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Poll: How much would you donate from your pay packet to promote your industry?

/ dairymilkmaid / 5 Comments

As we speak, Dairy Australia is touring the country rolling out the farmer side of the Legendairy campaign. Consumers will see it from late winter, when it hits magazines, radio, TV, supermarkets and bus stops around August.

The campaign is designed to build bridges between farmers and consumers, encouraging trust and an increase in claimed dairy consumption.

My question is this: how much would you personally spend on an industry branding exercise? And if you’re not a farmer, how much would you pay for a campaign aimed at portraying your trade or profession as “good guys”? Be honest, since there’s no way I (or anyone else) can see which way you vote.

Legendairy stuff or just fluff?

/ dairymilkmaid / 9 Comments

There’s little doubt Australian dairy farmers are feeling a little demoralised and that’s not good for business. The first symptom displayed by farmers lacking confidence is a stubborn refusal to open their cheque books.

And here we are, hunkered down in survival mode, deaf to our leaders’ calls to invest and grow so that Australia can realise its dream of becoming a vital piece of the Asian food bowl.

With all this in mind, then, take a look at the “farmer-side” launch of the new Dairy Australia campaign, Legendairy.

Ad agency, CumminsRoss is to be congratulated for the stirring execution.

In a media release, DA project leader Isabel MacNeill, says Legendairy is “not just a branding exercise” but a singular rallying point that will help develop pride among dairy people, and increase community appreciation for the industry and demand for its products.

The Legendairy platform will be translated into an initial three-year integrated marketing and communication plan focusing on three core audiences:
• Farmers and farm communities
• Consumers, especially parents of young children
• Societal shapers such as policy makers, authorities and health professionals.

According to MacNeill, it’s all about the dairy community telling its own stories about what makes us legendary.

After sleeping on it, I’m guessing Legendairy will polarise farmers. One camp will say, “Yeah, it’s great to get a pat on the back” and the other camp will say “Don’t spend my levy on expensive ads telling me how great I should feel while I’m struggling to pay the bills”.

I must admit I have a foot in each camp. When you’re going through a rough patch, the last thing you want is a pat on the head and this strays dangerously close to that. I’m really looking forward to seeing what comes next.

EDIT: As I walked away from the computer after writing this post, one BIG thing occurred to me: What does DA want out of the farmer-side campaign and how will it be measured? Fewer exits from the industry, greater farmer investment? Lower depression rates among farmers? Sadly, no, I suspect not because no mere communications strategy could realistically hold such worthy objectives. Not now, in any case. Perhaps it would be better timed to build confidence when the tide has truly begun to turn.

Am I in a dairy crisis?

/ dairymilkmaid / Leave a comment

A group of young Gippsland dairy farmers say times are tough but not at crisis point, said well-known dairy consultant John Mulvany during an ABC Radio interview yesterday.

When I ask myself whether it feels like I am in a “dairy crisis”, the answer is a perplexing “yes and no”.

We will get through this year battle-weary but pretty much unscathed and the bank is still very supportive. The co-op recently delivered us a modest price increase, which included back-pay and that was very helpful. I hope I’m not jinxing myself by saying this but the autumn break has arrived, everything is green and growing and new seed is in the ground.

But when I look at why things are undoubtedly “tough”, that’s when it feels like a crisis.

International dairy commodity prices are good
Right now, we are actually being paid very well. It just doesn’t feel like it for two reasons. First, those excellent prices are in US dollars, which means that by the time you convert those prices into Aussie dollars, the prices are a lot less spectacular. Second, the cost of making milk has increased faster than milk prices have risen.

Given that international dairy commodity prices are notoriously volatile, I’m not looking forward to the next cycle, when they are considered “weak”.

The strong Aussie dollar is not going away anytime soon
Business commentators are telling Australian exporters (and around half of our milk is exported) to get used to a strong Aussie dollar. It’s here to stay.

Input costs are tipped to keep rising
The price of power, refrigerants and fuel is only going to keep rising, along with wages and, in the long term, fertiliser. Interest rates cannot be expected to remain so low forever, either.

Smart farming programs withering as R&D slashed
There have been savage cuts to agricultural R&D right around the country, with massive job losses here in Victoria. We are going to have to look further afield for innovation leadership.

Conflicting messages about the future of farm-gate prices
We are constantly told a massive protein shortage will transform dairy farmers from paupers to princes. As dairy industry commentator, Steve Spencer, writes in the latest edition of the Farm Policy Journal:

“One of the significant challenges faced by the industry – especially export manufacturers who can’t keep up with customer demand – is that too few of their milk suppliers have bought into the story that the future holds great opportunity.”

Glad you noticed, Steve. And little wonder we’re not buying the story. Not only are we no more profitable now than we were a decade ago when “the story” was first floated, just a few weeks ago, ABARES forecasted a 36 cents per litre farm-gate price within five years – well below our cost of production.

Steve goes on to say that the dairy industry is missing many key ingredients “…building confidence, showcasing success, positive esteem…” and then poses a “…critical question for all parts of the industry: how to motivate people to look long, adjusting their businesses and attitudes to accept the cycles of the market and cashflow as inevitable?”.

Steve, I think that is what we have done and that is why some call it a dairy crisis. Rhetoric no longer cuts it. But I reckon you’re right that we farmers do need to start thinking about the big picture beyond the farm gate so we are ready not only to face the future but to recast it before it’s too late to find our feet in the new world order of dairying nations.

What would Dad think of the farm?

/ dairymilkmaid / 2 Comments

It’s at family occasions like Easter that I think of Dad most often.

Dad died at Christmas-time in 2006 when Zoe was just six months old. A new mum with a thriving micro-business and a husband from the city, I had to decide whether I would take on the family farm. Michael, the wise local accountant, advised to sell – I was doing well, farms are far from the most lucrative investment choice and why work so hard, anyhow? After all, my parents had invested in a great education so I didn’t have to be a farmer.

But I love the place. And the cows. And fresh air and the contentment that sore muscles bring. Even though I thoroughly enjoyed my career, a working life spent wholly indoors would be unimaginable. When I said I just couldn’t bear to lose the farm, Michael clicked his tongue, shook his head and said, “Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you”.

Michael was right, of course. It’s been a tough few years. The farm was run down and it’s taken a mighty effort to restore it to manageability, so now and then, I like to imagine what Dad would say if he could see it now.

With a lot of help, we’ve removed tonnes of old stuff, repaired kilometres of fencing, renewed kilometres more of the water system, installed 21 new troughs and a couple of water tanks, renovated 200 hectares of pasture and planted 8000 trees.

I thought I’d take a few photos to remind myself how far we’d come and discovered something humbling. For all we have achieved, it was Dad’s accomplishments that stole the show.

Dad planted the tall trees in 1999. The small ones went in two years ago.

Dad planted the tall trees in 1999. The small ones went in two years ago.

Dad built this wildlife haven in 1984 and planted the trees

Dad built this wildlife haven in 1984 and planted the trees

This is what would have taken Dad's breath away

This is what would have taken Dad’s breath away

Woolies the white knight unmasked by dairy defenders

/ dairymilkmaid / 12 Comments

Sometimes it’s what you read between the lines that’s the most important. In the cause of reporting about supermarket giant Woolworths’ formal announcement today confirming it’s arranging to directly contract dairy farmers to supply it milk, the most interesting comments are those that appear below the line.

Dairy farmers have shared their concerns about the move but now the ball is well and truly in the corner of Australian shoppers. If the comments from readers of Melbourne newspaper, The Age, are anything to go by, Woolworths’ attempt to mitigate the growing public distaste for supermarket ethics may have backfired.

I’ve picked out a few to summarise the tone of discussion online (my subheadings):

Squeezing the life out of the producers
“This is how they make the real money, had this explained by an insider recently to me. They find a producer and ask them to make their home brand for them along with their own branded premium product. People buy the cheaper version and the premium product disappears so they then just give them the second quality product in their packaging. Then supermarket owns them, they then turn on them and say, now we will pick it up, give u the packaging and labels you just give us the raw product. This means the producer the gets no profit on packaging, transport etc for the goods, and they are cut to the bare minimum of profit, this is how the supermarkets are squeezing the life out of the producers so they have no profit and no hope of improving. I won’t buy home brand, I like choice and supporting Aust companies.”
Commenter: Newcastle Gal

The admission of guilt
“Surprise, surprise I thought it was only several months ago that the supermarket giants (media) told us that the milk companies etc were not being disadvantaged and that the supermarket chains were picking up the losses, now it turns out that the supermarket chains are ripping off our suppliers after all..”
Commenter: Mik of Melbourne

Part of a bigger plan to screw consumers
“I ‘m sure the money that Woolies gets from their gaming machine can well and truly subsidies the milk (* bread). Instead, pay the real price for branded milk and cease this war. The only outcome will similar to Europe where fresh milk is now a luxury, mainly God awful UHT milk on shelves.”
Commenter: nm4047

It’s all about control
“Woolies and Coles will only rip off farmers because you let them. Note the success of Norco on the NSW North Coast, their milk is still selling for a fair bit more than $1 a litre and has withstood the “home brand” assault. Sales only dropped by 1-2% compared to the 25% drop of brands in the cities. Norco and the communities they support care for farmers, because they are farmers. Woolworths don’t care about farmers, by dealing directly with farmers they are hoping to break up the co-op models that are beating them in the rural areas and drive the farm-gate price down.”
Commenter: dude

And then there’s this from someone who obviously knows the dairy industry very, very well:

“Actually, it’s a combination of marketing ploy and the knowledge that Queensland and Western Australia are close to real domestic supply troubles if they keep losing dairy farmers.
Not being privy to Woolworth’s strategy in this move, this is what I suspect will occur.”

“(1) They’ll target large scale farmers or encourage investment in large scale farming for their direct supply. Good economics on their part but increases the exposure for the suppliers since return on their investment will be solely dependent on Woolworth’s assessment of a fair price.

“(2) They’ll concentrate on areas where they aren’t up against strong competition and where’s there’s excess manufacturing capacity available. Both WA and Queensland fit the bill here.
Victoria would be a less attractive option with its reliance on export markets and dominance by co-operatives and farmer owned supplier groups. South Australia has a small localised industry and is attracting interest from Victorian based co-operative Murray Goulburn. Tasmania has good production prospects but transport is an ongoing issue. So probably WA and Queensland.

“(3) Once they’ve got a foothold, it’ll be a balancing act. Do they squeeze their fresh milk suppliers or do they loss-lead and extend their range of products by trying to increase both their supplier base and their range of manufacturing options? More ‘supermarket own’ brands would probably be their ultimate goal but not at the cost of having to carry the brands for a long time before a return on investment. I’d say their ideal is complete vertical integration but they know that can backfire big time if you don’t control enough of the market.

“One thing for sure. This is about Woolworths not about the farmers. And let’s face it, that’s what all businesses are about- not just supermarket owners”
Commenter: David of Leongatha

All in all, I’d call it an unmitigated PR flop. On the other hand, those commenting online on a story in The Age are hardly a representative sample of Australians. It’s inevitable that farmers will be recruited by Woolies (and Coles, in turn, no doubt) but whether Aussies will buy either the rhetoric or the “fair” home-brand milk is far from a sure thing.

Is Woolies the dairy farmer’s white knight?

/ dairymilkmaid / 2 Comments

Woolworths has announced it plans to contract dairy farmers directly, with the promise of better farm gate returns. While a first for Australian dairy, this is not new in the UK where many of our supermarket executives earned their stripes. On a study tour of the UK, prominent Victorian dairy farmer Roma Britnell spoke to many English farmers about their experiences, so I was delighted when she agreed to answer a few questions for Milk Maid Marian.

Roma Britnell

Roma Britnell


MMM: What are the supermarkets proposing?
Roma: The supermarkets are thinking about setting up direct supply contracts with a select group of farmers in response to the public’s concerns that they are hurting farmers.

I saw a really good example of this in England after coops failed and processing companies became dominant. The supply contract I looked at was with Waitrose, a boutique up-market supermarket. Only a small number of farmers had the opportunity and got a few cents more than the rest of the English dairy farmers. They have to have a very flat supply and the quality standards are very demanding.

When I first explored this concept, the farmers were not too unhappy. Now, the supermarket’s demands are getting too difficult to accommodate. A lot depends on the relationship between the negotiators of the group and the company manager but because the group is small, the farmers are at a disadvantage.

MMM: Is this common overseas?
Roma: I didn’t see this anywhere other than in the UK. What I did see and look for were ways the farmer could maintain influence up the supply chain. I found the answer was simply to own as much of the supply chain as possible so long as this was managed efficiently and monitored carefully.

This is what has traditionally gone wrong, and the “co-op” model is wrongly blamed as the reason instead of the inefficiency and lack of the owners (farmers) making sure the business performed.

Co operation comes in many forms and I looked at companies like Glambia that are part co-op and part company.

I found many good businesses that were going well operating as a co-op, including Arla. Neither co ops or companies are immune from failure. The management rather than the structure is key. On the other hand, the farmers that sit on co op boards need to be highly skilled business operators at an international level.

MMM: What do you expect will be the opportunities and threats for dairy farmers who contract directly with the supermarkets?
Roma: The farmers who have a direct supply contract will earn more than the rest of Australia’s dairy farmers. Eventually, however, the increased costs are likely to match the added reward.

Consumers will buy the milk believing they are doing the “right thing” by dairy farmers but the reality is that direct supermarket contracts are rarely truly in the farmer’s favour. As with all things, the ones in early will initially get some benefits short-term but long-term it’s unlikely to be the case.

Such a small group of farmers has little chance of negotiating on an equal footing – brute strength is needed to deal with giants the size of Australia’s supermarkets.

MMM: What are the opportunities and threats for Australian dairy farming as a whole?
Roma: This opportunity for a favoured few poses enormous threats to Australian dairy. If the English experience is repeated here, the often unrealistic demands supermarkets impose on their contracted farmers will become the norm over time. They will say its customer driven. Its supermarket driven; to get the edge on their competitor and in turn the long-term costs to the industry are too large to keep the industry viable. Do we need more of this?

There are many other threats that take a long-term view of the situation to consider.
However the principle remains that dairy farmers are individual businesses who seem to struggle to work as a team. If we did, we would have the clout to position ourselves ready for the oncoming food boom. It has been a long time since the demand for food was greater than the supply. Dairy industries around the world are positioning themselves in readiness for this. Us …well I don’t think we are going to be in a position ready to pounce. Sad really to miss opportunity but a good strong group of focused farmers would be the way to achieve success.

My last comment to demonstrate my findings is cemented from my experience just this week whilst in New Zealand. The country has a minimal domestic market with a strong, well organised cooperative that exports a large amount of milk. So very like Australia in that respect. Yet they have the highest domestic milk price of any country in the world. Go figure!

Inconvenient dairy truths

/ dairymilkmaid / 3 Comments

I am not a spokesperson for the dairy community. I’m simply an average dairy farmer who likes to write.

The way my family cares for our cows is very typical of what happens on farms right across Australia. It’s important that more of us share what we do, why we do it and why that matters with non-farming Australians because there is much to be proud of.

It’s equally important that average dairy farmers like me are constantly challenged to do better and that we, in turn, challenge others involved in dairy to improve the way we care for our land and cows.

I am ashamed when dairy spokespeople try to defend the indefensible actions of the minority of farmers who cling onto practices that the rest of us wouldn’t entertain. It’s embarrassing that I have done so little to try to influence them to represent (and lead) all of us.

Someone who has gone beyond the call in her role as Dairy Australia’s animal welfare manager is Bridget Peachey, who was never afraid to tell the good stories and work with farmers to lift our standards. Bridget leaves DA this week and I will miss her leadership, knowledge and sense of what really matters to farmers and the animals in our care.

The brains behind “The truth about the supermarket war”

/ dairymilkmaid / 10 Comments

Vet student, Cassandra MacDonald, launched her single-handed David vs Goliath battle against supermarket giant Coles yesterday and, already, her clever YouTube video “The TRUTH about the supermarket war” looks like going viral.

So, who is this talented young woman? Milk Maid Marian asked Cassandra a few questions to find out more.

MMM: Tell us about yourself – do you have a dairying connection?

I am a fifth year veterinary science student studying at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga. I am not from a farm, I was brought up in the suburban South Coast of NSW for the first ten years of my life. My connection to the dairy industry started through showing dairy cattle at high school. Through the opportunities I have been given and the people I have met/connections I have made through this initial start in the dairy industry, I have been able to get where I am today, studying veterinary science, showing and breeding dairy cattle, milking on dairies, scholarships I have won, trips overseas that I have won. All because someone saw my interest as an eleven year old, who had fell in love with dairy cattle. I feel I owe it to the industry to promote it and share with others how great the industry is.

MMM: What made you decide to create your infographic?

I saw the Coles video, after seeing an article about it on FarmOnline and felt angry about the misrepresentations that presented in their video. I couldn’t believe or understand the way they tried to represent the different points just to spin them to their advantage and fool consumers into believing them. And believe they will! I wanted to reply and vent my anger. So I thought almost immediately- hey I can draw, why not use that talent and copy them and throw it straight back in their faces? Especially when they have obviously spent a lot of money and effort on it, and me being an absolute amateur, I wanted to make fun of their efforts and make it seem trivial in a way I guess.

MMM: How did you do it? How long have you been working on it?

I started by doing drawings and then realised I needed a plan, a path to follow so I scrapped that idea and started again by writing what I thought I would narrate over the top of the video. I wanted it to address the same issues as brought up in the Coles video but represent them properly and wholly. I wrote it off the cuff, after having written a letter to The Land for their editorial (after finding out it was way too long for what they wanted) which was researched using ABARE data and data and information from Dairy Australia as well as a few of my farmer contacts who are extremely experienced in the matter – I am always either text messaging or conversing with them either over the phone or in person about these issues.

I then went through the text I had written and wrote down a list of what I could draw to represent the points I was trying to make. It took me a couple of hours over two afternoons to make the drawings- of which I filmed on the floor with my iPad- and everything you see in the video is the first and only draft- there were no mistakes, no reshooting, or several tried at any of the pictures- they’re all the ones I drew off the cuff as I consulted my list I made. I think I made about 52 clips altogether.

I then had to work out how to record my voice (easy once I found the voice recorder on my computer), and then, compile and edit the clips to make the video. This is where I ran into a dead end. I didn’t think it was going to make it passed this. I had several ‘movie maker’ programs on my computer, didn’t know how to use any of them, and none of them did what I wanted them to do.

Two nights ago I finally found a program on the internet, downloaded it and spent the next 16 hours working on getting the clips to match the audio – which was not easy – especially when my ancient computer couldn’t deal with the needs of the program and wouldn’t let me preview anything before committing to making it a movie. And each time you commit, it took about one hour for it to process it, so after ‘making’ the movie 7 times, it was finally close enough to what I wanted and I was ready to post it! I even went as far as to looking up what the best time to post on Facebook was, and luckily my research told me the time I had planned.

MMM: How do you hope Coles, shoppers and dairy farmers will respond?

I hope it makes Coles realise that there are people out there ready to fight back against their sneaky spin. They will have to think harder to try and justify their moves, because if they lie or warp the truth again, I will be more than happy to come back at them again. Also, as I say in the video, I want them to stop denying that they are not having an effect on the price some farmers are getting for their milk, and on the industry as a whole. Because even if they are not having a direct effect, their effect is certainly indirect with the decreased sale in branded products and thus decrease in income and profits of the processing companies who ultimately need to pay the farmer.

I hope consumers will stop and think about what exactly is happening. I hope they think about the choices they make, and how it affects others. Ultimately it would be great to see more people boycotting generic brand milks and buying branded milk products, I think this is the only way we can combat the issue, as Coles is not going to budge anytime soon (unless they get done in the current investigation by the ACCC). I also want them to think about the information they are being fed, especially by such big powerful companies – not to believe everything they are fed!

For dairy farmers, I would like to see them agree with me as I hope I have done the right thing and represented them in a way that is honest and accurate. I want their approval basically. After their approval I would love them to all share the video around to everyone they know – why because it will get to more and more people, and most of them won’t be form a dairy background. And most of them do buy milk, and most likely buy it from a supermarket. Then we are educating our consumers for our ultimate benefit, for their support and hope that they will make conscious decisions at the supermarket and not just go for the cheapest alternative.

MMM: What has been the response so far?

So far the response has been somewhat unbelievable. It is what I wanted though. I want this to reach as many people as it can. One of my biggest passions is educating people about agriculture, especially about the dairy industry. At present I have had over 50 of my friends share the video on Facebook with who knows how many friends (and who knows how that keeps going), I have had numerous people share it on other pages on Facebook, and before I knew it, it had hit Twitter – I wasn’t even a part of Twitter (but I am now!). On YouTube itself, I have had 2788 views in not even 24 hours. The support has been fantastic as I was somewhat nervous, but the commendations have been all positive and really amazing!

Love at the circus

/ dairymilkmaid / 6 Comments

Two miniature horses, two sleek chocolate goats, two barrel-shaped red cows and two donkeys were the stars of the circus yesterday. The team of eight struck impossibly cute and clever poses in an incredibly endearing performance.

It all felt very familiar. Circus acts have barely changed since I was six years old, except (and it’s a BIG except) that the animals are far less exotic than the stunning Siberian tigers I remember. The resourceful circus folk have adapted artfully to changing community expectations, shifting the role of performance animals from that of mesmerising danger to beguiling charm.

Of course, some animal activists believe there is no place for animals in a circus at all. I don’t really understand why not. The faces of the two trainers were as much a delight as those of the animals. They coaxed, were proud of their little charges and, when something went wrong, swapped understanding tiny smiles rather than tight-lipped grimaces. In other words, they loved.

Those four-legged circus performers are clearly among the globe’s most treasured creatures – hardly exploited and overworked.

“Exploitation” is a charge often directed at the human carers of working animals, including farmers. But is it a bad thing? Yes, we do exploit the cow’s amazing ability to nourish us, just as the heightened senses of search and rescue dogs are exploited to rescue victims. Working together, humans and animals can achieve so much more than alone. The fundamental question is this: what do the animals rightfully deserve in return for their help?