan will hurt regional com-munities.

“I encourage farmers and businesses alike to attend meetings and have their say on the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s proposed cuts to water allo-cations, which are set to have a devas-tating effect on regional communities.

“The worst part is at no stage during

the consultation process has Tony Burke, the minister responsible for this mess, had the guts to face the people who are going to be most affected by this plan that he and Penny Wong ini-tiated.”

Cobb says with the current figures, food is set to become more expensive, jobs will be lost, industry will dwindle and already overcrowded cities will become bigger as Basin residents relo-cate.

“Labor has failed to deliver nec-essary and promised water-saving infrastructure and failed to ensure a thorough socio-economic analysis of reform for the Basin.”

Burke has defended the need for cuts to affect everyone.

“Everywhere I go, every catchment, every state, people give an argument as to why their location is different to any other and in fairness they all have a reasonable argument as to why their

catchment is different,” he says.“The Murray-Darling is different

the whole way through, but if we all end up in our corners on why our catchment is different, you end up with no reform.”

Visit the www.mdba.gov.au for dates and locations of the MDBA meetings. Feedback on the draft plan is also sought. Submissions can be made until April 16, 2012 and details can be found on the website.

Basin residents seek answers

The murray-Darling basin authority has separated the basin – drawing a line over the northern perimeter of the Lachlan (including broken Hill) and Lower Darling (including Ivanhoe) catchment areas.

Southern irrigators cop biggest cuts


6 // NeWs

THe FeDeRAL Coali-tion’s Shadow Agriculture Minister says dairy farmers had little chance of secur-ing better recommen-dations from the recent Senate inquiry once Min-ister Ludwig sided with Coles.

Dairy farmers are dis-appointed with the report, released last month, with Australian Dairy Farm-

ers president Chris Griffin saying the committee “rec-ommended four reviews, one study and one consul-tation process”.

Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Food Secu-rity John Cobb says in the report Labor claims the ‘more frenzied compe-tition’ between the two major supermarkets on private label milk appears

to show improved compe-tition and a clear benefit for consumers.

“Yet only the day before, Labor Senator Carr had referred information to the ACCC about the abuse of market power by supermarkets in relation to home brands.

“While these con-tradictory statements show Labor hasn’t got a

clue, what is clear is that impacts on agricultural industries such as dairy don’t even come into to consideration when Labor looks at these issues.”

Cobb says Ludwig’s choice to side with Coles during the price war battle, even before consulting with the dairy industry, was a clear demonstration of this.

“It is obvious that we need to review the Com-petition and Consumer Act to ensure small busi-nesses including farmers are protected against the anti-competitive behav-iour of big corporates.

“The ACCC needs ongoing powers to monitor the prices, costs and prof-its relating to the supply chain of major foodstuffs

to ensure the facts are available and a lack of evi-dence cannot be used as an excuse.

Cobb says Labor’s dis-interest in the issue means there is no chance the Min-ister will use his powers to give written direction under section 95ZF (1) (a) of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 to monitor the supply chain.

“My preference is that a Commissioner or Ombudsman be installed within the ACCC and given ongoing powers, under the Act, to monitor the supply chain of major foodstuffs.”

“There is clear evi-dence that the $1 per litre milk is impacting on the viability of farms in NSW, Queensland and Western Australia.”

THe WesTeRN Austra-lian Farmers Federation (WAFarmers) has made a direct plea to the Federal Government to intervene against Coles’ milk pricing strategy.

WAFarmers want immediate action to stop the financial burden already being experienced by dairy farmers in the drinking milk states.

The final report by the Senate Econom-ics References Commit-tee, released last month, did not recommend any immediate action.

WAFarmers Dairy Sec-tion president Peter Evans says the evidence put for-ward by the report clearly demonstrates that the transition from branded to private label milk has been passed on to producers in certain States.

“This report fails to recognise that in some states, including in Western Australia, farmers are paying the price for Coles’ discounting strategy. We need the Federal Government to take immediate and decisive action,” Evans adds. “Coles’ price cuts are unsustainable and the evidence proves this.

“WAFarmers is call-ing on the Government to provide assistance before more dairy farmers leave the industry.”

The Senate Committee recommended the Gov-ernment commission a study of the dairy indus-tries in WA, Queensland and NSW, focusing on the future sustainability of the industry and its ability to meet future local cus-tomer demand.

“While WAFarmers does support this rec-

ommendation, the dairy industry cannot afford to wait for months while another study is under-taken before any action occurs,” Evans says.

“There are steps that can be taken straight-away, such as implement-ing a supply chain code of conduct or strengthen-ing the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 – and the Federal Government should be undertaking these immediately.”

WAFarmers will con-tinue to lobby for fair pric-ing strategies that do not lead to reductions in the commodity prices paid to local farmers.

Coles was quick to promote sections of the Senate report on its release.

Managing director Ian McLeod highlighted comments in the report that: “the benefits gained by consumers have not received sufficient atten-tion in the debate about milk prices.”

He also highlighted these comments from the report:

“It is apparent that when looking at the dairy industry at a national level, most dairy farmers will not be significantly worse off because of the price cuts.

“Although (milk) pro-cessors are undoubtedly in a challenging position, the management of their branded products and the terms on which they supply private label milk to the supermarkets is a matter for them.”

“The Committee is not of the view that the spe-cific price discounts by Coles which were the sub-ject of this inquiry warrant legislative amendments.”

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INCReAseD suPPLy from Aus-tralia and New Zealand – combined with surpluses in northern hemisphere countries – is likely to lead to further price falls for dairy, according to the National Australia Bank.

In its Agribusiness Rural Commod-ities Wrap, NAB says Australian milk production is expected to rise another 2.2% per cent in 2011-12 and New Zea-land production is set to increase 5% - which is forecast to lead to a 7% fall in prices compared with 2010-11.

NAB Agribusiness general manager Khan Horne says milk production to date in 2011 is 2% higher than the same time last year – driven by strong sea-

sonal conditions in many dairy regions, falling feed costs and favourable pricing.

“Much of the increase has been coming from northern and western Vic-torian, where production is up 11.4% and 5.5% respectively,” Horne says. “We’ve

also seen a 10% jump in Tasmania.”He says meanwhile a strong season

in the northern hemisphere has resulted in a considerable exportable surplus.

“Global demand has not kept pace with supply and the key question is who is going to absorb this surplus. Look-ing ahead, these market fundamentals point to further falls in the world dairy price during the year, but it’s important to note that prices are still 48.5% above their average over the past decade.”

Dairy prices – which have fallen for seven consecutive months – continue to fall, with the decline from their peak to approach 20% by next June, the report says.

Report author, NAB agribusiness economist Michael Creed, says the peak in the recent cycle in dairy prices has well and truly passed. Creed highlights pullbacks in demand from major cus-tomers, including Russia, whose buy-ins have “slowed through 2011”, and China.

“While a considerable exportable surplus has been building up in the big exporters, demand has not,” he adds.

Indeed, separate data from Global Trade Information Services shows Chi-na’s whole milk powder imports tum-bling by more than 50%, year on year, below 10,000 tonnes in October.

While an improvement of 2000 tonnes month on month; the rate of

decline was steeper than seen in Sep-tember when China’s whole milk powder imports hit their lowest for nearly three years.

Thanks to a strong start to the year, imports so far in 2011 remain ahead of those a year before.

But the rate of increase has narrowed to 7% for the first 10 months of the year, from 13% as of September.

Australian dairy farmers are being shielded from world pressures by the ready availability of fodder.

“Australian producers are more likely to keep margins positive in an environment of falling global prices for dairy,” Creed adds.

MuRRAy gOuLBuRN will begin selling lactose through the Global Dairy Trade (GDT) auction from April.

GDT was started in July 2008 by New Zealand co-operative Fonterra. Dairy America began selling product through the multi-product, twice-monthly auc-tion this year.

New MG managing director Gary Helou says the GDT represented an

efficient, transparent and independent method of selling dairy products on the global market.

“Lactose is a product that is grow-ing in importance in the marketplace,” Helou says. “This is driven by increased demand for lactose for products, such as infant formula and other nutritionals.”

He says offering lactose on GDT

will further develop the market for this product and has the potential to reduce volatility and provide more reliable price discovery for buyers and sellers.

“Accordingly we are confident that MG’s involvement will provide benefits to MG shareholders and customers.”

GDT general manager Paul Grave says MG’s decision would enhance the GDT auction.

“MG’s decision to offer lactose is a further significant step for GDT as it adds a new product to the platform that is not currently offered by exist-ing sellers.”

Graves says it demonstrates GDT’s increasing role as a key plat-

form for international trade in a broad range of dairy commodities.

“We are delighted that a company of MG’s standing and importance in world dairy markets has decided to partici-pate in GDT and play a part in shaping its future.

“Today the largest Australian dairy producer joins the largest American

provider of milk powder and the larg-est provider of globally-traded dairy products to further develop Global-DairyTrade.”

More information about MG’s offer-ing on GDT will be provided to pro-spective customers in the lead up to its formal participation in April.

GDT sales to date total more than US$5 billion. It currently trades around 700,000 metric tonnes of products annually and has around 500 qualified bidders from more than 80 countries.

NeWs // 7

MORe PROCessORs have fol-lowed Murray Goulburn’s lead by announcing milk price rises.

MG announced the first step-up of its farmgate milk price in October – by 20c/kg for protein and 8c/kg for butterfat – and other processors have now followed suit.

Longwarry Food Park has raised its prices by 7c/kg for butterfat and 17c/kg for protein and has also flagged a second step-up will be announced in February.

Managing director Rakash Aggar-wal says the company “envisage this price increase will be similar to our first announced today”.

He told suppliers any significant change in world economic conditions may require a review.

“We believe this commitment adds more certainty in your milk price, to allow you to maximise the favourable seasonal conditions that exist through-out Gippsland.”

Burra Foods also announced their first step-up for 2011/12 – by 10c/kg for butterfat and 25c/kg. This takes the company’s aver-age price to a reported $4-87/kg milk solids.

The company says milk supply to the Korumburra site is on target for an increase of more than 15% on last season.

Fonterra announced a step-up in Tasmania of 8c/kg butterfat and 20c/kg protein – with an end-of-year indicative range of between $5-10 to $5-50/kg MS.

Meanwhile, a revitalised Brownes Dairy in Western Australia has launched a new favoured milk brand called Kick, a new yogurt range called West N Fresh and invested $5 million in its IT systems in recent months.

It is now looking for a return to export growth – where customers in neighbouring Asian markets were increasingly prepared to pay a premium for quality fresh product.

Processors lift farmgate prices

MG joins global auction

Dairy prices may ease as global production lifts

Khan Horne

Gary HelouMurray Goulburn will sell lactose through the international auction from April 2012.


NATIONAL DAIRy consumption is expected to increase by 2% each year, according to Dairy Australia managing director Ian Halliday.

Halliday told Dairy Australia’s recent AGM the medium term outlook for dairy is very positive for farmers in south east Australia in particular. He says this posi-tive outlook is based on population and income growth and changes in diet of emerging economies in Asia and the Middle East and continued consump-tion growth per capita in Asia.

“Many parts of south east Australia experienced the most favourable con-ditions in a decade coupled with this strong export demand and competi-tion.”

Halliday acknowledged the extreme climatic challenges of floods, cyclone and drought a number of dairy-ing regions around the nation faced throughout the past 12 months.

“Dairy Australia provided strong support to levy payers and the broader industry to cope with these challenges during the past year through practical solutions, direct action programs and on-the ground support.”

Throughout the past financial year, Dairy Australia also supported the Aus-tralian Dairy Industry Council (ADIC)

in analysing and understanding the potential impacts of domestic policy and market initiatives – such as the pro-posed carbon pricing mechanism, the Murray Darling Basin Plan, supermar-ket milk price cuts, changes to animal welfare standards, the National Food Plan, food labelling and the Australian Dietary Guidelines.

Halliday says highlights for the past financial year included:

Implementing the Dairy Moving Forward pre-farm gate investment in

research, development and extension, which covers animals, feed base man-agement, natural resource manage-ment, people and farm management.

Developing a Dairy and Sports per-formance project in partnership with the Australian Institute of Sport which aims to increase awareness of milk’s unique role in exercise and sport per-formance.

Launching the new automatic milking rotary with key investors at Camden in NSW, which has led to the first commercial AMR being installed in Tasmania.

Establishing the dairy industry People Development Council, this aims to address the challenge of attracting, retaining and developing people.

“To remain competitive the indus-try must continue to work on improving margins, leverage growth opportunities and proactively promote and protect dairy,” Halliday added.

“This all needs to be underpinned by ensuring the industry’s skills and capa-bility base.”

Three of Dairy Australia’s nine board directors were re-elected at last month’s annual general meeting – Dr Wendy Craik, Peter Nankervis and northern Victorian dairy farmer Geoff Akers.

DAIRY AUSTRALIA’S new Strategic Plan for 2012-16 will see 45% of fund-ing earmarked towards improving farm margins and growth opportunities.

Managing director Ian Halliday released details of the plan at last month’s annual general meeting. He says 25% of funds will be used to pro-mote and protect dairy’s value and integrity, while 20% will be used to grow “skills and capability”.

“Looking ahead to the next five years, and with the difficulties of recent events in mind, our plan aims to accom-modate the regional diversity of our

industry and acknowledges the need to accelerate adoption of research to sustain profitable farm and manufac-turing businesses into the future,” Hal-liday said.

DA invested more than $51 million into the indus-try in 2010/11. The national research and service body spent $33.8 million on Research, Development and Extension projects and $17.2 million on industry services.

The Dairy Services Levy provided $33.1 million of income, with $18.8 mil-

lion of matching Australian Federal Government funding.

DA chairman Max Roberts says these figures are not dissimilar to when Dairy

Australia was formed in 2003, when the expenditure was $52 million.

“Then, industry contributed 60% to Dairy Australia’s operating funds – now

it is 55%,” Roberts said. “While the dollar figures may be

the same, the programs we invest in have come a long way. Our projects are more targeted, resulting in research and extension which has helped drive profit-ability and delivered value back to farm-ers and their businesses.

“This has been done through feed conversion efficiency, natural resource management, ensuring dairy has a voice in the health and nutrition debate, pro-tecting industry reputation or keeping the door open to key international mar-kets.”

8 // NeWs Dairy Australia AgM

NeXT yeAR’s levy poll vote drew the most questions from the crowd at last month’s Dairy Australia AGM.

Several farmers requested that a status quo option be added to the ballot paper – alongside the options for 10%, 15% or removing it altogether.

Dairy Australia managing director Ian Halliday told the meeting expendi-ture in the next five years would total $292 million, with a continued focus on research and education.

He says DA will fund its 2012-16 Stra-tegic Plan from levy payers – assuming the levy increase of 10% was voted in.

All dairy farmers will receive their voting entitlements for dairy poll 2012 this month, followed by a voting pack containing their ballot paper in Febru-ary 2012. Ballot papers must be returned by March 16, 2012.

ADF President Chris Griffin says the 10% increase will achieve the results needed by the industry.

Levy deductions are made from farmers’ milk cheques each month. They currently contribute about $30.6 million each year. Further annual gov-ernment funding of $17m provides the budget for Dairy Australia, which is invested on behalf of levy payers.

Griffin has said it is essential to con-tinue this scale of investment to provide industry-good activity.

The Federal Government requires Dairy Australia to go to its farmer share-holders every five years seeking their opinion on the levy rate.

The three options were decided upon by a Dairy Poll Advisory Commit-tee chaired by Griffin. He says members of the 20-strong committee are drawn from all industry sectors and a wide cross section of dairy farmers repre-senting a range of views.

Griffin says a 10% lift over five years is well below CPI and will be the first levy increase since 1997.

Halliday says he and the board fully supported the 10% increase – although there will be a need to draw down reserves to support the activities of Dairy Australia over the next five years.

The dairy industry’s peak bodies – the Australian Dairy Industry Council, the ADF and the Australian Dairy Prod-ucts Federation – had all agreed to the Dairy Australia five-year strategic plan as part of the levy vote process.

Farmers against levy increase

Dairy Australia invested more than $51million into the dairy industry in 2010/11.

Dairy Australia will spend $200m in the next five years assuming the levy increase of 10% is voted in.

DA plans for the future

Dairy consumption expected to increase

gIPPsLAND DAIRy farmer and former Murray Goulburn chairman Ian MacAulay has been awarded the Austra-lian Dairy Industry Council’s Outstand-ing Service Award.

MacAulay accepted the award from ADIC president Chris Griffen at the annual Dairy Leader’s breakfast held before the Dairy Australia AGM last month.

“Mr MacAulay has lead by exam-ple in recognising the importance of farmer involvement through the

supply chain,” Griffen said. “The gen-erous sharing of his time and knowl-edge he has given has been a true asset to the industry.”

Griffin said MacAulay’s passion for the value that co-operatives bring to farmers and his 18 years serving on the MGC board, saw him as a perfect candi-date for the award.

The Outstanding Service Award recognises and celebrates collabora-tive leadership provided to the Austra-lian dairy industry.

“The award honours individual Aus-tralians who, through their leadership, dedication and commitment, have pro-vided outstanding service for the bene-fit of the entire industry,” Griffen added.

The award, introduced in 2006, has acknowledged different industry lead-ers who have made an impact in the dairy industry.

MacAulay is now enjoying retire-ment from his various roles in the industry. He is back on his home farm in Yarram with his wife Roslyn.

MacAuley recognised

The current milk levy is 1%. The levy poll gives farmers the option of stopping the levy or increasing it by 10% or %15. Some farmers want to retain the current amount.

Ian Halliday

max roberts


NeWs // 9

FOR eVeRy dollar invested by Australia’s dairy industry and government during the past 30 years – dairy farmers have received a benefit of at least $3.30, according to a new report released last month. The impact of innovation on the dairy industry over the past 30 years, conducted by Dairy Australia and the Victorian Department of Primary Industries, revealed a total of $2 billion has been spent on pre-farmgate research, development and extension (RD and E) projects for Australia’s dairy farmers between 1980 and 2010. The report also found a direct connection between increased milk production per hectare and RD and E investment in pasture production and use, feed supplements and genetic improvement.

Milk yield has increased 192% from an estimated 2878 litres/ha in 1980 to

8419 litres/ha in 2010.Dairy Australia man-

aging director Ian Halli-day says the analysis by the Centre for International Economics proves the value and importance for ongoing investment into pre-farmgate RD and E for the whole industry. “The evaluation backs up what we have been saying for some time now,” Halli-day says. “It shows overall dairy industry produc-tion would have declined by an estimated 23% - due to rising costs and dis-used technology - without industry-driven improve-ments in pasture manage-ment and supplementary feeding systems during the past three decades.

“Farmers are produc-ing more milk from fewer cows, but the industry is a vastly different landscape today compared to 1980. This means it has been imperative our farmers and industry adapt to the constantly changing envi-ronment and challenges.”

Farmers reap research benefitsA breakdown of the $2 bil-lion investment shows the majority of funding was invested in pasture/forage improvement and utilisa-tion ($643 million), animal breeding and reproduction ($374 million) and natu-ral resource management ($302 million).

The rest of the money was spread across cow welfare, business and

human resources, feed use and nutrition, milking sys-tems and RD and E capac-ity building. The report says wide-spread adoption in the 1980s of rotational graz-ing from New Zealand has played a large part in the improvement in pasture management and produc-tivity of Australia’s dairy industry.

Extension programs playing a key role in this include Target 10, Proj-ect 30/30 and Feeding Pas-tures for Profit. The past 30 years has also seen a marked increase in the use of feed supple-ments, which has also attributed to higher milk production.

In 2010, a cow con-sumed 33% more supple-

mentary feed dry matter than a cow in 1980.

“The combined increase in pastures and supplements supports cows that are also 34% more efficient at convert-ing feed to milk,” Halli-day says.

Genetic improvement and gains in herd perfor-mance have been cred-ited to work by Australian

Dairy Herd Improvement Scheme (ADHIS), the introduction of Australian Breeding Values and tools developed by the InCalf and Countdown programs. “We will now use the report findings and learn-ings from the past 30 years to help inform future investment in RD and E on-farm projects,” Halli-day adds.

THe NATIONAL Farmers’ Federation’s Agribusiness Loan Monitor shows four financial institutions have reduced their agribusiness loans off the back of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) decision to cut interest rates.

Suncorp Agribusi-ness, Commonwealth Bank Agribusiness, ANZ Agribusiness and NAB Agribusiness have each reduced their term loan rates by between 0.20 per-cent and 0.25 percent in response to the official RBA reduction of 0.25 per-cent.

The NFF Agribusiness Loan Monitor is designed to compare and contrast the agribusiness loan rates of the major banks and other financial institu-tions to help farmers and rural businesses get a clear understanding of loan and interest rates.

NFF economics committee chair John McKillop says it has been very difficult in the past for farmers to access this kind of information, which

is why the Monitor was developed.

“It makes the market more transparent,” McKillop explains. “Since the Monitor’s introduction in June, it has shown that interest rates have remained steady, mirroring the stability of the official cash rate.”

He says with the RBA reducing interest rates to 4.5%, the Monitor shows which banks have responded with reductions in their financial products.

Key results from the November Monitor show the Commonwealth Bank Agribusiness and Suncorp Agribusiness have both dropped their term loan rates by 0.25 percent, while ANZ Agribusiness has reduced its business loan variable rate by 0.23 percent and NAB Agribusiness by 0.20 percent.

In overdrafts, Suncorp Agribusiness has reduced its rate down by 1.64 percent, while the Commonwealth Bank has made a reduction of 0.25 percent.

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10 // NeWs Class Recruitment

THe PeRCePTION that regional students will automatically understand all the career options in the dairy industry is untrue.

According to Deanne Kennedy, who runs the Cows Create Careers project for Dairy Australia, regional and city-based students don’t know about the range of careers open to them in dairy.

“Most think of dairy farming as the only career pathway, but in fact if they’re into IT – there’s a career for them in dairy, if they’re into engineering – there’s a career for them in dairy.

“There are so many options; whether it is in science, marketing, farming and so on. Our aim has been to raise awareness about this to the students, teachers and parents.”

Kennedy says the proof is in the

pudding when it comes to assessing the success of the project.

“Our aim has never been to turn every student into a dairy professional, but if we can make a difference to one or two students who then consider a dairy career – then we’re on the right path.

“There are countless students that have gone on to do work experience at a dairy farm and are now working, doing traineeships or studying in a dairy related field.”

The project is also attracting a lot of support from farmers and industry advocates volunteering their time and expertise to the cause.

Kennedy said the structure of the program has been integral to its success.

“Dairy Australia has been smart and spent its money very wisely by putting

regional coordinators on the ground to see the take-up by schools is happening and the support is there.

“I have seen many great CD-ROM education packages developed that have cost a great deal by other industry

groups, but no one is there helping or making sure that schools actually use them.

“It’s a huge waste of money and a lot of great material never sees the light of day as there’s no money to follow up and

see that the packages are being used.”Kennedy says the dairy project has

set an industry benchmark.“I have not seen this style of program

run by any of the other commodity groups. I have certainly seen some good

material, scholarships and initiatives such as junior paraders competitions and agricultural show competitions aimed at students.

“But the feedback we get from teachers is that our program fits right into the curriculum and is very easy to implement, whilst also addressing the dairy industry’s need to find people wanting to pursue careers in the industry in the long term.”

Kennedy says the format of running the project as a competition is a further driver for students and schools.

“It gives them something to work towards and complete, with the chance also to compete against other schools.

“In fact, the city schools do very well because they want to show that they can be just as hands-on and as knowledgeable as the regional and rural students.”

At the completion of the project, Cows Create Careers aims to link the National Centre for Dairy Education and other industry professionals with students to allow them to follow on their learning if they wish.

“We put the students in touch with people who will give them the right advice and provide ongoing support.”

A DesIRe to “put something back into the dairy industry” was the driving force behind the Cows Create Careers project, according to Strzekecki Lions Club President and dairy farmer Bill Loughridge.

The idea – devel-oped from the South Gippsland Dairy Expo, organised by the Lions Club and Loughridge – was for the project to bring dairy into the lives of people in non-tradi-tional dairying regions, educate students about career possibilities within the industry and address the industry’s long-term sustainability by assisting with labour issues.

Today, Loughridge is still actively involved with the project – taking dairy calves to three schools with the most recent addition being the all-girls school, Kilbreda College at Mentone, Vic-toria.

“In attending the pre-sentation ceremonies, it is clear that there are lots of students considering careers in dairy who may never have done so prior to being part of the proj-ect.”

The Loughridge family milks 550 cows at Poowong in Victoria and employ milkers – some of whom are graduates of the Cows Create Careers

project. Loughridge has encouraged all of his employees to under-take further training and study and – 90% of the time – pays for them to do it.

It has also proven a key to labour retention, but he says the improved conditions for dairy have also made it possible.

“During drought periods, many farmers weren’t making enough of a return to pay staff let alone pay for their fur-ther education and many staff were overworked. It’s great to be able to sponsor young people in the industry and certainly helps with retaining staff and helping them develop their skills.” However, he says that each farm-er’s situation and income is different and it may not be possible for all – despite their willingness to do so.

“To that end, hope-fully the better prices will prevail and more farms will remain viable into the future.”

Loughridge says the Cows Create Careers project is a “great way to start the ball rolling” for students at a young age, with the industry offering scholarships and assis-tance packages to help them take their learning to the next level through further education and trade training.

Project sets industry benchmark

Gippsland farmer sees idea blossom

“I have not seen this style of program run by any of the other commodity groups.”

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Bridging city-country divide

NeWs Class recruitment // 11

LIz COTTON

LIKe MuCH of the rural sector, the dairy industry is having trouble find-ing good help – but seven years ago a local Lions Club came up with one way of addressing the issue.

In 2004, the Strzelecki Lions Club in Gippsland initiated the Cows Create Careers project to encourage high school students to consider a dairy career. It reached nine Victorian schools and 141 students that year – with funding provided by the Gardiner Foundation.

Two years’ later, Dairy Australia agreed to support the growth of the project to other states and in 2009 it became a national dairy project.

Cows Create Careers provides stu-dents with the opportunity to take care of two 3-week old dairy calves for three weeks – with support and advice from local dairy farmers and an industry rep-resentative such as vets, dairy company field officers, agronomists or manufac-turing sector representatives.

Schools receive a resources kit for the term-long project, which includes

a curriculum guide, CD rom, posters and information on calf rearing and the dairy industry.

Students share their experiences and demonstrate what they have learnt by presenting a data show and a research poster. They also send thank you letters to the farmers and indus-try representatives, and create a news-letter as part of the school curriculum. The program concludes with a presen-tation and awards ceremony.

Today, the Dairy Australia and Regional Development Program proj-ect is delivered to 176 schools and 6389 students across 20 dairying regions throughout Australia.

Over 100 farmers and industry rep-resentatives have volunteered their time to help support the teachers and students, with many having done so since the project first began.

This year, the project was expanded to include dairy manufacturing;

offering teachers the opportunity to train students to make cheese in the classroom, visit a dairy factory and discover the opportunities for careers in dairy processing, from plant operation, to microbiology or engineering.

Cows Create Careers also expanded its reach in Western Australia by dou-bling the number of schools involved.

Dairy Australia’s 2010 Cows Create Careers Annual Report highlighted

school survey information that showed the project’s reach – through involve-ment of the entire school commu-nity in each region – is estimated to be 37,740 students and teachers.

As part of the Cows Create Careers evaluation in schools, a teacher entrance survey was conducted.

Teachers estimated that an aver-age of 5-10% of the students surveyed looked to agriculture as a possible career pathway. The highest response recorded in any individual school was 45%.

The results also reported that a work experience connection, either in dairy or a related agricultural indus-try, resulted in 42.7% cases for stu-dents. Furthermore, as a result of the project, a dairy career pathway, or the pursuit of further agricultural educa-tion by students, resulted in 33.7% of cases, teachers said.

Over the last six years, 293 stu-dents said they would be interested in participating in the dairy industry and would consider a career in dairy, while another 226 students indicated they would be keen to pursue veteri-nary science pathways.

Careers program expands reach

AgRICuLTuRe TeACHeR David Muller has a dairy background and has seen the Cows Create Careers project go from strength to strength over the last six years at St Johns the Evange-list Catholic High School in Nowra, Southern NSW.

“The hands-on style of the project is not only of benefit to students who like to get in there and get involved, but it really brings those who are a little more reserved out of their shell.”

Muller says one of the key out-comes of the project has been its ability to generate an understanding among students, knowledge of where food comes from and the importance and diversity of agriculture and in doing so bridge the city-country divide.

“We are not trying to get all the students to become dairy farmers; the aim is to get them to start think-ing about different career pathways.

He says the program gives stu-dents an expanded idea of the differ-ent career options available to them.

“They come away with the knowl-edge that you don’t necessarily have to be a dairy farmer to work in the dairy industry.”

Muller says the project has also translated into career outcomes in

dairy for a number of students. “As a result of the program, several

students have pursued various dairy pathways and in fact the farmer who delivered the calves to St John’s this year was a past Cows Create Careers student from a different region.

“He is currently employed on one of the largest dairy farms in the region owned by David and Sue Boyd.

“Another girl who completed the project three years ago is working on a dairy farm while studying.”

Muller says many students who complete the project in year 9, go on to study agriculture as part of their senior HSC studies – with “around 40% of senior students interested in pursuing careers in agriculture”.

MeLBOuRNe’s suBuRB of Mount Waverley is not your traditional dairying region, according to Year 9 Avila College Agriculture teacher, Lisa Moloney.

“But Cows Create Careers has been extremely successful since the school first implemented the project in 2006,” she says. “This year there were three classes of 25, year 9 girls enrolled to study the Environmental Science elective, which is where Cows Create Careers sits in our curriculum.”

“The parents come in with students on the weekends to help take care of the calves and we have had a number of girls go on to do work experience milking on

dairy farms in Shepparton. “I think the beauty of the project is that

it brings dairy and agriculture in to the lives of students and their families who may never have thought of considering it as a career.

“That’s a benefit for dairy and agriculture too, as the industries are drawing from the non-traditional labour pool.”

Moloney says there have been some students who have chosen to attend the college because of the project, having heard about it in the community or through other students and their families.

Dairy classes in theheart of MelbourneThe project has

translated into career outcomes in dairy for several students.

moruya, nSW, High School student Sophie cahill.

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12 // NeWs

THIs yeAR’s hay season is showing signs that supply may be tight by autumn and winter, according to Dairy Austra-lia’s latest Grain and Hay report.

Given the seasonal outlook, dairy farmers are being advised to plan their hay buying early and to consider quality when making purchase deci-sions.

Dairy Australia’s Grain-s2Milk program leader, Dr Steve Little says wet

weather in Western Aus-tralia during their harvest had reduced the supply of export quality hay.

“In a normal season, about 40% of Australia’s export hay comes from WA,” Little says. “To com-pensate, good quality cereal hay is being actively sought by export plants in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales.

“That will have an effect on the amount avail-able for the domestic market.”

In addition, areas sown for cereal and pasture hay in many regions of east-ern Australia appear to be well down this year – with many hay contrac-tors reporting that their amount of work is down by more than half.

“For dairy farmers who are regular buyers of hay, it may be worth consider-ing buying some of your annual requirements in the paddock at harvest,” Little adds. “Or at the very least, keep a close eye on developments by watching

Dairy Australia’s Hay and Grain reports.”

He says that good qual-ity, milking hay may be difficult to source and expensive during the peak demand periods next autumn and winter, espe-cially if the autumn arrives late.

The Australian Fodder Industry Association says the reality of a low volume of fodder production has dawned on consumers in the eastern states, who are now being proactive

about securing supplies that they know they will inevitably need through-out the autumn and winter next year.

The AFIA says the increased inquiry may not necessarily lead to a flurry of trading activity and prices are expected to remain relatively stable through the remainder of harvest.

In a tip for farmers, it says in the paddock opportunities are diminishing for winter

crop hay types. However, as second and third cuts of lucerne come into play, there will be fresh opportunities to purchase directly out of the paddock where the seller is generally more open to negotiation.

Many contractors have reported their amount of work has been reduced by more than 50% and in some instances they are only expecting to bale a quarter of what they nor-mally do.

RICK BAyNe

THe uNITeD Dairy-farmers of Victoria (UDV) and Corangamite Shire have taken up the mantle of pursuing better roads for south-west Victoria’s dairyfarmers.

The shire is leading the development of a regional road plan, which will be used to seek more fund-ing to improve the road system. The UDV is using fig-ures collated by the Western Vic-torian dairy indus-try to launch a political campaign to improve roads and infrastructure.

The moves have been inspired by WestVic Dairy’s `Driving Down the Track’ project, which pri-oritised a strategic direc-tion for the industry to reach a goal of producing three billion litres of milk by 2020.

A regional transport committee was formed as part of the ‘Driving Down the Track’ project – bring-ing together the key trans-port decision makers in the region.

Corangamite Shire director works and ser-vices Alex Green says the south-west transport plan will inform local, state and federal government deci-sions on road funding. He says the plan will identify key areas where invest-ment would benefit the

regional economy.“It will identify where

money would be best invested in infrastructure to develop the region’s economy.”

The shire has sourced $100,000 additional fund-ing for the study, which will be carried out by Hyder Consulting.

Green says the impe-

tus for the plan came from the WestVic ‘Dairy Driving Down the Track initiative and will be a good initia-tive for the region.

“It stemmed from discussions held with WestVic Dairy and the for-mation of the regional group, which included representatives of local government, the dairy industry, manufacturers and other key players in the region’s economy.

“It will focus on the region’s growing indus-tries of which dairying is probably the most impor-tant.”

UDV south-west regional representative Roma Britnell says data collated by WestVic Dairy as part of the Driving Down the Track project will be used to advocate for more road funding.

Hay supply will tighten by autumn

Farmers lobby for better roads

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NeWs // 13

A TOP level delegation of 38 Chinese government officials, dairy industry workers and farmers had an extensive 10-day tour of Australian facilities last month.

The delegation – including officials from the Ministry of Agriculture’s Animal Husbandry Bureau – met with major cattle breeders, industry organizations and breed societies during the visit last. It was hosted by genetics company ABS Australia.

The delegation also met with representatives from the Australian Dairy Herd Improvement Scheme (ADHIS), the National Herd Improvement Association (NHIA) and the Holstein Friesian Association of Australia (HFAA).

ABS Australia’s product development manager Russell Manton led the group during its visit and said it had been a great success.

“This tour gave these first-time visitors to Australia, who all have key posts in the Chinese dairying industry, a comprehensive view of the management of genetics in Australia,” he said.

While in Australia, the delegation attended training sessions, at ABS Australia’s head office in Albury, on the Australian genetic base and how to best utilize the genetics currently available in China. They also visited farms in northern Victoria, western Victoria and central NSW and finished with some sightseeing in Sydney.

The delegation saw a variety of dairy operations, registered herds as well as commercial herds, from pasture-based producers to freestall operations, and saw the Holstein judging at the Echuca Agricultural Show. They also visited top quality Victoria studs including Cooriemungle Holsteins, owned by Garry and Lee Hibberd, Timboon, Victoria. As well as others who’ve produced some of the proven AI bulls, which are now standing at stud in China.

In NSW, the tour

included the impressive large herd at Moxey Farms, which milk in excess of 2500 cows in a feedlot system.

ABS Australia general manager Jay Weiker said the tour provided the group with an excellent overview of the Australian dairy industry and strengthened their confidence in the genetics available from Australia.

“We have plans to be very involved in genetic improvement of the Chinese dairy and beef populations and are particularly excited about the growth opportunities in the China dairy industry,” Weiker added.

ABS Australia has 52 locally-proven dairy and beef bulls standing at stud in northern China in cooperation with giant dairy processor Mengniu Dairy Company.

SK-Xing is the genetics entity that produces and sells both conventional and sex sorted semen to its milk suppliers and other dairy producers throughout China.

These bulls have just been joined by another 28 sires, which were air freighted to China in August and underwent quarantine testing for several months before entering the SK-Xing production facilities in Inner Mongolia.

Weiker says the relationship with SK-Xing and Mengniu has enabled the company to produce semen in China from these Australian-proven bulls.

“This provides us with the opportunity to reach a much larger market than can be achieved through imported semen.”

Manton recently returned from China, where he visited the Mengniu Dairy facilities in Inner Mongolia and inspected the Australian proven sires.

“Mengniu has world-class facilities modelled on ABS’s state-of-the-art Dekorra facility in Wisconsin, which was built five years ago,” he said. “The Mengniu complex has the ability to eventually house 120 bulls.

“The Chinese dairy

Chinese secure local knowledge

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14 // NeWs: WORLD PAge

Call for supermarket punishmentBRITIsH FARMeRs’ union leader Peter Kendall is encouraging farm-ing organisations in the EU and North America to campaign for tough and effective measures to deter and punish the abuse of supermarket power.

Speaking at the 35th annual North American and EU Agricultural Confer-ence in Warsaw, Poland, Kendall said supermarket power was an interna-tional problem and therefore required an international approach.

“Farmers are the poor relations of the food chain, not just in Britain, but

across the developed world. That has to change.

“If farmers and growers are to have the incentive and the resources to invest in achieving the step change in farm productivity the world needs, we must ensure supply chains deliver a fair share of what consumers pay for food to primary pro-ducers.”

Kendall co-chaired a session on how the food chain can provide a better

income for farmers, and described the long struggle British farmers have been engaged in to secure a legally binding

code of practice, policed by an adjudica-tor with statutory powers, to deter and punish retailers who illegally exploit

their dominant position.“We are probably ahead of the rest of

Europe in prescribing the medicine to deal with retailer abuse, but that is only because we are also ahead of the rest of Europe in the extent of the problem we’re facing.

“Even with the progress made, and the prospect of legislation in the rea-sonably near future, there is still a lot of work to do to ensure the watchdog we have been promised has real teeth, and isn’t just a flea-bitten old mongrel, that wags its tail every time it’s patted

on the head by one of the big four super-markets.

“That means allowing third parties, such as farming organisations, to make complaints on their members’ behalf, so as to preserve anonymity and pre-vent victimisation, and it means giving the watchdog the power to impose big fines, if naming and shaming proves an insufficient deterrent.

“These are achievable objectives for which we shall continue to campaign and to lobby, as the legislation is drafted and as it goes through Parliament.”

“We must ensure supply chains across the world deliver a fair share of what consumers pay for food to primary producers.”

CANTeRBuRy Nz, farm machinery maker Don Robertson hadn’t forgotten his grandfather’s Lanz Bulldog tractor. He just needed to discover where it was hiding, 59 years after it left the family fold.

Then in 2008 Ben Lewis discovered and copied an old photograph of Don with his grandfather Jack at the old man’s clearing sale in March 1952 at Isleworth, Mid Canterbury. The Bull-dog topped the sale list.

That tractor had to be out there somewhere, Don knew.

Before long it was discovered in a machinery shed belonging to Ian Sadler. Ian had run the machine for about 50 years then sent it into retirement.

Lewis told Don and he just had to buy it.

The 1938 Model L, 25hp, 6-speed machine was bought in 1939 by Jack Robertson from the original owner John Grigg, of Longbeach. Grigg had found it

too small for his work and sold it.In Jack’s care the Bulldog spent

much of its working life pulling a Reid & Gray 2-furrow plough in Canterbury.

The tractor is now in original con-dition and even has its original start-ing lamp.

Don’s father Ian had been sum-moned home by Jack to learn about the tractor and drive it. He said he pre-ferred it to walking behind the exhaust of a horse.

NZ production fall expectedPeTeR BuRKe

MILK PRODuCTION is starting to fall nationwide, despite what appears to be a surplus of grass. But DairyNZ’s principal scientist Dave Clark says this phenomenon is not unusual for this time of the year.

For example, per cow production in the NZ district of Waikato dropped in October from 2.5 to 1.5kgMS/cow. A similar slide is reported in Manawatu/Horowhenua where seasonal above-average rainfall is noted.

DairyNZ’s team leader there, Scott Ridsdale, says 140mm of rain fell in October – 40mm more than last year. Half way through November 70mm has fallen when the average this month is just 80mm.

The rain is preventing farmers from planting crops or making silage, and what silage is being made is poorer qual-ity and lower energy, Ridsdale says. The nature of the season is a challenge for farmers to maintain pasture quality.

“The poor quality feed is one reason we’re seeing a drop in milk production. This is not affecting cow condition, but it is limiting the amount of live weight gain. I’m not sure cows are losing weight, but they’re certainly not put-

ting on any extra weight.”Clark says what’s happening now

occurs after a good spring and in effect it’s a double whammy.

“The ryegrass is going to flower and then to seed and that’s dropping pasture quality every day effectively.

“Then you’ve got increasing tem-perature which is causing leaf struc-tures to lignify which means the feed is less digestible for the cow. It’s difficult to get away from what’s happening over the next couple of weeks.”

The lack of sunshine, particularly evident in Manawatu, is helping rather than hindering the situation. This might be slowing growth and slowing the ligni-fication of the grass and neither is bad.

Clark says often at this time of year farmers start to get short of feed, but ironically the quality of the available feed is actually quite good because it has more leaf than stalk.

Ridsdale says farmers should now be setting up for December and Janu-ary. “That means concentrating on pas-ture quality over the next four weeks. What you don’t want is cows eating stalks left over from previous grazings. It’s better to top those pastures over the next months to make sure of really good quality over summer.”

Pasture quality is dropping around the country, says DairynZ.

Generations cherish family ‘bulldog’

Above: Don Robertson with his grandfather Jack and the 1938 Lanz Bulldog tractor at Mr Robertson’s clearing sale in 1952.Left: Don and his grandson Kyle.

suDesH KIssuN

FONTeRRA HAs paid its New Zealand farmer shareholders a whopping $65 billion over the last 10 years.

The co-op, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in October, paid out a record $10.6b to farmers in the 2010-11 season ending July 31 this year. The record payout is $1.5b more than its previous best year 2008.

Fonterra chairman Henry van der Heyden said Fonterra’s 2011 results show dairy’s in a sweet spot.

“In all our key markets, economic and lifestyle trends are fuelling consumer demand for quality dairy products

and opening new opportunities for Fonterra.

“In the past year, these trends underpinned record returns for shareholders.”

High commodity prices flowed into a farmgate milk price of $7.60/kgMS despite a high New Zealand dollar.

Fonterra’s currency hedging shielded it from the full brunt of a stronger Kiwi dollar.

Earnings were also strong, distrib-utable profit hitting a new record of 65c/share, from which it paid 30c as dividend.

Van der Heyden said some farmers questioned the need for high retentions given its strong balance sheet. However, he said a strong balance sheet was one

of the co-op’s most important defences in volatile times.

“And that’s what we are facing in the world right now.”

Fonterra’s total revenues for the 2010-11 year reached $19.9b, $60 million more than its previous record earnings of 2007-08.

At the top end of the earning scale, anhydrous milk fat (AMF) prices were up 56% on the previous year and butter milk powder (BMP) nearly 46% up.

But they are a smaller piece of the pie.

Whole milk powder (WMP) and skim milk powder (SMP) combined make up 80% of production and prices for both were up nearly 25% on the previous year.

Fonterra’s $65b economic boost

Sustainability tops EU dairy agenda

The Irish dairy industry is also striving for better sustainability. Inset: Joe collins.

PeTeR BuRKe

THe Issue of sustainability in the dairy industry is becoming very important in the market place says a senior executive of the Irish Dairy Board (IDB)

Joe Collins, managing director of the IDB’s dairy trading and ingredients division told Dairy News Australia, during this reporter’s recent trip there, that consumers want to know if the animals producing the products they are buying have been well treated.

“They are asking about how the cows are handled and why is butter so yellow. We explain that’s because the cows are out on grass. They also want to know how the food is produced and how many miles it has travelled to market. There is no doubt urban consumers are influencing farming practices.”

Very strict rules now apply in Europe to deal with environmental issues, Collins says.

A big issue for the Irish dairy industry is the lifting of a milk quota on Irish production, due to come off in 2015. The quota, in force since 1984, was to eliminate ‘milk lakes’ in the European Union (EU) caused by 1970s subsidies that encouraged farmers to produce more milk than was needed.

But with the lifting of the cap in 2015, it’s predicted Irish milk production will increase 50% by 2020, though the increase is off a low base. This will see production lift from about 5.5 billion litres per year to 8.2 billion.

Collins says the cap has caused

problems for the Irish dairy industry, not least a drop in cow numbers. “If you needed, say, 100 cows in 1984 to fill your quota, with improvements in genetics and grassland management, animal husbandry and animal health, the chances are your yield would have improved by 30% so you only needed 70 cows to fill your quota.”

Collins foresees an increase in Irish cow numbers, but only in certain parts of Ireland can this happen – mainly in the south-east where the land is good enough for dairying. Some farmers running beef will convert to dairying.

Extra production resulting from lifting the milk cap is unlikely to have much effect on New Zealand and Australia, Collins says.

Ireland’s main markets are Europe, especially Germany for cheese and the US. The Irish are also likely to continue developing markets in Africa, building on success in selling whole milk powder. The IDB has sold some branded products to China, but in small quantities.

“We see Fonterra have a preferential arrangement with China which means lower duty for your exports. But we also recognise the value of developing markets. We notice that in the developing markets there is more money than in developed markets. For us cheese will offer opportunities in developed markets whereas it will be WMP in the developing markets.

“One thing making us smile sometimes is the developed world wants to eat eastern style food – Chinese and the like – whereas the developing world wants western style food.”

Irish dairy industry• 1,027,000 dairy cows.• Average dairy herd size 60 cows.• Total agricultural exports $16 billion.• Dairying 29% of agricultural exports.• 80% of dairy exports to Europe (including UK).• Prominent Irish brand: Kerrygold.• Annual milk production 5.173 billion litres.

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Our core business of supplying various domestic and export abattoirs with dairy cows and calves is continuing to expand, as does the export heifer market and the private sale market which enables us to supply a

complete service for the dairy/beef industry.

Our newly appointed Tasmanian team has also expanded, with 7 agents now servicing the whole of Tasmania, specialising in dairy, but also

servicing the beef and sheep grower sector. We offer a personalised agency service through our one to one on farm dealings, benefitting both

the vendor and the purchaser.

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Irish milk production is predicted to increase 50% by 2020 with the removal of the production cap in 2015.

DAiry NEwS AUSTrALiA june 14, 2011

RuMINATINg

16 // OPINION

eDITORIAL

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Animals Australia moves onHAVING FAILED to create a media storm over the dairy industry’s “secret shame” – the treatment of bobby calves – Animals Australia has already switched focus to another target�

Subscribers to the AA email, who were asked to donate to fund ads in the national media decrying the treat-ment of calves, have now received a similar email asking for donations to fund a campaign against the pork industry�

“A plea for bobby” quickly became “a plea for Lucy” the pig�

It was refreshing to see the media see through AA’s shock campaign designed to cause further heartache to the dairy industry and pay it little credence� Farmers don’t deserve it�

Fill ‘em upTHE NEW campaign to improve major roads in western Victoria (see page 12) reminds us of a quip from a Gippsland farmer at the Poowong Dairy Expo last year�

Although Western Victorian farmers think they’ve been left behind in new road funding, compared to other states, this farmer would disagree�

When asked what he would do with $100,000, he thought for a moment before saying: “Having lived in the South Gippsland shire all my life, I’ll probably spend it on their roads�”

There wasn’t an entirely unex-pected difference of opinion between

the farmer and his wife when asked what they would do with the $100,000�

“Straight to debt,” said the husband�

“Not if I get my hands on it first,” his wife quickly replied�

Extra Extra!PITHY TWEET from NSW Irrigators regarding the Murray Darling Basin Plan: “Minister Crean says he’s “only heard positives” about the Basin Plan� Perhaps a staffer might give him a newspaper��”

Talking senseSIGN ON a local hardware shop: “Drinking alcohol doesn’t solve any problems – but then neither does milk�”

New markets?GERMAN DESINGER Anke Domaske, who has created an award-winning new textile made entirely from milk, plans to begin mass production next year�

“Qmilch” apparently makes dresses that drape and fold like silk, but can be washed and dried like cotton�

Domaske claims companies are lining up to create fashion with the new product� Germany’s Textile Research Association says this sustainable fibre could revolutionise the clothing industry�

We wonder whether the Australian wool and cotton industries are shaking in their boots?

Oh balls!COWS AND bulls can get along, but it seems cows and balls – of the golf variety – cannot�

A New Zealand district court judge has ordered a small, 9-hole golf course on the outskirts of Palmerston North to close because 20,000 golf balls have landed on the neighbouring organic dairy farm over the past ten years�

The issue has been the thousands of golf balls landing on the farm with no practical way of stopping them coming over� An expert retained by the golf course owners gave the opinion in his evidence that even good shots would land on the farm place – not just the bad shots� This explains why the farm owners were picking up over 100 golf balls every week�

In a judgement – similar to that of the classic movie The Castle – the judge ruled in the farm’s favour, saying the farmers had a right to the free and undisturbed possession of their land and the quiet enjoyment of it�

MILKINg IT...

Magical number no answer to water cutbacksTHeRe HAs been much anticipation and now much argument about “the number”.

The original water cuts in the new Murray-Darling Basin plan have been reduced from “3000-4000” gigalitres to 2750 gigalitres.

The Murray-Darling Basin Authority described their determina-tion of the Sustainable Diversion Limit (water cutbacks) as making a “judgement”.

“Judgements have been made about how much water the Basin and its catchment need to be healthy in the long term” it said in its draft Basin Plan.

Hopes for strong science to be the basis of decisions – or a descrip-tion of the criteria used to make these “judgements” – did not even-tuate.

So the MDBA has devised a figure, but it seems to have put the cart before the horse.

Instead of devising how they will restore the health of the river – through the use of technological advances and local knowledge – they have created a figure which must now be purchased.

The figure has been estimated. Nobody knows how much water is required to restore the water ways in the Basin to previous levels.

The Australian Dairy Industry Council hit the nail on the head with its request for the MDBA to analyse whether the environmental water-ing objectives can be achieved using the water bought so far and saved in infrastructure works planned and underway. ADIC has said it sup-ports strategic water purchases for the environment where they are linked to water-saving infrastructure projects.

However, it says there shouldn’t be any more general buyback ten-ders in the southern connected system before the proposed review in 2015, when it will be clearer whether that water is even needed once environmental works and other measures are taken into account.

Now that’s just plain common sense. So it will probably be disregarded by the Government – especially with an election due before 2015.

The division of the MDB into north and south – with more severe cuts in the southern basin – is also a setback to the northern Victorian dairy industry. Northern Victoria is enjoying its best season in the past 10 due to improved rainfall throughout the year and the industry will benefit as a result.

We urge the Government to set diversion limits that meet its aims – not a pie in the sky figure that will please nobody.


OPINION // 17

NATALIe AKeRs

MANy FARMINg groups are alarmed that 12 months since the MDBA released the Guide to the Basin Plan – very little change has been made.

The Murray-Darling Basin Plan has

proposed a 2750 gigalitre Sustainable Diversion Limit (SDL), which is not so different to the 3000 gigalitres they were proposing in October last year.

The Australian Dairy industry Coun-cil has warned the water recovery tar-gets outlined in the Plan will mean a permanent drought for farmers and

towns and notes that Northern Victoria will be hardest hit. The MDBA describe the determination of the SDL as making a “judgement”.

“Judgements have been made about how much water the Basin and its catch-ment needs to be healthy in the long term”, it said in the report (Pg20).

Many had hoped for strong science to be the basis of decisions, or a descrip-tion of the criteria used to make these “judgements”; unfortunately, this did not occur.

The MDBA has slightly altered its approach when determining the SDL, but there is little difference to the over-all outcome.

They have separated the northern and southern parts of the Basin. The table to the left sets out each catch-ments area included in the north and south of the Basin.

The MDBA have also outlined a ‘local reduction’ SDL that each catchment has to contribute as well as a ‘shared reduc-tion’. The shared reduction will see the Northern Basin have to contribute 390GL to downstream needs, while the Southern Basin will have to contribute 971GL to downstream needs.

This change has resulted in the northern part of the Basin having to contribute 240GL less than was orig-inally mooted in October last year. Meanwhile, the southern system will contribute 10GL less than first pro-posed in October last year. (See table above right).

Reductions have also been posed for groundwater; however more detailed analysis is required as a number of groundwater boundaries posed by the MDBA are different to the groundwa-ter boundaries operating in some states.

The draft plan states the Govern-ment has already recovered 1068GL, leaving a gap of 1682GL.

The MDBA is proposing that no more than half this gap (840GL) will be met by 2015, at which point a review will consider whether environmental objec-tives are being met.

If the review deems less water needs to be recovered, the MDBA will recom-

mend to the Government to change the SDL before it comes into effect in 2019.

However, there is a large risk with a high number such as 2750GL being writ-ten into legislation, changes will be hard to make. We must not forget the Basin Plan is a legislative instrument.

As such, it is a binding, legally enforceable document. It is also subject to Parliamentary scrutiny and – poten-tially – partial or complete disallowance from either House of Parliament.

Additional water for the environ-ment will be secured through the pur-chase of entitlements and infrastructure improvements. Minister Tony Burke has announced that water buyback ten-ders will not operate in 2011 and 2012 in the southern part of the Basin.

There are a number of physical con-straints in Basin Rivers, which will restrict environmental water being delivered where and when it is required. Physical constraints exist in all major river systems, including the Murray, Darling, Murrumbidgee and Goulburn.

The river channel capacity has a major bearing on river operations and operational planning to deliver the requirements of entitlement holders.

Transfers from Dartmouth to Hume are limited to a maximum capacity of 10,000ML/day.

This means that releases must be made months in advance to prevent Hume from emptying.

Further, it is not possible to trans-

fer water through the Barmah ‘choke’ at rates greater than 8,500ML/day with-out spilling into the Barmah-Millewa Forest.

Whilst the spring flooding of the forest is an environmental objective, the summer flooding of the forest is highly undesirable.

It remains unclear how the MDBA’s targets for environmental water will actually be delivered without flooding private property.

The MDBA is holding a number of public meetings prior to Christmas to explain the draft plan and will sched-ule further meetings in early 2012.

Visit the MDBA’s website (www.mdba.gov.au) for dates and locations. The MDBA is also seeking feedback on its draft plan and will accept submis-sions until April 16 2012.

■ The Murray Darling Basin Author-ity (MDBA) released its draft Basin Plan on November 28 – it was pre-sented in 228 pages of draft legis-lation and a 138 page plain English document. It had been released for two days at the time of writing this article. Therefore, this article is a cursory overview of the draft plan and implications for the dairy industry.

Natalie Akers is a dairy farmer in Tal-lygaroopna (Northern Victoria) as well as the dairy representative on the Victo-rian Government’s Basin Plan Advisory Group.

No change to Basin plan

Proposed Murray-Darling Basin irrigation cuts

Area Local Reduction (GL)

NORTHERN BASINQueensland

Paroo 0

Warrego 8

Nebine 1

Condamine 100

Moonie 0

Queensland Border Rivers 8

New South Wales

Intersecting Streams 0

Barwon-Darling Watercourse 6

NSW Border Rivers 7

Gwydir 42

Namoi 10

Macquarie-Castlereagh 65

Local Reduction 247 GL

Plus Shared Reduction 143GL

Total for Northern Basin 390GL

SOUTHERN BASINNew South Wales

Lachlan 48

Murrumbidgee 320

NSW Murray 262

NSW Murray and Lower Darling 8

Victoria

Victorian Murray 253

Kiewa 0

Ovens 0

Goulburn 344

Broken 0

Campaspe 18

Loddon 12

Wimmera-Mallee 23

South Australia

SA Murray 101

Eastern Mount Lofty Ranges 0

Marne-Saunders 0

ACT 0

Local Reduction 1389 GL

Plus Shared Reduction 971 GL

Total for Southern Basin 2360 GL

MDBA Guide – October 2010

Draft Plan- November 2011

Difference

Northern Basin 630 GL 390 GL -240 GL

Southern Basin 2370 GL 2360 GL -10 GL

Total 3000 GL 2750 GL -250 GL

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18 // AgRIBusINess

THeRe Is far more money in farming than most people imagine and the big winners in the near future will be farm-ers themselves, agricultural service pro-viders and their rural communities.

This sunny outlook for agriculture comes in the second year of improved production in Australia’s eastern states and remarkable changes in certain key indicators which point strongly to the benefits of a period of exceptional cash flow and industry growth.

Neil Clark, of Bendigo-based market analyst Neil Clark & Associates, has identified five critical benchmarks which, he says, clearly demonstrate that agriculture has made great headway already into a new era of prosperity.

Clark’s company has been providing market analysis and insights to Austra-lian businesses for the past 25 years. He says this renewed vigour in agriculture’s

cash flow is expected to boost spend-ing on machinery and new technology, encourage land purchases, top up farm-ers’ bank accounts and stimulate spend-ing in local towns.

“The size of the opportunity we have here is far greater than most imagine,” Clark says. “There are five key bench-marks our company has identified to support this scenario.

First is improved farm production.“In 2010-11, we saw farm produc-

tion of $49.3 billion, with a net value of a massive $12.7 billion – and this coming year sees a forecast production figure of $50 billion.

“Two years of healthy farm profits is great news for manufacturers and sup-pliers of farm inputs and services.

“But more good news is still to come, with land values tipped to take off and new investment opportunities emerg-ing.”

Clark says the second indicator lies in the fact that, while farmer numbers are declining, the number of larger pro-ducers is rising.

“Farm enterprise numbers have, in fact, fallen by 14% in the 10 years to 2010 – a loss of 18,800 enterprises,” he says. “On the other hand, there are now 6782 high-production farms in Australia with incomes greater than $1 million and

their numbers have increased by 74% during this same period.

“These large producers generate 48% of total farm production in Aus-tralia.”

The third indicator is seen in the banks’ strong lending to agriculture.

“Bank lending to agriculture reached a record $60 billion at June, 2011,” Clark adds.

“Annual growth in farm lending in the June quarter sat at 2.2% and agriculture and mining are the only two industries showing growth in borrowing.

He says the fourth factor is that Farm Management Deposits are strong.

“FMDs hit a record level at June, 2011, of $3.2 billion – an increase of 16% over the previous June. Furthermore, the mixed farming industry (grain, beef and sheep) topped the list at $771 mil-lion, or 24% of the total deposited.”

Lastly, Clark says, water storage levels are high.

“Good rains have fallen in most parts of Australia and soil moisture levels in the eastern states are very healthy. Most dams are full – to an average of 85% in eastern Australia – so irrigation water is guaranteed and water allocations are at 100% in most systems.

“All in all, we are looking at a period of renewed prosperity for farmers and rural communities.

He believes these improved condi-tions will encourage small or retiring farmers to sell and allow others to grow their businesses.

“For farmers staying on their properties, these conditions bring an incentive to undertake further investment in their land, livestock and environment. This is a time of new market opportunities – and this is the time to take them up.”

Farm profitability increasing; new era awaits

Neil Clark

THe AusTRALIAN dairy industry has welcomed Indonesia’s ratification of the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) Australia New Zealand Free Trade Agreement.

Indonesia’s ratification, which will see that country become a member of the group from January 2012, concludes the process of ratification which began at the beginning of 2010 for Australia, New Zealand and majority of the ASEAN partners.

AANZFTA will provide new opportunities for Aus-tralian dairy exporters in emerging markets such as Vietnam, but more impor-tantly the agreement pro-vides security of access to Australia’s most valuable dairy export region.

Under their WTO com-mitments, most ASEAN countries are able to increase tariffs on dairy products at any time. If exercised this action could result in trade stopping overnight.

However, AANZFTA has ensured that this threat to our exports is no longer a policy option.

Indonesia is the last sig-natory to ratify the agree-ment.

It is also the most valu-able dairy export market in the region taking about $170 million worth of Australian dairy products every year.

Australian Dairy Indus-try Council president Chris Griffin says dairy exports to ASEAN are worth about $800 million every year.

“The level of confidence in the future provided by this agreement allows our exporters to build and improve returns to the Aus-tralian dairy industry.

“As one of the largest markets in ASEAN, we are particularly pleased that Indonesia has now provided us with that security for future trade.”

Griffin also congratulated the Australian Government on the agreement.

“When negotiations started for a comprehen-sive agreement with 10 other countries we all knew it would be a big job. How-ever, the Australian Govern-ment has shown what can be done when there is the will to do so.

“Congratulations on an agreement that will look after the Australian dairy industry’s interest in the region for generations to come.”

Indonesia signs free trade agreement

A2 MILK has announced a partnership with Britain’s largest liquid milk supplier, Robert Wiseman Dairies.

The joint venture will source, process, market and sell A2 Milk on an exclusive basis in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The company says this heralds the begin-ning of a global expansion for the Australian milk manufacturer.

It says despite the one dollar per litre supermarket milk war that began on Aus-tralia Day this year, A2 Milk has seen 30% growth in sales across Australia and now accounts for nearly 5% of the Australian Gro-cery milk market.

Robert Wiseman Dairies began life as a

horse and cart bottled milk supplier in East Kilbride, West Scotland in 1947 and now delivers more than 30% of the UK’s total milk supply.

A2 Dairy Products Australia chief Peter Nathan says the joint venture is an exciting development for the A2 Milk and demon-

strates the power and potential of the brand at a global level.

“A partnership with one of the world’s leading liquid dairy milk producers is a sig-nificant endorsement of the A2 proposition.

“Robert Wiseman Dairies is a company that produces more than 2 billion litres of milk a year which is about the same as the total Australian fresh milk annual consumption.”

Managing director of Robert Wiseman Dairies, Billy Keane says introducing A2 Milk – alongside its existing range of fresh milk

products – presents an exciting opportunity to bring people back to dairy and grow the market for fresh milk in Britain.

A2 Milk expands to the UK

FONTeRRA CHAIRMAN Henry van der Heyden is to step down next year.

Van der Heyden says he will ensure a smooth transition for the new chairman to take over.

His departure will mark the end of an era for Fonterra. The co-op last month appointed a new chief executive Theo Spier-ings to replace Andrew Fer-rier, who led the co-op for eight years.

Van der Heyden says the board has been discussing lead-ership issues for the past two to three years.

“We felt it was appropriate for me to step down in 2012,” he

told the co-op’s annual meeting in Whangarei, NZ last month.

Van der Heyden assured shareholders he will not take his mind off the job during the next 12 months. He noted that Fer-rier left the co-op on a high note after announcing a record finan-cial result.

“I know we are $1.50/kgMS behind last year right now, I will be putting pressure on manage-ment so that we can deliver a similar result.”

Van der Heyden is the third director exiting Fonterra’s board during the next 12 months. His three-year term expires at the 2012 meeting.

Greg Gent retired at the annual meeting last week. He was replaced by David MacLeod, Taranaki. Independent director John Ballard will leave in May. He will be replaced by outgo-ing Commonwealth Bank chief executive Ralph Norris.

Van der Heyden says Norris is available to take up the post in May and Ballard has accepted a board request to stay on for another six months.

He paid tribute to Ballard who joined the board in 2006.

“He brought a valued global perspective and insights into consumer businesses based on his extensive corporate

experience in Australia.” Van der Heyden says securing

Norris’ services was great for the co-op.

“Ralph is an outstanding New Zealander with a superb interna-tional track record at the highest levels of business.”

Fonterra chairman steps down

Henry van der Heyden

A2 milk has seen 30% growth in sales across Australia and new accounts for nearly 5% of the milk market?

DAiry NEwS AUSTrALiA june 14, 2011

AgRIBusINess // 19

As THe mid-point of the 2011/12 season approaches, it is a good oppor-tunity to take stock of international market developments to date and the likely direction for the remainder of the year.

In May, the annual Dairy Australia Situation & Outlook report forecast a southern farmgate price range of $5.10 to $5.50 per kg of milksolids for the 2011/12 season.

This forecast assumed that dairy commodities would trade in a range between US$3800 and US$5100 for the year – while the Australian dollar would average between 100 and 105 US cents.

So at half-time in the 2011/12 game, how are we travelling compared to this forecast?

In late November, spot commod-ity prices were between US$3500 and US$4250 – with butter and milk powder prices under the greatest pressure over the past six months.

Increased economic uncertainty – centred mostly on Europe - has weighed on dairy and other commodity markets.

At the same time, increased milk production in New Zealand, the United States, the European Union and Austra-lia has upped the availability of product on the international dairy market – shifting the balance in favour of buyers.

The Australian dollar has traded at the upper end of the forecast range – averaging 105 US cents since early May. However, the variation in the average weekly exchange rate has seen a high of 110 US cents in July to a low of 96 US cents in October.

Poor economic prospects in other developed economies, and contin-ued demand for our exports, pushed the Aussie dollar higher in the middle

of the year. More recently, the US cur-rency has strengthened, as concerns focus on Eurozone issues, and the US economy shows some faint signs of recovery.

Thus while commodity prices are lower than forecast, the exchange rate is at the more favourable end of the range. So what does this all mean for full year farmgate prices?

The export index in this chart gives some guidance. It encompasses prices of the four major dairy commodities, the weighting of these commodities in the industry’s monthly export mix and the exchange rate impacts and comes up with a measure of movement in returns from week to week.

The Australian dollar index has a trend line fitted to show the direc-tion of movement in export returns since May – and highlights the slide in returns to exporters. However, a com-parison with the US index and its trend line shows the benefit of the recently slightly, weaker local currency.

Looking ahead, there appears to be limited upside for the dairy commodity prices, as supplies continue to increase. Demand would need to increase signif-icantly to tighten market supply and push prices higher. However, given signs of a slowing Chinese economy, this seems unlikely.

With commodity prices likely to drift lower, a weaker Australia dollar will provide some benefit for export returns.

While the forecast for southern prices made back in May remains achievable, the current market outlook suggests the final result for 2011/12 will likely to be closer to the lower end of the range.Jo Bills is Manager – Strategy and Knowledge with Dairy Australia.

Market direction - export index

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Extra global supplies squeeze farmgate prices

GLobAL imPAcTjoANNE biLLS

NZ joint venture enters Chinese marketTHe FIRsT batch of infant formula from Canterbury, NZ, processor Synlait Milk goes on sale in Shanghai supermar-kets next month.

Synlait Milk chief executive John Penno says it marks the company’s tran-sition to one of New Zealand’s leading infant nutritional producers.

“Getting our first finished product into the premium category in China is a clear demonstration of our ability to deliver on our plans,” he says.

“Discerning customers are willing to pay a premium for safe, nutritious food that they trust, which creates real value for our farmers, shareholders and New Zealand if done well. We see this as an important next step and remain very ambitious about the formulated milk products business.”

Synlait, is 51% owned by Bright Foods, China’s third largest dairy com-pany by volume.

Synlait Milk is manufacturing infant formula products for a range of custom-ers, the first of which will be announced at the November 22 opening of its new plant.

China is the most important market for Synlait Milk. But Penno expects that by mid-2012 it will have established its infant formula business and be work-ing with more than 10 customers in five countries.

“We are actively seeking new cus-tomers as well as building on the rela-tionships we have established. Feedback from staff who attended the world’s largest food and beverages tradeshow

in Germany last month is that demand for milk products is soaring and Synlait Milk is in a great position to help supply that demand.”

Synlait’s product range includes infant and adult nutritional formula-tions, functional food ingredients and specialised milk powder products.

Penno says the best in-class approach to the development of the $100 million state-of-the-art infant nutritional facility near Dunsandel this year has meant international customers have sat up and taken notice.

The Synlait plant, which the company says is the largest and most sophisticated in the Southern Hemisphere, was commissioned on time in September despite challenges from earthquakes impacting on the Canterbury region. Trade Minister Tim Groser, will open the new infant nutritional facility. Synlait customers from Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East, as well as government officials, and farmer suppliers, will all attend.

The company will also launch its new corporate brand at the event. Penno says it is an important step in achiev-ing Synlait Milk’s strategy of becom-ing the trusted supplier of choice for the world’s best health and nutrition products.

“Repositioning the Synlait brand to support the transition of the company into the global nutrition market, and our new capability, is important for our future success.”

Synlait milk plant, canterbury, nZ.

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MANAgeMeNT // 21

TRANsPORT TeTANy is a metabolic disease that occurs during or immedi-ately after a long journey. Affected cows show signs similar to hypomagnesae-mia or grass staggers.

While some respond to treatment if administered early, this disease is com-plicated by the stress of transport and is difficult to treat.

The survival rate of cows that lie down is gen-erally poor

Well-fed cows in late pregnancy are at greatest

risk, but recently calved and lactating cows are sus-ceptible and young stock can also be affected.

Cows in the final weeks of pregnancy and early lactation are under stress from the metabolic demands for milk produc-tion, and the added stress of transport increases the risk of disease.

The exact process, whereby otherwise-healthy cows are affected by this condition, is not well understood.

High cortisol levels due

to transport stress and dehydration are thought to alter mineral and meta-bolic balance, and blood levels of magnesium, cal-cium and phosphorus fall.

Increased sweating during transport and loss of saliva may also contrib-ute to the imbalance

The clinical signs of transport tetany are simi-lar to grass staggers: rest-lessness, excitability and aggression, teeth grinding and staggering. Abortion may occur as a complica-tion.

Monitor transport tetany

gRAHAM TuRLey

Huge FOCus is on the negative impact of the global financial crisis and the resulting market vola-tility. Farmers should also consider the benefits of the changing global landscape, to identify how they can make those opportunities work for them personally.

Success needs to be built on a strong foun-dation and that requires addressing issues affecting farm performance.

One big issue is income volatility, uncertainty about how much you’re going to get paid. Regardless of whether the income volatility is driven by economic or climatic events, the effect on farmers is the same. Some issues can be ‘treated’ specifically, such as fixing interest rates or installing irrigation systems. But look also at ways to improve the overall ‘health’ of your farm to provide resilience from income volatility.

From our experience, the farmers well placed to manage income volatility are the ones strengthen-ing their balance sheets by reducing debt and achiev-ing good productivity, revenue and profitabil-ity. Research suggests this success is based on finan-cial and business acumen, not farm type, size, region or age of operator.

So what are the top per-

formers doing differently? First, they have a strong balance sheet and they understand in detail the cost of running their farm, including:

Cost structure – how much they are getting paid and when? What are their expenses and how are they paying for these? Are there any costs that can be reduced, deferred or removed from the balance sheet?

Debt levels – how much is owed, what are the terms of the loans and

what’s the most effec-tive way to pay down this debt? (Two thirds of farm-ers we spoke to told us that reducing debt was a prior-ity for them over the next three years. If you have multiple loans with mul-tiple terms, then it’s worth getting advice on the most effective way of paying down those loans.)

Break-even point - What’s the lowest payout or price per unit their farm can tolerate without making a loss?

Second, they know what success looks like to them and have a plan to achieve that success. They understand the impor-tance of business and stra-tegic planning:

■ They control what they can control. They have identified the key risks that could affect their plan and either have a risk mitigation plan or a capital reserve that enables them to buffer the impact.

■ They benchmark their performance against their peers, measure their progress and iden-tify what they need to change to reach their target.

■ They have a budget that is regularly reviewed

and have a strong under-standing of their income and expendi-tures (other-wise known as cash flow),

which helps them to make decisions when the game changes, be it weather, costs or returns.

■ They make sound deci-sions on the most appropriate use of sur-plus cash generated as a result of their effective budgeting and cash-flow management.

In short, this is something all farmers can achieve, and current low interest rates make this an ideal time for farmers to look at the basics of their finan-cial management to ‘future proof ’ the farm against income volatility.Graham Turley is managing director commercial & agri at ANZ in New Zealand.

Beating market volatilitythrough on-farm changes

Reducing debt and lifting productivity will help farmers deal with market volatility.

One big issue is income volatility, uncertainty about how much you’re going to get paid.

Putting effluent to use

This is one of the many examples of the dairy service levy at work locally. Farmers receive a benefit of $3 for every $1 invested by Dairy Australia on their behalf. For more information

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

Effluent dams are full and offer a valuable source of nutrients, organic matter and water. Effluent and sludge reuse on-farm can help boost production.

Plan ahead and empty ponds prior to the wetter months. Make the most of the nutrient-rich water to irrigate pastures in the drier moths when plants are most actively growing.

Information gathered as part of Dairy Australia’s Dairying for Tomorrow project suggests a value of $7,000 to $8,000 (at July 2010 values) for the nutrients in an average effluent pond. This value is based on a 300 cow herd.

This cost does not take into account that dairy effluent has a pH of around 7.6, giving it a liming effect to soil.

When applying effluent to your land, consider matching the nutrient loading in the effluent to the specific nutrient requirement of your pasture, crops or soils.

A nutrient management plan or comprehensive annual soil testing program will help you understand the nutrient levels in various paddocks.

Effluent can be used to boost nutrients in areas of need. It is important to monitor soils that receive effluent on a regular basis to manage nutrient loads.

It is best to rotate the distribution of effluent on as wide an area as possible, ideally over a minimum of 35% of the total milking area.

Avoid applying effluent to areas where young stock graze because disease-causing micro-organisms could be transferred.

Avoid applying effluent where cows are to be calved. Grass tetany and milk fever may result.

When applying effluent to pasture, a withholding period of three weeks is a good rule of thumb.

Like liquid effluent, sludge can be spread onto soil or pastures. The chemical composition of dairy sludge varies from pond to pond. A typical sludge at around 8% dry matter has 1000kg/ML of total nitrogen, 192kg/ML of total phosphorus and 650kg/ML of potassium. The higher the dry matter, the greater the kg/ML.

It is recommended to reduce the sludge at the bottom of an effluent pond every three years to maintain optimum depth and allow anaerobic digestion of the waste.

When desludging, try to limit the use tractors near the edge of effluent ponds where practicable. Barriers and chocks should be used to prevent a tractor from moving backwards into the pond.


BeRNIe RePPeL

A COMPARIsON trial on the NSW north coast this summer will assess the nutritional values of popular summer grasses and forages. It will add more science to the debate about which spe-cies is the most valuable for milk pro-duction.

Supported by Dairy Australia’s northern regional development pro-gram Subtropical Dairy, the trial will compare four perennial grasses – kikuyu, setaria, paspalum and Rhodes – and the forage crops millet and sor-ghums.

These are all C4 forages, which are more adapted to warm or hot seasonal conditions under moist or dry environ-ments; all have only moderate nutri-ent quality, generally well below that of temperate species like ryegrass and prairie grass.

However, according to project leader Bill Fulkerson, a recognized author-ity on tropical pastures and now a field officer with the Norco milk processing cooperative, well managed kikuyu, and probably setaria, are good for 14 litres/day for a Holstein-Friesian cow.

That level of production should rise to 18 litres per cow with four to five kilo-grams of grain, plus minerals which are deficient in these grasses, and that would be “cheap milk”.

Dr Fulkerson said the trials would see the four grasses managed to opti-mize quality, based on regional experi-ence with kikuyu, and with best practice management of the millet and sor-ghums.

“A good deal of research has been undertaken on management require-ments for kikuyu, with the main objective being to optimize nutrient qual-ity,” he said.

“But the persistence of kikuyu is often poor because of the fungal dis-ease kikuyu yellows and this, as well as the subsequent difficulty in re-estab-lishing kikuyu, has created interest in growing one of the three other summer grasses or in millet or sorghum to pro-vide summer feed.

“NSW north coast dairy farmers have widely differing views on the ben-efits of the six forages, based mainly on very anecdotal evidence.

“However some recent analysis of

setaria indicates its nutrient quality can be as good as kikuyu if managed in a similar way.

“That includes an appropriate graz-ing interval, mulching to encourage higher quality new leaf and adequate fertilizing.”

Dr Fulkerson said a major issue for the trial was the problem in growing the forages under conditions that would allow for a valid comparison but still within a dairy context.

The slow and unreliable establish-

ment of the four grasses – perhaps up to three years to grow uniform swards – meant that it wasn’t possible to start the study at this point.

“We needed to compare perfor-mance over a number of on-farm sites where two or more grass species were already established, allowing inter-rela-tion of data.

“Paddocks chosen on a particu-lar farm would need to have had simi-

lar paddock histories, with similar soil nutrient levels, confirmed in the spring and remedied by application of appro-priate fertilizers.”

For the grasses appropriate man-agement would involve grazing at 4-4.5 leaves per tiller – about every two weeks in mid-summer – and mulched back after grazing several times during summer to promote leaf growth.

Every second grazing would be fol-lowed by application of about 50kg/ha of nitrogen fertilizer.

Dr Fulkerson discussed “manage-ment of summer grasses for optimum milk production” at a Subtropical Dairy field day in Casino.

He said kikuyu was the dominant summer pasture on coastal dairy farms and, while it was capable of high summer growth, milk production could be limited by the grass’s relatively low quality.

Cows grazing kikuyu could produce up to 14 litres of milk a day – still considerably less than the 18 to 20 litres expected from ryegrass – as long as the kikuyu was well managed and the cows were supplemented with high, energy-dense, cereal based feed as well as minerals to address deficiencies in the grass.

Cereal based concentrates could be fed to achieve higher milk produc-tion and the response to the first three to four kilograms per cow per day was excellent.

On the pasture side, grazing inter-vals had to be managed to maximize the amount of kikuyu leaf available to cows and reduce the development of stems.

Grazing at the 4.5 leaf stage provided the highest proportion of leaf and the highest quality grass for cow consumption.

22 // MANAgeMeNT

BeRNIe RePPeL

suCCess ON a dairy farm depends 20% on genetics, 30% on nutrition and 50% on management, where the biggest effect is in forage quality.

That’s the message given to pro-ducers recently gathered at Casino to hear how to manage and feed their dairy herds through the hot and humid summer typical of the NSW north coast.

The messenger was Dr David Barber, a senior research scientist specialising in dairy nutrition with Agri-Science Queensland.

He also told producers attending the field day – supported by Dairy Aus-tralia’s northern regional development program Subtropical Dairy – that most farmers don’t look after their cows as well as they might.

Dr Barber linked nutrition and man-agement when he told attending dairy farmers they had to get from “where the system manages you to; where you manage the system”.

He said the high temperatures and humidity, typical of summers on the NSW north coast had a two-fold impact on dairy cow nutrition:

■ Directly through cows voluntarily reducing feed intake through fac-tors like panting, which reduced cud chewing, slowed the break-down of feed, and reduced the amount of water and buffers from saliva reaching the rumen.

■ Cows standing in the shade to keep cool restricted grazing time and decreased feed intake; any form of stress, including heat stress, could slow rumen contractions, which in turn slowed digestion.“NSW North Coast pastures mostly

comprise of C4 grasses, with more fibre in their cell walls, which is good for increased growth, and helps the grasses stand up, but the extra lignin in the cell wall reduces digestibility,” Dr Barber said.

Humidity and high temperatures increase plant growth rates, which increase the neutral detergent fibre (NDF) content of plants and reduces potential intake.

“Walking to feed increases a cow’s heat load, so farmers should reduce the time cows spent walking during the hot-test time of the day and increase night grazing.

“Cows will do up to 70% of their

daily grazing at night in hot weather.”Dr Barber said high-fibre forages

generate more heat through digestion than low fibre diets so improving forage quality would have a positive effect on managing heat stress.

As cows would voluntarily limit forage intake during hot weather good quality forages should be available during these periods.

And increasing the energy content of the diet with good quality forages and concentrates would make up for

the shortfall in reduced intake, as well as helping to reduce the metabolic heat load.

Similarly, increasing the concentra-tion of minerals and vitamins in the diet – particularly sodium, potassium, mag-nesium and niacin – would compensate for the reduction in feed intake.

Improvement in milk yield has also been reported by feeding cows sodium bicarbonate at 150-200 g/cow/day during hot weather to help buffer the rumen.

Dr Barber said other management strategies to reduce the impact of heat included:

Providing cool, clean water and ample trough space in close proxim-ity to cows at all times. In hot weather, lactating cows have the capacity to con-sume more than 100 litres a day.

Allowing access to shade – in feed-out areas, grazing areas and over the milking yards – throughout the day; shade could reduce a cow’s heat load from the environment by up to 50 per cent.

Cooling cows at the dairy with shade, sprinklers and/or fans before and after milking would improve their comfort and enhance their capacity to eat.

“Let cows wander home and stand under sprinklers before the afternoon milking,” he said.

“Lowering body temperature will encourage higher feed intake during milking and higher pasture/forage intake after milking.

“Queensland trials have shown that 30 minutes of wetting cows with sprin-klers can produce one extra litre of milk/cow/day; while 60 minutes produced an extra 1.5 litres per cow per day in hot weather.”

Better forages lift summer milk

Science enters tropical grass debate

Well managed kikuya, and probably setaria, are good for 14 litres/day for a Holstein-Friesian cow.

bill Fulkerson

David barber


MANAgeMeNT // 23

COW INFeRTILITy is a big problem on some south-west Victorian dairy farms and the Port Camp-bell property of John and Leeanne Whitehead is no exception.

During the past two years about 40 of the Whiteheads’ 230 cows have failed to get into calf.

“That’s far too high and it’d help to know what things we can do to ease the problem,” John White-head says.

He raised the issue of fertility at a kitchen forum, conducted by West-Vic Dairy, and is pleased levy money will be allocated in 2011-12 to investigate the problem.

WestVic Dairy is planning a project that aims to improve cow health and fertility on 100 dairy farms in Western Victoria through an exten-sion program. The proj-ect is being developed and will be rolled out across the region in early 2012 to guide farmers towards best practice for good fer-tility performance.

Whitehead hopes the project will contribute to better knowledge for farm-ers.

“A lot of farmers have the same problem and we’d like to know the rea-sons why. It might be that we drive them too hard in production.

“If there was an inves-tigation and we could find out why it’s happening

then we might be able to improve things.”

Whitehead says low fer-tility rates are common on district farms and are seen by farmers as a major problem.

“We’re forced to do two calving seasons now, which is far from ideal. We’d get a better selection of choppers if fertility was better.”

He says farmers at the kitchen forums were interested to hear about how the levy was being invested.

“It’s good to know where the money is going. It’s all right as long as it’s for something that will result in gains for farm-ers.”

The kitchen forum also discussed artificial insem-ination issues and, like many around the district, also touched on labour force problems.

“I know of at least four farms around here that are looking to hire people, but there aren’t many good workers around,” White-head says.

After farming in the area for about 25 years, John Whitehead is one of those farmers after some support.

CONCePTION RATes through artificial insem-ination (AI) could be lifted by as much as 10% if insemination of dairy cows was better timed to ovulation, according to Queensland vet Carl Hockey.

He says there’s cur-rently no practical way to directly identify when a cow was about to ovulate.

“Farmers depend on observing standing heat, a behaviour often associated with ovulation,” Hockey

says.“Observing standing

heat has become increas-ingly difficult as herd sizes get bigger. There is a greater demand on farm labour and cows show fewer signs of heat.”

Hockey has worked with two commercial dairy herds to get a clearer understanding of the ideal insemination time relative to ovulation: a year-round calving herd in Queensland which inseminated twice a day, and a seasonal calv-

ing herd in Victoria which inseminated once a day.

The research was funded by Dairy Australia.

To identify cows for joining, the managers of each herd used heat detec-tion based on standing heat and pedometers. During the study, cows in both herds were moni-tored for milk progester-one levels and were ultra sounded to pin-point when ovulation occurred.

The best pregnancy results came when insemi-

nation took place close to, but before, ovulation. The highest pregnancy rate (51%) occurred when cows were inseminated between 0 and 16 hours before ovu-lation.

However, only a modest proportion of all AI (31%) took place during this time period.

“There are only two ways to achieve a better match between AI timing and ovulation — either ensuring insemination occurs just before ovula-

tion with better ways of predicting when ovulation occurs,” Hockey explains. “Or by controlling when ovulation occurs through hormone synchronisa-tion.”

InCalf project leader Dr Barry Zimmermann says submission rate and con-ception rate are two very important factors influenc-ing the in calf rate in a herd.

“Dr Hockey’s research explains one of the reasons why conception rates can be lower than expected.

But we are still some way off having ideal alter-native methods of heat detection that would allow more accurate timing of AI,” Zimmermann says.

Alternative methods for determining ovulation are available, including elec-tronic mount detectors, activity meters and in-line progesterone monitors, but they vary in ability to pick ovulating cows or pre-dict when ovulation will occur.

Research suggests

that neck mounted two-hourly activity meters have the potential to be a better indicator of when to inseminate than observing standing heat.

However, further work is needed to refine the use of activity meters.

For now, farmers are advised to continue with once or twice daily AI. In twice daily AI programs, they should stick with the old AM/PM rule to avoid insemination being done too early.

Ovulation link lifts AI conception

New cow infertility focus

The project will address cow health and fertility.


24 // MANAgeMeNT

DAIRy FARMeRs are discovering that the use of relatively-cheap soil mois-ture meters can make a big difference to the water use efficiency of irrigated forage crops.

Water meters were installed on dairy farms as part of a collaborative trial involving FutureDairy, NSW DPI and six Hunter Valley farmers.

Associate Professor Yani Garcia, who led the project, said moisture meters were widely used by horticulture and other industries, but their appli-cation was relatively new to the dairy industry.

Farmers involved in the trials used the moisture meters to guide their decisions about irrigating maize crops. They reported a number of benefits including the ability to plan watering schedules several days

in advance and greater confidence in irrigation decisions.

The study revealed that water logging occurred at critical crop times. Department of Primary Industries officers, Kerry Kempton and Anthea Lisle collected and analysed soil moisture records from the participating farms.

“We expected to find that under-watering and moisture stress were lim-iting crop yields, but we also discovered that over-watering was an issue at times,” Kempton said.

Water logging tended to occur when irrigation was followed a few days later by unexpected rain, particularly storms.

When irrigating with a centre pivot it can be tempting to apply small amounts of water fre-quently to keep paddocks at or above field capacity.

The risk is that there is no ‘free board’ capacity in the case of rain, so water-log-ging occurs.

With a moisture meter, a farmer can con-fidently allow the soil to dry towards 50% of read-ily available water (RAW) before the next irrigation – leaving some capacity for rain to be absorbed and reducing water logging.

Associate Profes-sor Garcia said irrigation timing wasn’t a simple decision.

“It’s a trade-off between the crops needs, water availability, expected rainfall, labour availability and cost.”

FutureDairy research has identified the two most crucial times when irrigation affects maize yields: crop establishment (up to when six leaves are fully developed) and around tasselling.

“Water availability is important at crop establishment, but it is crucial between pre-

tasselling and about three weeks after.

“So if you have lim-ited water, the best way

to use it is to fully irrigate the crop when it is around the tasselling stage – two weeks before and two

weeks after. “This is a better option

than under-irrigation across the whole season.”

Becoming water-wise with maize

Dairy farmers are starting to use relatively cheap soil moisture meters to guide their decisions about irrigation timing.

geTTINg RID of weeds can be a tough business: it may take years to clean up a single site. How long should a landholder keep checking for seeds that may be in the soil waiting for the right conditions to sprout?

It differs for every weed and site, so new research in Australia is seeking to develop simple tests to let land managers find answers for their circum-stances.

The Seed Persistence Tool Kit is funded by the National Weeds and Pro-ductivity Research Pro-gram and managed by the Rural Industries Research and Development Cor-poration (RIRDC) for the Australian Government. A recent workshop for researchers from across Australia and overseas dis-cussed factors affecting seed longevity and dor-mancy, and what is needed in the new tool kit.

Lead researcher Rowena Long, University of Western Australia, says many things have to be considered.

“Research may suggest ‘weed X’ can last for so many years in the soil

and still have the ability to germinate. While it’s a starting point, it doesn’t take into account climatic conditions, soil type or other factors that influence a particular site.

“Even simple things can have an impact, such as microbes decaying the seeds, or rain rejuvenat-ing seeds that are almost dead. This is vital infor-mation if you’re a govern-ment agency wanting to know how long funding is needed to control a weed of national significance. You don’t want to spend time and money searching sites long after it’s neces-sary or leave before the job is done.” Project participant Michael Renton, Univer-sity of Western Australia, says computer model-ling can help synthesise current knowledge about

seed persistence. “Mod-elling can also help iden-tify gaps in our knowledge and help prioritise further research.” Researchers see the study allowing land managers to collect seed and soil sam-ples, send them to a labo-ratory with climatic and other data, and run tests to determine how long those weed seeds are likely to persist. The RIRDC weeds pro-gram also supports other research on seed persis-tence, such as continued development of the Har-rington seed destructor (HSD).

Originally tested in Western Australia, the HSD destroys weed seeds such as annual ryegrass and wild oats present in chaff during harvest. It will be used in the eastern states soon.

Tool kit tackles weed seed bank

Dr michael renton, Dr rowena Long and marta Gorecki, all from The university of Western australia.


ANIMAL HeALTH // 25

gAININg MORe control over the ele-ments has been the payoff for a young Gippsland couple’s big investment in housing their milking herd.

John Giliam and his wife Cobie are into the third season using the 200m by 20m undercover structure as a flexi-ble management tool to optimize their dairy performance.

The cows are housed under roof with free access to both a feed pad and the free stall sand-bedded area.

In one of the wettest winters experi-enced in the Nilma district, Giliam says their ability to keep the herd off sodden pastures has really paid dividends.

“Our paddocks are not pugged up and feed utilisation is so much better.”

The shed is also used during hot weather with the airy 5m high roof keep-ing the cows contented and stress-free during the heat of the day, allowing them to graze productively during the cool of the evening.

Giliam says the shed has allowed them to maximise the performance on their farm which carries 320 milk-ing cows on an effective dairying area of 110 hectares. They view the financial commitment of around $2000 per cow as an investment in the future of their enterprise.

“The only real alternative to main-tain our production would have been to buy another block of land,” he adds. “It was very dif-ficult and frustrating trying to manage cow production during wet winters.

“Our pasture per-formance has really improved – not to men-tion my sanity.”

The shed was built alongside a concrete feed pad, which was installed in 2000 to offer their

cows a consistent high quality ration – regardless of seasonal conditions.

Rye and clover pasture comprises about 50% of their feed ration. It is cut and carried to the feed pad in a 32 cubic metre capacity wagon up to three times a day for ad lib feeding.

The past winter was so wet the Giliams went through a period of about four weeks when the pas-tures were too wet to get on and cut the grass.

“That’s the beauty of having a flexible feeding system to maintain milk production.”

During such wet period is when silage comes into its own.

They ensile surplus pasture and also enjoy great results growing

high volume maize crops for silage which is a feed staple during the winter months. They also buy in grain and other feed including regular deliveries of waste potatoes from a factory in Mel-bourne.

About 2kg of grain per cow is fed in the milking bales, with variable amounts also mixed into the daily feed pad ration.

“You can’t get enough milk feeding grass alone,” Giliam says. “We blend a

consistent feed ration to maintain high performance doing our own nutrition.”

The bulk of the herd calves in Feb-ruary-March, giving high volume milk production during the winter months coinciding with price incentives.

A smaller herd of about 50 cows calve in October-November, which helps spread cash flow.

Giliam says he’s aiming to get a more even year round production.

They are still learning to get the most out of their flexible herd management system which has enhanced perfor-mance across variable seasonal condi-tions.

The Giliams have a daily routine of flood washing the concrete feed pad and cleaning manure from the cow stalls. The sand bedding is regularly topped up with a fresh layer.

Having the cows clean and dry during wet weather has herd health benefits – with lower somatic cell counts and less clinical cases of mastitis.

“We’ve been happy that the number of clinical mastitis cases has dropped right off,” Giliam says.

Milk production has been main-tained with slight increases in the past few months, along with improvement in the milk quality despite the wet con-ditions.

Milk protein has gone up from about 3.4 to 3.6% with average per cow produc-tion of solids rising from about 650kg to almost 700kg.

Left: young Dairy Development Program Gippsland co-ordinator Kylie barry with cobie and John Giliam.

below: cows are housed under a roof with free access to both a feedpad and free stall sand bedded area.

Herd housing makes for flexible farming

who:

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26 // ANIMAL HeALTH

Achieve year round milk supply with batch joiningINCReAsINg NuM-BeRs of dairy farmers in hot regions are using batch joining to achieve year round milk supply while avoiding joining over the hot, humid months when cows are at risk of heat stress and pregnancy rates are lower.

Heat stress is caused by

either high temperatures or a combination of heat and humidity.

Heat stress compli-cates reproductive man-agement: cows in the first three weeks of preg-nancy may abort; cows are more likely to have silent heats, shortened heats or reduced in-calf rates.

Dr Stewart Scott, a vet with Barn Veterinary Ser-vices at Muswellbrook, NSW, said that while batch joining had very good ben-efits for the herd and the farming system, the life-style benefits were also attractive.

“Farmers can achieve year round milk supply by

joining the herd to calve in one, two or more batches. Regardless of the number of batches, managers avoid joining over the hot humid months, say from New Year’s Day to Anzac Day,” Dr Scott said.

A typical approach would be joining in three batches a year, with each

joining period lasting about six weeks; eg May-mid June; August-mid September and Novem-ber-mid December.

“Most of the herds in our area have 500 cows or more and each comes up with a slightly different joining pattern. There’s flexibility to adapt batch joining to the individual situation and still achieve the benefits,” he said.

In terms of labour and lifestyle, the batch joining system with a break over the summer makes Janu-ary a fairly easy month.

The last calves are born by mid September and weaned by Christmas. So there’s no calving, calf rearing or joining to be done in January.

“You can arrange your system so that January is a family-friendly month to match the school holidays while still achieving year round milk supply, and winter price incentives.”

Re-starting joining at Anzac Day means calving starts in February, setting up milk production for winter price incentives.

There are also benefits for the herd. Calf health and welfare is improved by having them weaned before they are at risk of heat stress.

Dr Scott’s experi-ence suggests that avoid-ing joining over heat stress months reduces the barren rate, or the number of cows exiting the herd because they are empty. This is because pregnancy rates improve and there is the option to move cows that are not in calf by the end of joining to the next batch.

“A herd that’s joined all year round typically has about 10% empty cows each year. We usually see that fall to about 5% with the move to batch joining.

Batch joining also allows for more focussed management and stream-lined labour demands.

“With a true year round calving herd, managers juggle a wide range of tasks on any given day – heat detection, calving, calf rearing, transition feed-ing and joining; on top of the daily routine of milk-ing and feeding the herd. It creates a busy, complex management system,” he said.

A batch system involves periods where the daily activities are more focussed, eg blocks of heat detection and joining, and later in the season, blocks of calving and calf rearing.

“Managers often find the more focussed batch system easier, espe-cially with larger herds. It streamlines labour requirements and makes it easier to plan.”

Dr Barry Zimmermann, who manages Dairy Aus-tralia’s InCalf project said the trend to avoid join-ing over the hot/humid months was growing in the typical year-round milk supply regions of Queensland and New South Wales.

“If you are concerned about the impact of heat stress on herd fertility, compare conception rates between seasons,” Dr Zim-mermann said.

A difference in conception rate of more than 10-12% indicates poorer performance in the hot months if at least 100 inseminations were performed in each period.

If you do join over the hot/humid months, you can access Dairy Austra-lia’s Cool Cows resources (www.coolcows.com.au) to find ways to reduce the impact of heat stress on herd fertility.

Farmers can achieve year round milk supply by joining the herd to calve in one, two or more batches. a typical approach would be joining in three batches a year, with each joining period lasting about six weeks; eg may-mid June; august-mid September and november-mid December.

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ANIMAL HeALTH // 27

gORDON COLLIe

A sCIeNTIFIC study has shown that heat stress in dairy cattle is not a black and white issue.

Prize-winning research by University of Queensland Applied Sci-ence graduate Angela Lees

measured heat tolerance of Friesian cows with varying amounts of black in their coat proved inconclusive.

Lees was surprised by the result; with no corre-lation found between the amount of black colour and performance under the Queensland sun.

In fact, a cow that was

predominantly black was one of the best at handling the summer heat, leading Lees to conclude that there are likely genetic factors at play.

The student, from the South Burnett district, has won the prestigious Bryan Medal for 2011 for her honours thesis – which

gathered extensive perfor-mance data from the milk-ing herd at the University’s Gatton Campus.

The Medal was pre-sented by Ag Institute Australia, formerly the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology. It was inau-gurated in 1976 to honour

the work of distinguished pasture scientist and maize breeder Dr Wilf Bryan.

Lees received her medal from the Institute’s Queensland division pres-ident David Lloyd, after being selected from three finalists who gave presen-tations on their research projects.

The other finalists were Matthew Lloyd, who investigated using a poll gene test on cattle embryos, and Reece Tollenaere – who went searching for genes which trigger blackleg fungus resistance in canola.

In her heat tolerance research, Angela Lees divided the Gatton milking herd into 10 different colour groups, from almost white to predominantly black. Over the hot months from October 2010 to March 2011, a massive amount of data was collected, including body surface temperatures and respiration and panting scores three-times daily.

Vaginal temperature was logged at 10 minute

intervals in small batches of cows over 5 to 7 day periods. Milk production and composition was also monitored.

Lees says the Gatton Campus dairy was well served with natural and artificial shade and had fans and sprays in the milking yards to help the herd cope with heat.

A future research option could be to test the performance of cattle without access to shade and yard cooling.

She plans to do further analysis on the extensive data collected during her project. Husband Jarrod, will also incorporate it into his PhD research at UQ – where he is studying wider aspects of heat stress on dairy cattle.

ag Institute australia Queensland Division President David Lloyd presented the bryan medal to university of Queensland honours student angela Lees last month.

Dairy heat stress not a black and white issue


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28 // ANIMAL HeALTH

Feeding the right supplementIAN WILLIAMs

FeeDINg THe right sup-plement through your in-shed feeding system will ensure you maximise milk returns and supplementary feeding profitability.

Processed maize grain is an excellent choice. Maize has a higher energy content than other grains as well as many other commonly available con-centrates.

It can be used to increase cow energy intakes, delivering more

milk, more milk protein and faster condition score gains.

Recent information published by DairyNZ shows that milk production is determined by the amount of energy a cow eats, but the composition of the milksolids she produces is affected by the type of supplement fed3.

When cows are fed a starch or sugar-based sup-plement, they produce more milk protein.

When cows are fed a fibre-based supplement, they produce more milk fat.

Since milk protein is worth two to three times more than milk fat, starch and sugar-based supple-ments will deliver more milk revenue than fibre-based supplements.

As well as containing more energy than other concentrates (e.g. dairy meal, other grains), maize grain has advantages for rumen health.

It has a high starch content, but virtually no soluble sugar.

Maize starch is less rap-idly broken down in the rumen than other starch types.

This means there is a lower risk of acidosis (grain overload) when feeding maize grain – com-pared to other grains (e.g. wheat) or high sugar feeds (e.g. molasses).

Maize grain feeding rates will vary depending on the age and production level of livestock and the amount and type of other

feeds in the diet. General recommenda-

tions for cows are:Feed a maximum of

30% of the total drymatter intake as maize grain.

Start at lower rates (e.g. 1kg maize grain per cow per day and increase feed-ing rates gradually over 7-10 days).

Feed a maximum of 2.5kgDM maize grain in a single feed.

Feeding rates will be lower in diets that contain other sources of carbohydrate (e.g. other grains or meals, molasses or high sugar or starch by-products).

Maize grain is an ideal supplement for pasture-fed calves and young stock promoting rapid rumen development and excel-lent liveweight gains. Pro-cessed maize grain can be purchased as required, from most local grain companies. Ian Williams is a Pioneer forage specialist-based in New Zealand.

1 Feed values taken from Holmes

et al. 2003. Milk Production from

Pasture, Massey University, NZ. 2 Palm kernel extract

feed value from Kolver

E. 2006. PKE – Economically priced

supplement. Dexcelink Autumn 2006. 3 Adapted from Roche

and Hedley, 2011 Supplements – the

facts to help improve your bottom line.

DairyNZ Technical Series July, 2011

p 6-10. Assumes grazing residuals

of 1,500-1,600 kgDM (7-8 clicks

on RPM). Responses decline when

residuals are higher than 1,600 kgDM

(i.e. cows are better fed).

For a full list of assumptions

see http://www.dairynz.co.nz/file/

fileid/37671.

Typical concentrate energy content1, 2

Cows fed starch or sugar-based supplement produce more milk protein, those fed a fibre-based supplement produce more milk fat.

THe eND of the year is finally here and the festive season is upon us.

Firstly, may I wish you all the complements of the season and a safe and pros-perous New Year. What will your New Year resolu-tion be?

Is it to finally fix that broken gate? You know; the one that doesn’t swing and is held up with baling twine.

Or is it to grade the cor-rugations out of the lane-way? Maybe pick up all the silage wrap and net wrap?

There are always so many little jobs that need to be done around a farm, some are necessary for safety; some just make the place look better.

This month, I want to write about something really out of left field.

What I would like your New Year’s resolution to be is to vaccinate, worm and flea treat your farm dogs and cats. For those

of you lucky enough to live on the coast, treat them with tick prevention – and for those of us unlucky enough to live inland, clean up some junk to try and prevent snakes.

Over the last few months, the animal lib-bers have been stirring up about bobby calves. But, between you and me, I see more mangy farm dogs and cats than poorly treated calves and cows. I no longer think it is good enough to justify by saying: “He’s just a farm cat or dog”.

Farm dogs, when they work properly, are worth two good men, but even

the useless ones are worth at least one good mate. Farm cats are the best vermin control you can have keeping mice, rats and snakes under control.

It is only fair that we treat them humanely and with the respect they deserve.

As a “farm vet”, I know that I’ve many times ignored the condition of farm dogs and cats that would never be accept-able “in town”. I would urge all dairy farmers to make it their New Year’s resolution to improve the lives of the farm dogs and cats hanging around their dairies.

Vaccinate the kittens, desex the females – so they do not just breed indis-criminately, and worm them so they do not repre-sent a risk to yourself, your staff and your families.

Roundworm larvae are dangerous, especially to children and Toxoplasmo-

sis can be deadly to unborn babies. On farms, where there is the opportunity for your dogs to eat offal from sheep or even kan-garoos, make certain that you deworm them regu-larly as hydatid tapeworms can kill.

Don’t encourage farm dogs to eat afterbirth , as they can catch and spread Neospora or Q-fever. Burn or bury it instead.

Flea treatment costs about $12/month, a pit-tance compared to the dis-tress caused by chronic flea allergies. The fleas can infect calf sheds and cause losses and stress amongst calves.

Despite what some animal rights organisa-tions might claim, my experience with dairy farms over 20 years is that most farmers are fabulous custodians of the cattle and calves in their care.

I am just reminding you all that farm dogs and cats

are no different and need an equal amount of care and attention.

Next time you have your vet out at your farm, get them to go through with you a bit of a health care plan for the farm pets, some clinics will even send out the required medica-tions quarterly to ensure the health and safety of pets and workers – which I think is a great idea.

Now, I just need to get myself more organised to do the same – maybe this should be my resolution!

Thank you all for read-ing my ramblings over the past year. A special thanks to all those clients, friends and strangers who have given me feedback as well. It is a great honour and pleasure to write for you all.Rob Bonanno is president of the Australian Cattle Vet-erinarians Association and a director of the Shepparton Veterinary Clinic.

ANimAL hEALThrob boNANNo

Cow custodians shouldn’t forget their cats and dogs

TONy HOPKINsON

KeeNAN sysTeMs has been running semi-nars called ‘CowSignals’ – studying the “universal body language” of cows and what it can tell farm-ers.

The company’s vet and animal health consultant Martin Kavanagh has run such seminars in Europe (east and west), UK, Scan-dinavia and now Australia and New Zealand.

Geography and cul-ture may differ, he says, but dairy farmers can all understand that ‘cow lan-guage’ is the same around the world, Kavanagh says.

He has worked 15 years as a vet in Ireland, begin-ning with Keenan Systems in 2007.

Fifty farmers at a field day at Simon and Jo Bel-ton’s Roscrea Farm at Te

Poi, near Matamata, NZ, heard Kavanagh say “Cows never lie; they tell the truth and it is up to farm-ers to recognise what the animals are telling them and do something about it.”

There is a difference between looking and seeing – farmers must act. Many animals can be 20% sick before they start to show signals to the farmer.

Kavanagh outlined several points farmers should look for. Most variations in cow health can be found by looking at several groups of just 10 animals.

“When more than 10% vary from normal, some-thing needs to be done,” he says.

Too many farmers look at the average, not the variations, and don’t appreciate that by strategically feeding the

bottom 10% they can raise the production average a lot. “The important question farmers must ask is ‘why the variation?’

“The Keenan feed system does not have

to be high input, but strategically used to reduce the variations of certain animals.” Many European farmers are changing by eliminating all-possible variations to

reduce the large wastage under their present regimes. They are focusing on cow health and slowly changing their long entrenched attitudes on housing and feeding their

Reading what your cows are saying

Vet martin Kavanagh explaining cow signals at a field day at matamata, nZ.

IN UDDER WORDS...

Coopers® knows dairy – get to know usCoopers Animal Health delivers consistent solutions, to the animal health problems facing Australian dairy farmers.

Our dairy team of on-farm representatives and veterinarians have a wealth of experience which they are happy to share with you. Our solutions include:

Herd health – controlling the pests and diseases that have negative effects on your cattle and your business.

• Parasite control – routine control and specifically targeted programs are important in controlling internal and external parasites. Coopers have a range of products for control of worms, liver fluke, as well as external parasites such as lice, nuisance flies, mites and cattle tick.

• Coopers’ range of class vaccines give options to protect against a range of disease pathogens including calf scours, bovine respiratory disease, pinkeye and clostridial diseases.

• Dairy hygiene – Coopers teat spray and disinfectants provide options for improving udder health as well as farm, domestic and industrial cleaning and disinfection.

Herd nutrition – helping to maximise production potential with a range of trace element supplements. The nutritional requirements of dairy cattle vary widely, depending on age, stage of lactation or pregnancy and Coopers range of Permatrace® trace element pellets provide convenient, efficient supplements for all classes of stock.

Vet only – Coopers’ vet-only range addresses disease and improves fertility, milk production and milk quality. Our prescription-only products include broad spectrum intramammary products, injectable antibiotics and products to improve fertility and maximise the reproductive performance of your herd.

2012 promises to be a stronger year for the Australian dairy industry, with solid rains and improved farm gate prices for milk enhancing the industry’s outlook for the year ahead!

Merry Christmas from the Coopers Team!

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30 // MACHINeRy & PRODuCTs

BILL JONes, milks around 450 cows at Yarroweyah in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley. He has been an advocate for biological farming since he attended a course run by biological and sustain-able farming expert Graham Sait in Queensland a few years back.

Jones says that it changed his way of thinking about farm inputs and they are getting more serious about the way they manage the paddocks.

“I started to think about how to solve the problems of growing grass,” Jones said.

“Fertiliser is not the solution. We needed to look for a multi-spectrum solution.

“During the drought we stopped using fertilisers, because of the cost. We had always spread manure back on to the paddocks using an old Marshall 2-tonne spreader, and we started notic-ing the effect and better production. Clover started coming back.”

Jones and his wife, Julie, run the property where he grew up and came home to in 1988 to milk cows. It now covers 224 hectares, with a 36ha block leased over the road, and a further 36ha run-off block.

They have a system of making rows of com-post from various types of manure and other material.

“We have used straw, mice-damaged hay, green waste – as well as our own cow manure and this year we’ve utilised more chook and pig manure,” Jones said.

“Next year will be a more composted mix, with more nitrogen.”

In July this year the Jones’ purchased a Seymour Composter 4000. Since then, they have been using it once a week to turn the compost, powered by a 120 hp Massey Ferguson 5465 tractor.

The Seymour 4000 can process

700 tonnes of material an hour, turn-ing what on most farms has tradition-ally been waste material into organically rich compost to help get organic matter back into the soil.

Jones said that when they were after a likely machine, they looked around and the price range of the Seymour Composter was an important consid-eration.

“This machine is simple to operate and we are learning all the time. Each

time we use it we find out something differ-ent.”

It suits a wind-row 1500mm high and 3000mm wide with an operating speed of 500 to 800 metres per hour.

Seymour Rural Equipment says that an innovative drum and tine design expels the maximum amount of CO2.

The tines are posi-tioned on the drum so that they pull product

from the outside of the windrow to the inside with a fluffing action that lifts and aerates the hot material at the core of the heap.

They set up rows of the compost material with the manure on top, using the front-end loader, and put the com-poster on to pick it up and turn it.

“We let it settle for a day or so and then turn it. Let it heat up and turn it once a week for six weeks. Each pile needs to be more than 55º to kill patho-

gens and seeds and less than 65º.“Then it’s ready to spread.“The longer you leave it, the more

fungi will develop. We want the fungi to dominate for the worms.”

Jones uses contractors to spread the compost these days, since the old Mar-shall “died of a thousand diseases”.

“We have cut back on our use of granular fertiliser.

“We spray on liquid calcium, nitro-gen and potash instead of chemical fer-tiliser.

“Our pastures are coming back and we’ve really noticed the response. And it’s made the corn crop for us – last year we made 18 or 19 tonne.”

Manure is flood-washed down from the large concrete feed pad into hold-ing tanks and then collected by the front end loader to put onto the com-post rows.

They have installed a large fibreglass tank to hold the liquid nitrogen near the feed pad and will spread 20kg/ha of liquid nitrogen four times a year.

Jones said the compost is applied to pastures at 3 tonnes/hectare, once or twice a year. Last year they spread

compost onto 40ha, this year it has been nearly 80ha.

200 tonnes was applied in the two weeks before our visit in early Novem-ber, and there was another 200 tonne standing by ready to go.

They are waiting for a further 600 tonne to compost satisfactorily and it will be spread in autumn, then again in spring.

A full visual soil test is conducted on three spots around the farm using a GPS locator.

“You can see that since we started this process, the soil has become more pliable, with more clover and more worms.

“The Brix test has lifted from 6s to between 9 and 15.”

The Brix test is a measure of the min-eral/sugar ratio of the plant cell proto-plasm.

Crops or pastures with higher refrac-tive index will have higher sugar con-tent, higher protein and mineral content and a greater specific gravity or density.

This adds up to a more nutritious feed with lower nitrates and water con-tent and better storage attributes.

Jones said the higher Brix rating aids nutrient take-up in the plant.

The Seymour Composter comes with provision for a water manifold and Jones has just built a 3000 litre water tank and frame to sit on the back of the machine to inject water as the piles were drying out too quick.

He said that in the Western district they have the opposite problem. They have too much moisture and have issues drying out the compost.

There are four full-time staff at the dairy and two part-timers for the week-end milking. Bill said that they have received a lot of enquiry about the com-poster and will consider contracting it in the future.Working Clothes will focus on the performance of a new machine in the paddock each month. Send suggestions to Chris Dingle on 0417 735 001 or email [email protected]

workiNG cLoThESchriS DiNGLE

above: The tines of the Seymour composter 4000 are positioned on the drum so that they pull product from the outside of the windrow to the inside with a fluffing action that lifts and aerates the hot material at the core of the heap.

Composter boosts pasture, cuts fertiliser bills

who: Bill Jones whErE: Yarroweyah whAT: Seymour Composter 4000

rows of the compost material are set up with the manure on top, using the front-end loader. The composter is then put on to pick it up and turn it.


A MuCH-uPgRADeD precision-farming display screen is now offered with Case IH tractors, sprayers and combines. The AFS Pro 700 display picks up from the previous 600 series, but has more features in a more compact package.

The new AFS Pro 700 display is physically smaller than the outgoing 600 model, but the usable screen size of 10.4 inches is the same. It weighs about half as much, yet contains four times more comput-ing power.”

The biggest difference is the AFS Pro 700 is a computer rather than just a smart display,” says Case.

“It runs a Linux-based operating system, so the software on the dis-play can be upgraded or changed altogether. This means the unit is ready to incorporate technological changes as they occur.”

The AFS Pro 700 can be used to monitor and control Case IH vehicles, guidance systems and implements.

It’s ISO 11783 compli-ant, so it can also be used with other similarly speci-fied equipment.The screen can be used in a variety of machines, automati-cally recognising which machine it is in and adjust-ing its settings to match those last used. The touch

screen shows vehicle information and lets

the user record data to create tools such as yield maps.

MACHINeRy & PRODuCTs // 31

C-DAX HAs won a 2011 Innovators Award for the pasture meter it devel-oped with New Zealand’s Massey University.

The award was made in the agricultural and envi-ronmental category of the contest, run annually by Bayer New Zealand, Ide-alog magazine and Ideas Accelerator.

C-Dax says the pasture meter can lift the stock-carrying capacity of a dairy farm by 7%. At least 1000 of the pasture meters are now used on farms.

“This award recognises the commercial success of the pasture meter and... the Massey team under Professor Ian Yule that developed the concept,”

says Greg Shearer, manag-ing director of C-Dax.

The pasture meter accurately measures, tracks and records the amount of pasture on paddocks via GPS and data technology. “With this information the farmer can make flexible decisions about... pasture utilisation and more efficient nutrient

application, and can identify feed surpluses for hay or silage,” Shearer says. “Ultimately, it leads to higher farm productivity.”

The pasture meter can be towed behind an ATV at up to 20km/h, making up to 200 measurements per second.

C-Dax spokesman Robert Murray, who as a

Massey University stu-dent was involved in the meter’s development, says nothing compares with it anywhere in the world. “We have sold units to Europe, Aus-tralia, the US and South Africa.”www.pasturemeter.co.nzTel Pumps & Sprays on (02) 9627 989

Pasture meter wins innovation prize

Progress on display


32 // MACHINeRy & PRODuCTs

JOHN DeeRe’s new 900 series vari-able-cham-ber balers are aimed at offering value for money by saving time.

With a new fast release system (FRS) fitted as standard, John Deere claims the balers can save up to one hour per day during harvest.

Designed for use by contractors and large-scale livestock farms, the FRS-equipped 960 and 990 balers allow the opera-tor to unload a completed bale in no more than five seconds .

The 900 Series uses a ‘curtain’ instead of a rear door, and full-frame con-struction cuts stresses in the bale chamber.

John Deere has eschewed conventional bale chamber side walls in favour of bespoke side panels. As bales are

formed, the panels help the unit to reach maxi-mum capacity and help with bale ejection by open-ing slightly at the finish.

Other standout fea-tures include a high-capac-ity pickup with five rows of tines instead of the usual four, a drop-floor unplug-ging system that operates over the total width of the rotor, and a net wrapping system located at the front of the unit to allow contin-uous visual contact with the wrapping process.

Both models are avail-able with 2.2m-wide Roto-Flow or MaxiCut 13- or 25-knife precutter pick-ups. The 960 and 990 make bales from 0.8-1.6m and 0.8-1.85m diameter, respectively.

Fast action baler

JCB sAys it has responded to increasing demand for greater lift performance and reach in handling machines by releasing its new highest capacity telehandler on the Australian market.

Coming on the heels of the launch of the most powerful JCB 8310 Fastrac tractor, the new 550-80 telehandler offers a max-imum lift capacity of 5 tonnes and height of 8.1 metres.

JCB Construction

Equipment Austra-lia National Telehandler manager Greg Sealey says the new machine is ide-ally suited to bulk handling agricultural applications.

“The 550-80 achieves the highest payload of any JCB telehandler and it introduces a number of new features in the JCB range and wider telehan-dler market.’’

Engine options include a 97-kilowatt (130-horse-power) or new 108kW (145hp) JCB Dieselmax

Tier III powerplant, the largest ever fitted to a JCB telehandler.

Linked to a four-speed, powershift transmission, the machine also boasts 145 litres per minute vari-able flow hydraulics and high flow pipework for optimised cycle times and auxiliary service perfor-mance.

“It is the perfect materials handling machine for heavy-duty operations, with its high lift capacity and powerful driveline ensuring rapid loading cycles and exceptional productivity,’’ Sealey adds.

The bigger JCB 550-80 sits on uprated heavy-duty axles with four-wheel braking, as well as wider wheel centres and larger tyres than its smaller col-leagues.

It hasn’t lost any speed either, still offering a top mark of up to 40km/hr.

Sealey claims that in a first for JCB telehandlers, the 550-80 uses a ‘Z’ bar front linkage between the hydraulic tilt ram and the carriage.

He says this design maximises the force

generated by the piston side of the hydraulic ram, which, in conjunction with the ‘Z’ bar linkage, creates a massive breakout force of 6.5t – a 50 per cent increase on the 541-70 telehandler.

“This feature is espe-cially beneficial when re-handling materials because it provides easy bucket fill and therefore greater productivity over-all.’’

A low boom line con-tributes to excellent all-round visibility, which is essential in a rapid cycle loading situation, while JCB’s proven optional Smooth Ride System (SRS) offers improved load retention and increased comfort in load and carry operations.

The JCB 550-80 is also fitted with a new standard variable speed cooling and reverse fan.

The reversing fan func-tion helps maintain cool-ing to maximise both machine productivity and reliability, while it also allows operators to clear dust and debris from the engine bay.Tel. 1300 JCB CEA

Telehandler has greater reach

The new Jcb 550-80 telehandler offers a maximum lift capacity of 5 tonnes and height of 8.1 metres.

For more information or pricing, feel free to call on:

PH: (03) 9768 2424

FACTS ABOUT CALF FEEDING1. Calf stomachs are very small and

cannot process an entire days milk allocation within one or two feeds per day.

2. Calves grow much faster when fed five times per day instead of one or two.

3. Calves should not be given penicillin milk as this build s resistance to future treatments.

4. Healthy calves lose less weight at weaning, get sick less, and make more milk when they become milking cows.

5. New calves always seem friendly, but this is more likely hunger .

6. Australian farmers lose 6-8 % of their calves every year on average (CSIRO)


MACHINeRy & PRODuCTs // 33

BALINg CONTRAC-TORs are having a pretty hard time of it at the moment, according to AFIA. Most dairy farm-ers have plenty of feed in the paddock and hay and silage in storage, so work is limited. But, accord-ing to some farmers we’ve spoken to, a contributing factor is that the seasons are getting back to the ‘normal’ conditions from before the drought – when hay and silage was gener-ally cut much later. The dry years meant crops needed to be cut earlier while they still had the right moisture content.

New Krone loader wagonThe latest Krone MX 350 loader wagon has a capac-ity of 35 cubic metres and features robust sides to allow either self loading or loading from harvest-ers. The MX loads via a camless pick-up into an 880mm diameter rotor with abrasion-resistant plated tines for durabil-ity and precise cut. The rotor is driven by large oil-immersed spur gears, pro-tected by a cam clutch. Krone says that the new style knife bank swings out to the side for easy access. The floor slopes down-ward at the front, increas-ing the capacity but also reducing the length of crop passage thereby reducing power requirement. An optional load scale system is now available to enable operators to charge out per tonnage rather than load. The MX 350 in the GD version offers two dis-charge beaters on the back and features an increased off loading rate compared to the previous model wagon.

Gold for Krone Ultima An innovation that enables the Krone Ultima baler wrapper to work fully automatically and non-stop, and to keep moving during the baling and unloading cycles, has earned them a DLG Gold Medal to be awarded at the world’s biggest ag show, Agritechnica. Field trials have apparently shown that the Ultima achieves up to 50% higher work rates, but Krone says we won’t see the technology here until the 2013/2014

season. You can find technical details on how it all works, at the ‘News’ section of www.kubota.com.au.

New calf milk purifierTurning waste milk into nutrient-rich and bacteria-free feed for calves not only saves money, but can provide better care for young calves in the early stages of life, says Peter Maguire at GEA Farm Technologies. GEA are introducing a revolutionary ultraviolet calf milk purifier for on-farm use that kills bacteria without decreasing crucial immune factors and proteins - all in a compact, single-phase power installation. It will be on show at International Dairy Week in January, or contact them for more information on [email protected]

Roll bars may be OKInteresting to note that manufacturers of ATVs have changed their collec-tive minds about oppos-ing fitting roll-over bars to their models. Apparently, the research data back-ing their earlier stance was inconsistent and could have led to some legal problems.

Value for mon-ey tractorKubota has taken an inter-esting step by offering a hydraulic shuttle trans-mission in its new 67 horsepower M7040 Spe-cial Utility tractor. This means the operator can perform frequent direc-tion changes, without the need to depress the clutch pedal – as in front-end loader work. Kubota claims the hydraulic wet clutch used not only improves efficiency and operator comfort, but also eliminates service costs experienced with conven-tional dry clutch machines.

The M7040SUHD has an 8 by 8 speed transmission with two ranges, 4 cylin-der 3.3 litre Kubota engine and comes with a 540 rpm PTO, one remote spool valve and a work hydrau-lic pump flow of 41.6 litres/min. The lift capacity on the rear linkage is 1900kg at the lift point. Available for the M7040SUHD is

the performance matched Kubota LA1153E hydrau-lic self levelling loader. A European style quick coupler allows for easy changeover of loader attachments, like 4-in-1 bucket, bale spear or pallet fork.Contact Chris on 0417 735 001 or email [email protected]

Still hope for contractors

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A 1977 LX Torana SS A9X Hatchback sold for $123,000 at the last Shannon’s auction of the year in Melbourne.

Offered with no reserve, the car was pursued by various floor and telephone bidders before finally selling above its pre-sale high estimate.

Legendary Australian cars and classic Harley Davidson motorcycles were the standout performers of the auction, which grossed over $1 million in sales while clearing 72% of all vehicle lots.

Another Aussie Muscle Car to sell well was a well-presented Candy Apple Red 1970 Falcon XW GT with four-speed manual gearbox, described by Shannon’s as a ‘good driver’ – which made $68,000.

Other strong home-grown perform-

ers included a beautifully-restored and trophy-winning 1956 Holden FJ Utility that sold for $38,000; a 1976 Holden HX Monaro LE Coupe that made $34,250.

Meanwhile, a no-reserve and very original 1962 Holden EJ Special Sedan, with hydra-matic transmission, sold for $15,000 after a fierce bidding battle and a well-optioned 1976 Chrysler VK Regal 5.9-litre V8 saloon that had covered just 57,400km, which brought $11,000.

Other notable performers amongst the 47 vehicles on offer were a stun-ning, red and black 1929 Ford Model A Hot-Rod Roadster Utility ($31,000); a nicely-presented British Racing Green 1949 MG TC Roadster ($29,500); and a cheeky red, restored 1969 Fiat 500F sedan ($15,000).

However, the 11 rare motorcycles

and 12 Victorian heritage number plates almost upstaged the cars at the auction.

The top-seller of the five classic Harleys on offer was a superb 1923 F Model 1000cc solo that sold well above its pre-sale estimate for $28,000. While a 1928 Model J 1000cc, with period sidecar in fair original condition, also exceeded expectations going for $20,000.

Other Harleys to perform well were a 2002 Harley-Davidson FLSTCI Heri-tage soft tail Classic that had travelled just 3580km from new ($18,250); a 1929 JD Model 1200cc solo ($17,500); while a 1917 1000cc solo in ‘project’ condition made $8000.

Another motorcycle to sell well was a 1988 factory-verified Ducati 851 Kit ‘Tricolour’— which made $30,000.

THe HONDA CR-Z has hit Australian shores.

It features the world’s first 6-speed manual transmission – combined with a hybrid drivetrain and has a sporty aero-dynamic form.

Honda claims the CR-Z evokes the iconic style of the 1980’s CR-X, while combining agile, responsive handling with excellent fuel efficiency.

The CR-Z pairs a 1.5-litre i-VTEC engine and Honda’s Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) system, delivering a com-bined power figure of 91kW with 174Nm of torque for the manual transmission and 167 Nm for the CVT.

Offering a unique 3-Mode Drive System, Honda says the CR-Z can be adjusted to your needs, with Normal mode suited to most driving experi-ences.

Sport mode sharpens the throttle response and changes the parameters of the IMA system to provide more elec-tric motor assistance and secure, solid steering.

Econ mode prioritises fuel economy in the operation of the drive-by-wire throttle, ECU, air conditioning and the hybrid system.

The Eco Assist function, in con-

junction with Econ or Normal mode, enables the driver to monitor their fuel efficiency on each journey.

The car has a stylish interior layout and the flexibility to extend usability, with rear seats designed to fold easily and quickly to increase cargo space. The cabin has been ergonomically designed around a cockpit theme, clustering crit-ical controls close to the driver, and the instrument panel has an eye-catching and hi-tech 3D gauge design.

Achieving a five-star ANCAP safety rating – the highest possible – the CR-Z offers an array of standard safety fea-tures, including six airbags, Vehicle Sta-bility Assist (VSA) with traction control and brake assist, active head-restraints, ABS, EBD and LED Daytime Running Lights – a first for Honda.

Other safety features include Honda G-Con technology with an Advanced Compatibility Engineering (ACE) body that provides higher levels of protection to occupants while minimising impact to the other vehicle in a collision.

Pricing for the all-new CR-Z will start at $34,990 for the Sport Manual, $37,290 for the Sport with CVT and $40,790 for the Luxury CVT (all prices minus taxes and dealer charges).

34 // MOTORINg

THe FIRsT Holden Volt has landed in Australia.

The left-hand drive model from the United States has been adapted for use by the engineering team to begin in-country validation and verification.

The Volt has been used for numerous engineering evaluation trips, seeing it drive to various places around the coun-try including Sydney and Canberra.

“The engineering department will use these validation exercises to ensure the electrical infrastructure around the country supports the Volt and that the recharging process is as seamless

as possible for customers,” says Paul Gibson, director of electrical engineer-ing at Holden

The Volt represents a major mile-stone for the Red Lion brand. Holden chairman and managing director Mike Devereux says the Volt will be a game changer for Holden and the wider auto-motive industry in this country.

“It is among the most technologi-cally advanced cars on the road any-where in the world and spearheads Holden’s push to become a leader in the field of technology and sustainable motoring.

“The Volt will make driving more economical, more environmentally-friendly and will fundamentally change the way Australia thinks about alterna-tive transport solutions. This is the start of something big for Holden and Aus-tralia.”

Devereux says many of the Volt’s benefits are due to its groundbreaking propulsion system; it’s the world’s first electric vehicle with extended range

capability. Driven by an advanced lithium ion battery, the Volt can drive on electric-only power using electricity stored in its 16 kW/h lithium ion battery.

When the battery runs low, a petrol-powered engine seamlessly operates to recharge the battery, thereby eliminat-ing ‘range anxiety’ and making the Volt the most practical electric car on the market.

Owners of the Volt in the US have recorded up to 2300km (equivalent) of driving before needing to refuel the petrol engine, which acts as a genera-tor to recharge the battery (www.gm-volt.com).

Holden’s new dedicated Volt website has also been launched at www.holden.com.au/volt

The Volt will go on sale in Australia towards the end of 2012.

The Volt has landed

New Honda CR-Z evokes CR-X style

‘77 Torana Hatchback sells for $123,000

www.virbac.com.auCustomer Support 1800 242 100

It’s all the small things we do that help make you big.

When fl ies and lice are present you need to move very quickly to prevent lost production and avoid pink eye. Arrest® Easy-Dose is a convenient low volume pour-on application, that helps immediately to control nuisance fl ies and problem lice. There is also nil milk and meat withholding periods. Treat early because contented cattle will deliver improved weight gains and milk yield.

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dairy news australia december 2011

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