About A2 milk

/ dairymilkmaid / 9 Comments

Thank you to Fussy Eater’s Mum for asking about A2 milk, which has been expertly marketed in Australia as the solution to everything from autism through to digestive discomfort.

First, what is a2 milk? A trademark owned by A2 Dairy Products Australia, a2 milk is a brand of milk sourced from cows that only produce one particular type of protein. As the company explains on its website:

“Most dairy milk today contains 2 main types of beta-casein protein, A2 and A1, while originally all dairy cows produced milk containing only the A2 type of beta-casein protein. a2 Milk™ comes from cows specially selected to produce A2 beta-casein protein rather than A1. Because a2 Milk™ is rich in A2 beta-casein protein, it may assist with your digestive wellbeing.”

Regular milk is about 60 per cent A2 beta-casein protein and 40 per cent A1 beta-casein protein.

Dairy Australia, Food Standards Australia New Zealand, and the European Food Safety Authority reject the claims that milk containing A1 beta-casein protein poses any cause for concern.

Unfortunately, there is also a perception that milk containing only A2 proteins can be tolerated by those with cows milk allergies. Not so, according to a study by AllergySA reported in the Medical Journal of Australia. To be fair, even A2 Dairy Products Australia warns on its site that: “If you have been diagnosed with lactose intolerance by your doctor, a2 Milk™ will not resolve any digestion problems.”

It seems milk containing only A2 beta-casein protein is no silver bullet for those missing out on a refreshing glass of milk due to allergy. If you do suspect an intolerance or allergic reaction to dairy products,  I really recommend taking a look at the very informative fact sheets on cows milk allergy by the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA) and Dairy Australia.

Milk free from growth hormones

/ dairymilkmaid / 5 Comments

The internet is awash with scary stories about growth hormones in milk. They are said to cause cancer and even breast development in babies fed a milk-based formula. Cows injected with growth hormones are also said to have much shorter lifespans than the 12-plus years ours enjoy.

I’m happy to say I can’t offer you any insight into this bitterly debated issue. Although bovine growth hormone (BGH)  is commonly used in the US, it and BST or bovine somatotropin are outlawed here in Australia.

Every litre of Aussie milk is guaranteed to be free from growth hormones!

Farming and the carbon tax

/ dairymilkmaid / 3 Comments
Cow wearing a monitor to detect methane gas production

Cow wearing a monitor to detect methane gas production - pic by DPI Victoria

Donald Rumsfeld could have been talking about the impact of the carbon tax on farming and agriculture when he infamously said:

“Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”

The politics of carbon are still in full swing and it’s too early to say for sure how we will be affected but there are some things we do know:

1. Agriculture is the second biggest source of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions – just ahead of transport

2. Much of current best-practice farming minimises emissions

In a recent study (see link at point 2 above), Department of Primary Industry researchers say:

“We calculate, therefore, that in 1980 an Australian dairy cow emitted approximately 33 gm of methane for each litre of milk produced. But, in 2010, because of better feeding practices, genetic improvements, higher per cow milk production, and efficiency improvements adopted by the Australian dairy industry, this number has fallen to approximately 24 gm of methane per litre of milk produced.”

Great news! We are doing well, you say? The only problem is that until science provides us with some more tools, we cannot achieve a lot more. As the researchers go on to say:

“As a greenhouse gas, methane is about 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide and methane emissions from cows constitute about 65 per cent of the total dairy farm greenhouse gas emissions.”

Meanwhile, as Neil Lane of the Carbon Ready Dairy Demonstration Project notes:

“Highly digestible feed and cereal supplements, along with products like Rumensin, are the best way to minimise emissions at the moment. Many dairy farmers are already doing this.”

This may be why agriculture has been excluded from the carbon tax, although our inputs, like fertiliser and fuel will not be exempt. On the other hand, the much-touted Carbon Farming Inititiative seems equally as impotent to this dairy farmer.

Reforestation and revegetation isn’t really an option because each planting needs to be at least 2ha and 10 metres wide. Soil sequestration sounds wonderful but the fact is that the rich fertile soils of dairy farms are generally already high in carbon content. The other options of reduced fertiliser emissions and effluent management are already being practised on our farm and, as I understand it, would therefore be ineligible under the CFI.

Will be interesting to see how it all pans out and I would love to hear from anyone who sees lots of emerging opportunities for dairy farmers to actively participate in the carbon economy.

The whingeing farmer

/ dairymilkmaid / 2 Comments

Farmers are infamous for never being happy with the weather. For years, we’ve been battling awful conditions – unreliable or non-existent autumn breaks, short springs and searing summers. The one blessing has been warmer and therefore more productive than normal winters.

This year, though, has been one out of the box. The landscape remained a verdant green right through summer and, with a precious bank of water in the soil, I took the opportunity to convert plenty of pastures from annual to perennials and when the “whole hog”, fully cultivating beautiful seed beds.

My gamble may still pay off but right now, the strategy has come back to bite me. The sun refuses to shine, the rain continues and that bank of soil moisture has been continually topped up to the point that very little of the new pasture is trafficable at a time when it desperately needs fertiliser and a trim. We may not be able to let the cows into some paddocks until spring.

So, as I type this post on a cold, wet, sunless day, I’m afraid I live up to the stereotype of the whinger. I have a good excuse but no good reason –  exposed to commodity price cycles, currency fluctuations, all the normal business hazards and mother nature herself, farming is innately a risky business but still we choose it as a way of life. After all, an affinity with mother nature is what binds us to it.

A new baby and being a farmer

/ dairymilkmaid / 1 Comment
Zoe and baby Alex

Zoe and baby Alex

Alex has arrived and now I can’t wait to get out and show him the world with a suddenly very grown up Zoe as our guide. With my csection wound still very fresh and little man still so, so… though, an adventure bumping around the farm tracks today seems a little premature.

My “confinement” to a less physical but no less demanding existence for now has retuned my connection to the farm. Paddocks wrap themselves around the house and I can almost feel it breathing. Although I only spent four days away, the oats have galloped off and the new pasture in the house paddock is clearly thicker.

It doesn’t take long to fall out of touch with such a dynamic place and what this experience reinforces for me is that no one person can be the total master of all the systems on a dairy farm. And, if you’re a woman with a very young family, it’s an even more tricky balancing act. So, I guess it should come as no surprise that so many “women in agriculture” events focus on the support role a woman plays to a farmer husband. Another topic, another time!

Could I eat Laura?

/ dairymilkmaid / 1 Comment
Laura at 5 weeks

Laura at 5 weeks (left) with a friend

A while ago, I told you the story of Laura, a surviving twin heifer. Here she is today, about five weeks old, after her breakfast. When I came in for my own breakfast a little while later, I found this story about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s mission to eat only what he kills. I can see the merit in his argument but could never follow his lead.

I’m certainly not one of those people who can rear a steer called “Chops” and happily call the mobile butcher. Nor am I alone in being one of those people who likes to eat meat but doesn’t want to think about where it comes from. Maybe that makes me a hypocrite, yet it shows the strength of our bond with the animals around us and, as their custodians, that’s surely anything but shameful.

Why don’t we sell our milk direct to consumers?

/ dairymilkmaid / 3 Comments

I’d love to sell our milk direct at farmer’s markets and I’ve even done the sums.

I can’t see how it’s feasible for us right now. In Australia, milk must be pasteurised before it can be sold for others to drink. Just buy a pasteuriser then, you say? Well, it’s not even that simple. We’d need to build a clean room and invest in new tanks, pumps, packaging machinery, refrigeration equipment and transport. And then, we’d have to show we’d meet Australia’s very stringent food quality standards – lots of protocols and documentation that would take thousands of dollars to establish. It all adds up to a six-figure investment.

That’s the bad news but the good news is that Australian milk is incredibly safe.

Why do farmers accept low milk prices?

/ dairymilkmaid / 6 Comments

During the recent publicity surrounding the milk price wars, I noticed a lot of comments following newspaper stories asking why dairy farmers continued to supply milk if it wasn’t financially rewarding. Simple question, complex answer.

Then yesterday, I went to a dairy farmer forum where respected farm consultant John Mulvany said, “A milk price of $5.00 to $5.50 per kilogram of milk solids is required for the foundation business of the industry (owner-operator farms) to receive an adequate return on the assets plus capital growth. This assumes ‘best practice’ management in the top 25 per cent.”

Also, that: “A large corporate investor will require a milk price of $5.50 to $6.00 per kilogram of milk solids to generate a return to shareholders in addition to growth.”

Then he presented a table that showed milk prices had only reached $5.00 per kilogram of milk solids twice since 1994/95.

If we accept John’s numbers, they raise two really important questions: why do dairy farmers keep going and why should family-run farms accept lower profits than corporate investors would? John’s always said that dairy farmers are optimistic by nature and I guess that’s part of the answer. But, if you can make a better return on the share market without working seven days per week, why wouldn’t you?

Every farmer will have a different answer to this question but I think it’s because we’re pretty much locked in, whether that’s emotionally or financially or a bit of both.

The financial ties that bind us are debt and the cost of exiting (and re-entering) milk production. Unlike broadacre farmers, we cannot readily shift our production focus in line with commodity price movements. We have a herd of cows that cannot be replaced overnight or “redeployed” and costly infrastructure that must be used to service debt. Nor can we readily wind back production. Cows must be well fed, no matter what, and that costs a lot of money. So when milk prices fall below profitable levels, we don’t withdraw supply immediately – instead, we draw on the buffer that equity in our land provides. Sadly, that’s just not good enough for many farmers and we are seeing a slow but constant attrition in farm and cow numbers as the decades roll on.

The emotional ties are harder to explain. After my father died, my accountant’s advice was to sell and invest the money elsewhere. “You’ve got other skills. Why work so hard when you could buy a nice little property out of town and be comfortable?” he reasoned. Sound advice but I wanted desperately to farm because, as corny as it sounds, I love the land, the animals, the life skills it will teach my children and the wind in my face. Something no corporate investor would value.