Interesting how the farmers are faring: Dairy Australia forum:...

Interesting how the farmers are faring:

Dairy Australia forum: Anger voiced on profit fall
SIMONE SMITH, The Weekly Times
March 22, 2017 1:00pm
FEARS about the future of ryegrass use, concerns about young people entering the industry and frustrations with the dairy profitability were among issues raised at a Dairy Australia meeting at Camperdown last week.
The forum, attended by about 40 people including farmers and service providers, gave Dairy Australia and WestVic Dairy a chance to give an update on their activities and gather feedback.
At times the discussion was heated, with farmers saying leaving the farm to their children was “a form of child abuse” while others questioned Dairy Australia’s national milk volume forecasts and the promotion campaign Legendairy.
Others were frustrated Dairy Australia did not have a lobbying role and could not do anything about farmgate milk prices. There was also some venting about leadership in the dairy industry lobby groups and these groups’ reluctance to take the proposal of a 50c/litre levy on milk sales by Farmer Power to Federal Government.
Birregurra dairy farmer Elizabeth Ryan asked Dairy Australia what would be done about the blame attributed to ryegrass for the “thunderstorm asthma” outbreak. She said ryegrass was an important part of dairy farming.
Dairy Australia farm profit and innovation group manager Chris Murphy said the Dairy Futures CRC — now DairyBio — was working on low allergenic ryegrass, but that the challenge was finding a seed company wanting to market it.
It was something Dairy Australia would follow up.
Dairy Australia representatives also said they would follow up Ms Ryan’s other suggestion to hold the industry “cups on, cups off” training course in school holidays so children could receive a qualification.
Tyrendarra dairy farmer Bruce Knowles asked Dairy Australia what it was going to do about concerns on energy sustainability and climate change. Dairy Australia managing director Ian Halliday said it was about to “ramp up” analysis around electricity availability and price.
A few farmers questioned the relevance of Dairy Australia and if they were getting value from levies, and questions were raised on how Dairy Australia could help farmers diversify their businesses to cope with price volatility.
Noorat dairy farmer Geraldine Conheady asked about producers leaving the industry and if Dairy Australia had numbers and the reasons.
She asked the panel about a strategy to assist young people into the industry. Mr Halliday said Dairy Australia did not have accurate statistics for the past six months, but the annual national dairy farmer survey results would be due next month and he expected this to provide some insight.
In regards to youth, he pointed to support offered through the National Young Dairy Network and how this helped youth “hungry for information” as well as the school based program Cows Create Careers.

Boorcan dairy farmer Lou Wyss said if milk processors thought “you could farm at $4.50 (a kilogram of milk solids) on a progressive farm, they are bloody dreaming”.
He had farmed in New Zealand for 20 years and 20 years in Australia and said the “last two years had been the hardest time we have been through”.
www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/agribusiness/dairy/dairy-australia-forum-anger-voiced-on-profit-fall/news-story/7b54b5e970635a9f5b1fab03e3659e69