A purple blister on the weather map is coming to get us

June 12, 2013June 12, 2013 / dairymilkmaid / 13 Comments

Holy cow

It’s not a good sign when the local weather forecaster gets a spot on ABC Radio’s National news. Our forecast is so shocking that, yes, it made headlines today.

A massive chunk of Victoria is about to go underwater and, with it, a massive chunk of our farm. We’ve had an inch of rain in the last two hours and the prediction is for between 51 and 102mm tomorrow, followed by another 20 or 30mm over another couple of days.

I’m thankful for the undulations at the southern end of the farm. The cows will at least be safe.

I’m also thankful for the Bureau of Meteorology’s timely warnings. It gave us time to:

Set up safer paddocks for the cows
Ask Scott, the grain merchant, to deliver more feed before we get flooded in
Remove the power units from the electric fences on the river flats
Bring all the eight new calves born during the last 48 hours into the warmth of the poddy shed
Stock up at the supermarket
Pile the verandah high with dry kindling and wood to keep the kids warm

As the flood sets in, we’ll be:

Offering extra TLC for newborns and freshly-calved cows
Feeding out more of our precious and rapidly dwindling stock of hay while hitting the phones looking for more ridiculously scarce fodder
Keeping an even keener eye out for mastitis
Walking the cows extra gently to the dairy to reduce the risk of lameness
Hoping like hell that the damage to the fences and tracks isn’t too bad
Monitoring the condition of paddocks to minimise pugging (mud, mud, mud)
Stocking the dairy snack bar with a bottomless supply of soup and raisin bread

It’s often said that good farmers only worry about what they can control. I’ll do my best!

Never say die

June 10, 2013June 11, 2013 / dairymilkmaid / 10 Comments

When analysts talk about softening milk supply, there’s a whole other layer that’s anything but soft. It’s uncomfortable chats in the dairy about next week’s roster, sleepless nights worrying about where the next load of hay is going to come from, and long, long hours.

He spends more time in the tractor, she spends more time off-farm to pay the bills. The office is a mess, the kids watch a little more TV than usual and the mummy guilt rises with it. They all get snappy.

He comes in from the chilly night air long after the children have gone to bed. She’s in the office doing the books. Farms are not selling. There is no light at the end of the tunnel and there’s no way out, either.

Then one afternoon, the farm consultant brings a welcome dose of encouragement: the place is in great shape, poised to take advantage of any recovery, and the gossip around the traps is that an upbeat announcement from the co-op is imminent.

That night, as she takes her little boy out to check on the maternity paddock, the farmer is drawn by a ruckus at the dam. A moorhen hangs about a metre above the water, caught by one leg in a twist of wire and flapping its glossy blue-black wings desperately even though there’s clearly no hope of escape.

The farmer cannot stand and watch any more than she can walk away. With toddler on her shoulders and Blundstones squelching through the shallows, she wades towards the struggling bird. There is blood on the wire but with a deft spinning wrench, the fence springs back to shape, releasing the bird which, to the farmer’s astonishment, paddles away seemingly unhurt.

In the morning, the most anticipated email of the year arrives. To the farmer’s astonishment, the milk price will open 24 per cent higher than last year and the co-op has a little rescue package in the shape of a pre-payment for those prepared to pledge their loyalty. She reads the email twice more, just to be sure.

Never say die.

A milk maid’s Mother’s Day

May 12, 2013April 13, 2014 / dairymilkmaid / 2 Comments

Zoe is sound asleep still gripping a book propped upright on her chest with the rollicking Fantastic Mr Fox in full swing on her CD player. Alex is prostrate with both arms up around his ears.

Today was tough for my little people. Alex got himself soaked and in trouble with Mama for tossing stones into a trough while Zoe learnt the hard way not to swing on a gal gate beside a hot wire.

We were desperate to get a whole list of farm jobs done before the rain came and it was action stations all day. Now, as the first shower of a forecast two or three inch deluge tip-toes across the farm house’s iron roof, it seems all very satisfactory.

Zoe, Alex and I fed two batches of cows, treated a sick calf, repaired two fences and a gate (what is it with the bulls?), brought in a load of wood, planted a tree, sorted 24 cows from a mob of 60, shifted the teenagers and got out two new mums with their calves.

A real team effort

And, in amongst all that, I was treated to the most marvellous Mother’s Day. Wayne cooked a Moroccan chicken lunch and I was presented with all sorts of very meaningful mementos. I am very, very lucky indeed.

The question engage or educate and why it matters?

April 27, 2013 / dairymilkmaid / Leave a comment

What an interesting post from Lynne Strong, founder of the Archibull Prize for schools.

We are Champions for Change

If we want our children to know where their food comes from; if we want them to be motivated to care about the lives and livelihoods of farmers; if we want them to take seriously the environmental impacts of their food choices; and if we want them to know more about how their health is affected by the way food is made, perhaps we need to rethink the place of food production
This knowledge has been lost since we all became so reliant on the industrial agriculture system; we should talk to the experts – the farmers – so we can get it back. We don’t just need more urban agricultural initiatives, including food-producing back, front and median-strip gardens, school kitchen gardens, community gardens and city farms. We also need a transfer of knowledge from rural farmers. We need Australia’s farmers to be intimately involved in the development of innovative…

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Has the MG co-op fed Aussie dairy farmers to the wolves?

April 19, 2013 / dairymilkmaid / 9 Comments

If $1 milk is unsustainable, how is the Coles deal locking in pricing with Murray Goulburn a good thing? Good question. Has MG made a giant mistake? Will it mean a mass exodus by NSW dairy farmers and will the big co-op do its socks on the deal, taking the hopes of dairy farmers down, down, down with it? Blair Speedy of The Australian certainly seems to think so.

I decided to ask some rather blunt questions of two men in the know: independent dairy analyst, Jon Hauser of Xcheque and Murray Goulburn big-wig and general manager shareholder relations, Robert Poole.

1. How can MG make a profit supplying fresh milk to Coles if Lion could not?
Robert Poole refused to comment on Lion’s circumstances but said the co-op’s new factories would be “purpose-built, state of the art and the most efficient milk processing plants in Australia”.

“We will make a good return supplying Coles and will have the capacity to supply other customers in time, too, making even higher returns.”

Jon Hauser goes further. “I can see how 10 cents per litre in costs can readily be taken out of the chain,” he says. “There is a view in the dairy community that milk should be sold for more than a dollar per litre when it’s being sold cheaper than that right now in the USA and the United Kingdom. The local processors have been retaining much more of the milk dollar than international processors.”

2. What risk is there to the $120 million of farmers’ funds that will be spent on the new factories?
Poole says quite flatly that the cost of the factories is well and truly covered by the 10-year Coles contract: “We have total security. There will be no cross-subsidisation of this investment – it will be fully funded by the agreement with Coles.”.

3. Why hasn’t MG sold fresh milk into supermarkets before?
“Historically, we would have had to submit a tender for milk supply. And what, build factories in the hope that we won?,” says Poole. “This was a golden opportunity. Nobody gets a 10-year contract like this but Coles came to Murray Goulburn because it wanted to work with farmers.”

4. How does it work for MG?
According to Poole: “Under the supply agreement, the price to Coles is based on a farm-gate price and the cost of processing plus a comfortable profit margin. There’s a rise and fall clause that means the price reflects the changing value of the milk on international markets.”

Hauser explains that the New Zealand and Australian dairy industries are “price takers”, unlike the Europeans and Americans, who have greater control over pricing.

“Australia can’t control the export price but, reading between the lines, Murray Goulburn is using the Coles deal to increase its control over the price it gets for its milk and will position itself for a much greater role in the 2 billion-litre fresh milk market. Because MG will slash the cost of delivering fresh milk to supermarkets, I predict the co-op will be selling supermarkets a billion litres of fresh milk a year by 2023.”

“Aside from milk, the deal also allows MG to range its cheese, butter and spreads in Coles, which makes it even more attractive.”

5. Has the Coles and Murray Goulburn deal devalued milk?
Poole was ever the diplomat on this one, saying the retail price of milk was “up to the supermarkets”. Hauser is a tad more direct. “For people to say milk will be devalued is absolute rubbish,” he says. “This is a great deal for MG’s farmer members. Is it MG’s responsibility to stay out of the market and let nonsense economics run the show?”

6. How will this affect NSW dairy farmers?
Hauser says many NSW dairy farmers will need to reassess their businesses. Milk price in both NSW and Victoria will be based on a mixture of domestic and export value with the export market being a major driver of that value.

The man himself, Robert Poole, says the NSW price will reflect “supply and demand, international prices and a premium that takes into account the added costs associated with supplying exact volumes of milk every month of the year”.

Will it shake up the NSW dairy sector, with its large number of very small farms? Undoubtedly, says Hauser. “NSW’s dairy farmers sold themselves into trouble when they handed over the responsibility for, and the value of, their products to private processors, who have no interest in their viability. Ironically, it is a Victorian farmer cooperative that is now reclaiming control in NSW.”

7. Why should Australians buy Devondale fresh milk rather than Coles homebrand milk?
“That you’ll have to wait and see,” teases Poole. “Seriously, it’s up to us to place Devondale in the market carefully, with the right price, packaging and provenance and other benefits that will appeal to shoppers.”

Changing down to go up a notch

April 18, 2013 / dairymilkmaid / 4 Comments

It seemed Mother Nature had played a classic nasty trick on us: the false break.

Each autumn, we take a punt on when the first downpour that heralds regular rains has arrived. Too early and some seed just won’t germinate costing us thousands in fresh seed and fertiliser, too late and we could miss out on autumn growth altogether, costing us thousands in replacement feed.

We get it right most of the time but when the early rains aren’t followed up with more, we end up with the worst of all worlds: seedlings shrivelling in the sun. That’s the way it was shaping up this season until we got 26mm of rain just the other day. Wow, what a relief and what a difference it makes.

The rains have come and the farmer and her cows are ecstatic!

Oddly enough, this means the cows will get less rather than more grass in the short term. This follow up rain was our signal to pile on the fertiliser across a huge slab of the farm to ensure the grass gets ahead before falling temperatures and longer nights slow growth once more. While the fertiliser does its job, we have to keep the cows away, limiting them to a smaller than normal area for grazing.

Just another couple of weeks to go, moos – until then, it’s a smorgasbord of grain, hay and silage.

It’s even confused the Chaser team at The Checkout

April 12, 2013 / dairymilkmaid / 6 Comments

Last night’s episode of The Checkout tackled the supermarket milk war in all its bewildering glory. They did a pretty good job but I reckon even the very clever Craig Reucassel got a little confused.

The problem with The Checkout’s closing argument is this: while processors don’t pay farmers more for each litre of branded milk they sell, they do pay farmers less when there is less money to go around (as Craig mentioned). So, when the processors sell less branded milk at lower margins because of the stiff competition from homebrand milk, they have to cut their costs.

Now, if you were a multinational processor, would it be easier to protect your profits by negotiating a better deal with the duopoly or simply tell dairy farmers that the price of milk had fallen? You guessed right, and they did, with disastrous consequences for farmers in NSW, Queensland and Western Australia in particular.

In other words, if you are among the one in four Aussies who buys branded milk, good on you! Until Murray Goulburn and Norco get their new efficient and 100% farmer-owned factories operating in Sydney and Brisbane, the $1 supermarket milk war will continue to hurt farmers in those states. Sadly, there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel for farmers in WA and the milk supply there is so small now that it’s being trucked across the Nullabor to keep Perth going. There is a real possibility that UHT will become the new norm there, as it is in many parts of Europe.

The second area of confusion for The Checkout comes in its update about the MG deal with Coles. Here’s an extract:

“Coles is currently run by a coterie of former Tesco employees so it is perhaps unsurprising that this latest step mimics the approach in the UK. British supermarkets have moved to contract with farmers and cut the margin the processors make. This has led to higher farm gate prices for the farmers contracting with Tesco – but also more expensive requirements for them. Similarly, a lot of additional costs are expected for Australian farmers collectives, with Murray Goulburn spending $120 million on milk processing plants.”

The additional costs that come with Tesco deals are not in processing plants. It’s in on-farm compliance costs as Tesco dictates some aspects of how the small number of contracted farms are run.

In our case, the Coles deal is with the farmer-owned processor, Murray Goulburn, and nobody is talking about Coles making demands about the colour I paint my dairy door or how I raise my calves. Why is it different? A handful of (relatively powerless) farmers supply Tesco direct (and Woolies under its new Farmers Own scheme) whereas Coles is picking on someone closer to its own size in Murray Goulburn, which boasts annual revenues of $2.29 billion.

Co-operatives have never looked so vital to the survival of Australian farmers and the ability of Australians to take fresh food for granted.

Coles has forged this deal with MG because, contrary to Craig’s opinion, Australians aren’t stupid. They know $1 milk is not sustainable and they’ve started voting with their wallets: yes, the share of homebrand milk is falling.

This is a huge win for the little people of Australia – dairy farmers and milk drinkers alike. We truly are what we eat.

Am I in a dairy crisis?

April 5, 2013April 5, 2013 / 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.

My paddock handbag

March 31, 2013March 31, 2013 / dairymilkmaid / 7 Comments

Look into a woman’s handbag and you see deep into her soul. Tucked into its folds, you’ll find clues about what makes her feel secure, competent and even sexy. Oh, and boring stuff like grocery lists.

That’s how I like to think of my paddock handbag. Escaped heifers, broken fence, tired kids on board? No problem – with my paddock handbag, I’m Superwoman. Compartment A (the glovebox) is kitted out with wipes, toys, snacks and drinks. Compartment B has just about every tool to deal with almost every agrarian contingency.

Ready for surgery

A good girl scout is always prepared…

And if all else fails, the big guns

I guard my paddock handbag with my life. Yes, the fellas are allowed to borrow select items from time to time but must promise to return said item on pain of death. Call me a drama queen with control issues? Maybe so, but I dare you to return toddler on the verge of a meltdown to within cooee of home “just to grab another set of pliers” and then whisk him away again. It had better be an exciting agrarian emergency with helicopters (aka “copot”), trains and whooshing irrigators aplenty or we’ve already lost the battle.

On second thoughts, maybe I’ll get a padlock fitted to that paddock handbag.

What would Dad think of the farm?

March 30, 2013May 7, 2013 / 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.