dairy news australia feb 2014

January heatwave claims 100 cows PAGE 7

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MILK MONEYWCB sells for $530 million as Bega, MG cash in

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NEWS // 3

WORLD DAIRY markets continue to edge higher, even in the face of an increased offering from New Zea-land.

The first GlobalDairyTrade auc-tion of the month closed with the index across all commodities up 0.5% with butter and whole milk powder leading the charge, up 2.6% and 1.4%, at US$4775t and US$5005t respectively.

Skim milk powder was unchanged, while all other commodities eased, cheddar falling hardest, down 4.3% to US$4935t.

Rabobank’s Hayley Moynihan said the sale was “quite a strong result” overall, particularly given major exporter Fonterra’s pre-sale 3.7% increase in forecast sales volume for the coming year.

“Whole milk powder was up for April and May which is an indica-tion there are a number of buyers who are still keen to secure New Zea-land product for that period. It’s an encouraging result to see prices up that far out.”

Butter’s bounce was another pos-itive, “rebalancing” the price spread with other commodities as it has lagged in recent months.

Ms Moynihan said China’s demand continues to dominate but prices are underpinned by a host of other countries trying to secure sup-plies.

“Our view is China imported

so much in 2013 that a lot of other buyers effectively were going hungry because they’ve not been able to secure product,” Ms Moynihan said.

“They’re looking to come back into the market, particularly if there’s a sign of China’s buying starting to ease.”

While Fonterra has increased the amount it expects to offer on GDT for the coming year, volume at last week’s sale was back 7.6% on the same time last year.

New Zealand production is still 5% ahead of last season and every

other exporter in the world, with the exception of Australia, is ramp-ing up production in response to the high prices.

However, a lot of the increased production from the EU and US isn’t reaching export markets, and in the case of the US, the increases in pro-duction aren’t as rapid as they could be.

“They aren’t seeing the high prices in the global market reflected in their domestic market. Certainly the margin over feed costs has improved but it has really only been

a modest increase so far.”Bad weather over winter and

a risk averse sentiment among producers who got burnt by responding to the 2008/9 spike in prices are other factors why US supply growth’s only been modest to date, she added.

Sentiment among EU producers on the other hand, notably the Dutch and Irish, is more optimistic as they prepare for the production brake of quotas to be lifted next year.

“They’re going to be the ones to watch over the course of the year.”

John Gardiner has purchased a new forage wagon due to its versatility. PG.31

Alex and Robert Robertson have expanded their extensive drainage system to improve pasture growth. PG.29

Nuffield Scholar Tafi Manjala has investigated the red tape that will stifle Ireland’s post-milk quota growth. PG.12

NEWS ��3-13

AGRIBUSINESS �� 14-15

OPINION ��16-18

BREEDING MANAGEMENT ��18-19

MANAGEMENT �� 20-23

ANIMAL HEALTH ��24-27

IRRIGATION ��28-30

MACHINERY &

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Prices climb despitehigher milk forecastANDREW SWALLOW

NSW farmer Justin Walsh, of Berry, made the long trip down to International Dairy Week with his team of cows.IDW reports, page 8

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4 // NEWS

TAF ‘stumbles’ at first hurdle?

THE FONTERRA board’s deci-sion to interfere with the milk payout shows TAF has stumbled at its first hurdle, says agribusi-ness expert Keith Woodford, Lin-coln University.

The board’s decision to keep the farmgate payout at $8.30/kgMS despite a $9 recommendation by the co-op’s milk price panel strikes at the fundamentals of its capital structure, he says.

“In stating that they are now proposing to retain 70c from what the projected milk price would otherwise be, if calculated as per the milk price manual, Fonterra is demonstrating that TAF has stum-bled at the first major hurdle,” Mr Woodford said.

“What this decision means is that retentions are in effect going to come from the milk price, despite earlier statements from Fonterra that this would not occur. Even more important is this means that the rules for allocating income between milk price and return to investors have been cast aside.”

Mr Woodford questioned the milk pricing rules underpinning

the integrity of TAF.We are now seeing the board –

rather than a set of rules – deter-mine how money will be allocated between farmers and investors, he notes. “And that opens the door to ongoing tension between farmers and investors, including intensive lobbying of the board by investors.”

However, a Fonterra spokes-man says the suggestion that the board’s decision to maintain the forecast milk price at the record level of $8.30 has something to do with TAF is incorrect. Stream returns have nothing to do with TAF, he says.

“It is important to understand that retentions are a vital part of Fonterra’s ability to invest in future growth, stay on strategy and ensure the cooperative maintains its global position.

“Fonterra’s [transparency] about its decision to maintain the forecast at $8.30 demonstrates the integrity of the process for setting the milk price.”

He points out that about 95% of those who have a financial interest in the cooperative are in fact farmer shareholders. Obviously they benefit from the payment of dividends, he says.

“Twelve months on, TAF is meeting its two goals of providing permanent stable capital for the cooperative and more flexibility for our farmers.

“The drought in the second half of the year was the worst in 70 years. It hit the cooperative and our farmers hard. But it would have been a lot tougher without our cur-rent capital structure.

“Potentially the cooperative would have been facing the pros-pects of paying out about $130 million to redeem shares. Instead, our permanent stable capital struc-ture meant we could support farm-ers with a lift in the advance rate. Our new capital structure has also enabled us to drive transactions to support our volume and value strategy.”

While keeping the forecast payout at $8.30/kgMS the board also lowered the dividend forecast for the 2014 financial year to 10c/share.

The co-op says it is in an “extraordinary” situation, with the gap between prices for milk powders compared to cheese and casein being greater than ever.

Mr Woodford did not crit-icise the board’s decision to

take 70c off the milk price. Clearly something had to be done to main-tain the integrity of the balance sheet in an extraordinary situa-tion, he says.

“However, as long as Fonterra cannot pay out the full milk price as calculated by the agreed for-mula then there should be zero div-idend,” he said.

“The decision to keep it at 10c rather than zero can only be inter-preted as an attempt to appease the investors, who will already be more than a little bit cross.

“My key point is that the neces-sary decision to lop 70c of the pro-jected milk price shows that TAF was not adequately tested under wide-ranging scenarios. And it has now come up short. The long term implications of this are profound.”

MURRAY GOULBURN will pursue its plan to raise external capital through a trade scheme despite its failure to pur-chase Warrnambool Cheese and Butter.

MG managing director, Gary Helou, told the AGM last November that the capital raising proposal was similar to Fonterra’s Trading Among Farmers plan where the New Zealand cooper-ative raised NZ$500 million through issuing of non-voting shares.

He told the meeting that MG needed to raise “many hundreds of millions of dollars” to fund infrastructure

upgrades.Although MG established debt facil-

ities to enable it to pay $500 million for WCB, it has chosen not to fund its upgrades this way, and will pursue the trade scheme.

Mr Helou told ABC radio on Janu-ary 23 that the two paths (purchasing WCB and the proposed trade scheme) were “completely independent” and that there was no change in their plans.

MG board members and Mr Helou have met with supplier-shareholders through December and January.

“The consultative meetings held throughout December and January were well attended by shareholders and over the coming weeks we intend to refine the capital restructure pro-posal to take account of the feedback from these meetings,” an MG spokes-person said.

“The board has not placed a defini-tive timeline on when this review and refinement process must be complete, as we believe it is important to ensure that any proposal meets MG’s needs for the long term.

“However, as indicated to our share-holders at the AGM, we will look to March to provide a further update in relation to the progress of the capital restructure proposal and subsequent timelines.”

At the AGM, Mr Helou said MG planned to hold further supplier meet-ings in March and an Extraordinary General Meeting in May. Subject to shareholder approval, MG planned to implement the proposed structure by a target date of July 1.

These changes would coincide with

an offer to external investors to acquire units in a listed unit trust that would pay a dividend equivalent to dividends paid to supplier-shareholders.

The unit trust would be expected to be listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) by July 1.

Mr Helou stressed the cooperative structure would be retained under the plan with farmers retaining 100% con-trol, and that the capital raising would not be used to purchase Warrnambool Cheese and Butter if the opportunity arose.

MG to pursue share scheme

GIPPSLAND-BASED INDEPENDENT dairy pro-cessor United Dairy Power (UDP) has been sold to a Hong Kong-based buyer for an estimated $70 million.

The company, owned by Tony Esposito, has been sold to William Hui, a Singaporean entrepreneur based in Hong Kong.

Mr Hui, 46, is chairman and a major shareholder of CD and DVD manufacturer Media Technology, which is listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange.

In a statement, the company said:“UDP’s strategy remains unchanged and it will con-

tinue to pay market-leading prices for milk.“The ongoing support of our suppliers is vital to our

business and they can take comfort from the fact that we will continue to support them and work with them collaboratively.

“There will be no change to the day-to-day dealings of suppliers with field reps or the UDP senior manage-ment team. The new owner is looking to support the business and maintain current management and the existing arrangements with suppliers.”

The company has about 150 suppliers, who supply 350 million litres of milk annually. It processes a fur-ther 150 million litres purchased from other companies and generates sales of about $200 million and profits of $15 million annually.

The plants produce about 15,000 tonnes of dairy products a year, including butter, whey powder and cheese. The business will continue to be managed by the current team, led by Mark Smith who will become chief executive.

Keith Woodford

Hong Kong buyer snaps up UDP

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NEWS // 5

SAPUTO’S PURCHASE price of Warrnambool Cheese and Butter has risen to an estimated $530 million fol-lowing Murray Goulburn’s decision to sell its 17.7% stake.

MG’s decision to sell – made after Saputo had purchased 50% of existing shares – pushed the Canadian compa-ny’s tally past 75%.

This triggered an automatic increase from $9.20 to $9.40 under the terms of its takeover offer. All investors selling their stake will receive these higher terms.

The share price will rise to $9.60 if Saputo can obtain 90% of all shares.

However, Lion owns a shareholding of 9.9%, which it took to protect its cheese supply agreements with WCB. It has said it has no interest in selling at this stage but reserves the right to do so.

The offer period will close on Wednesday, February 12.

Bega’s decision to sell its 18.8% stake in WCB on January 16 pushed Saputo’s stake up to 45.3%. From there, the writ-ing was on the wall.

Bega said it would receive between $94.7 and $101 million from the sale of its shares, booking a profit before tax and costs of between $61.8 and $68.2 million, after originally buying into

WCB in 2010.Murray Goulburn has said it will

receive cash proceeds of at least $92.9 million and gain on investment before tax and costs of about $51 million.

MG managing director, Gary Helou, said the profit was a good result.

“Cash proceeds will support the co-op’s plans to reinvest in its busi-ness and to grow market share in Aus-tralia and expanding internationally, further assisting us to deliver our goal of increasing the underlying farmgate returns,” he said.

Mr Helou would not be drawn on specific plans for the cash windfall.

Bega’s executive chairman Barry Irvin said his firm’s investment in WCB has been a win-win, even though Bega lost the takeover battle.

“Bega Cheese’s initial investment in WCB and subsequent takeover offer for the company has created significant value for both companies’ sharehold-ers,” he said in a statement.

The United Dairyfarmers of Victoria (UDV), which aggressively championed Murray Goulburn’s bid for WCB, said it looked forward to working with Saputo.

“While the UDV’s preferred posi-tion was for WCB to remain an Austra-lian owned company, we respect that

WCB shareholders have determined which was the better offer available,” UDV president Kerry Callow said.

“We understand that shareholders have had a difficult decision to make and we respect the decision they have made.

“Warrnambool Cheese and Butter, Australia’s oldest milk processing com-pany, has a long and proud history of providing value back to its dairy farm suppliers.

“UDV looks forward to continuing to work with the company in the best interests of the Victorian dairy indus-try,” Ms Callow said.

Bega, MG share sales push WCB price to $530 million

WARRNAMBOOL CHEESE and Butter suppliers have welcomed Sapu-to’s successful takeover with hope it will lead to better prices for farmers and more confidence in dairying.

Shareholders are also enjoying a financial windfall after Canadian dairy giant Saputo bought more than 75% of the WCB shares at $9.40 per share.

The takeover has been well received by most local suppliers.

Coragulac farmer Shane McCarthy sees it as a positive for suppliers.

“I went to the forum with Lino Saputo and was impressed with the way he spoke,” Mr McCar-thy said. “I hope it lives up to the promise.”

Mr McCarthy said he was happy with how WCB had been operating prior to the takeover, but was now hopeful of better milk prices and stronger compe-tition for suppliers.

“I think it gives us a more certain future and it should keep up competi-tion to attract farmers.”

The supplier of 11 years has sold his shares. “It’s a nice windfall, but not a huge amount,” he said.

Condah’s Kirsti Keightley predicted Saputo would bring an injection of money into manufacturing in the region.

“We need to get more young people in dairying and increase production.

Saputo has indicated it is willing to expand the plant which shows they have confidence in the future,” Mrs Keightley said.

“They wouldn’t invest if they didn’t have confidence and the only way they can be profitable is if suppliers are also profitable.

“I think it will be a good thing.”

Drumborg farmer Arthur Peters said Saputo’s plan to keep existing staff was good for the business. “In a way I would have liked it to stay Australian owned, but you have to have competition and like all farmers I hope this leads to better prices.

“I think it’s a good result.”A WCB supplier since 1990, Mr Peters

said the sale of his shares would be help-ful “but it depends on how much capital gains tax will be”.

Sungold Field Days chairman and a former long-time WCB shareholder, Tony Rea of Warrnambool, said Sapu-to’s success was good for local farmers and the district’s economy. “To have so

much Canadian money come into the district has got to be a good thing.”

Mr Rea said the local reaction was overwhelmingly positive, with many believing the influx of foreign capital will boost the industry and promote compe-tition that will benefit farmers.

“Everyone I’ve spoken to seems to think it will be good.”

Saputo, Bega Cheese and Murray Goulburn cooperative were involved in a prolonged three-way battle for WCB.

Warrnambool Mayor Cr Michael Neoh said the takeover action highlighted the important place of our dairy sector for the local economy.

“With the emergence of the middle class in China, demand will only increase. Our challenge will be to increase capac-ity to meet an ever growing demand for protein in Asia,” he said.

Cr Neoh recently led a business del-egation to China and it was clear the demand for protein was very strong.

He added that Warrnambool City supported the development of a planned approach to a food and fibre plan, and hoped all stakeholders including the large corporates would be involved. “We would hope that state government might support the funding of the plan given the significance of food and fibre to the state of Victoria.”

Suppliers welcome SaputoTony Rea

“Saputo wouldn’t invest if they didn’t have confidence and the only way they can be profitable is if suppliers are also profitable.”

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6 // NEWS

FONTERRA AUSTRA-LIA announced a step-up of 16 cents per kilogram of butterfat and 40c/kg of protein late last month for suppliers in Victoria and Tasmania.

It is the second time the company has raised prices by 16c for butterfat and 40c for protein this season.

The company said this brings its current aver-age farmgate price to $6.36 per kilogram of milk solids (kg/MS).

Fonterra Australia also raised its forecast average closing price range for the 2013/14 season to $6.60-$6.80 kg/MS.

Fonterra said it was able to raise prices as com-modity prices remain high – evidenced by the most recent GDT event – and the Australian dollar remains at current lower levels.

Fonterra Australia has also optimised its product mix to ensure its products command a premium from the market, it said.

Bonlac Supply Com-pany (BSC) chairman Tony Marwood said the step-up

sent “a strong signal to all our farmers that BSC and Fonterra are focused on what’s happening on-farm and are work-ing hard together to ensure farm profitabil-ity is the number one priority”.

In a statement, Fonterra said individual supplier’s milk prices will vary across Fonterra’s supply regions, depending on the individual farm’s milk profile, pricing options, regional production factors, milk quality, and farm management systems.

The move followed Murray Goulburn’s step-up of 18c/kg for butterfat and 38c/kg for protein - late last year.

The cooperative said this step-up takes the weighted-average available price to $6.25kg/MS for its suppliers. It also increased its end of season forecast to a range of $6.30-$6.50 kg/MS.

MG managing director,

Gary Helou, said global demand for dairy foods remains strong and as a result prices for key dairy ingredients, such as whole milk powder, have remained at near record levels for an unprecedented period.

“Other dairy foods, such as cheese and butter, have also strengthened throughout the year.

“This step-up is the third announced by MG this financial year and will deliver an additional $60 million to MG dairy farm-ers to support business cashflow.”

Fonterra lifts season price

WESTERN DISTRICT farmer John Hinkley would like more young farm-ers to understand that seasonal farm-ing is very profitable.

“If our processors understood that seasonal farming has a bigger role to play, we would be doing better, banks would be happier and our industry would grow,” the Elingamite farmer said.

“Bankers would give young people a start if they can see they have a system. Dairy farming under sea-sonal conditions is very predictable if you control the costs.

“When I grew up in the farming world, they consistently dried their cows off and were seasonal farmers. A lot of young farmers today don’t see that.”

“There is a different challenge when you dry the cows off…you set up the farm for the dry period and to grow more grass through the winter.”

Mr Hinkley is against manipulat-ing the cow to calve when it suits the

processors. “If out-of-season produc-tion is profitable, then why doesn’t the wheat farmer plant his wheat in November? The reason why is that one in 20 years it might work. Why do we think we are so different when we have harsh conditions over summer?”

He said south-west Victoria in the 1990s was the most cost-effective

milk producing area in the world. “We’re still the same area but have about the third highest costs in the world. That’s because processors have consistently said we have to have a flat supply curve and that can’t work.

“We have to start paying for spring milk – if you pay for your peak the industry will grow.”

Tony Marwood

Pay for spring milk to grow the industry

NSW SHAREFARMER Cameron Yarnold has won a $2000 scholar-ship at the National All Breeds Dairy Youth Camp held in Melbourne last month.

The award recognises the most outstanding participant at the Mel-bourne five-day camp.

Cameron, from Wingham in northern NSW, finished ahead of

Marty Hore, from Leitchville, Vic-toria, in the voting to claim the Genetics Australia scholarship. There were 48 participants from across Australia and New Zealand that attended the camp at the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds, which focused on judging, parading and handling dairy cattle.

The camp included three Cana-

dian “leaders’’ and taught partici-pants animal husbandry skills for the show-ring and the paddock.

It also included a visit to a farm in West Gippsland. National All Breeds Dairy Youth Camp co-ordinator Sue Bird said participant numbers had increased by 15 this year, including three girls from Western Australia.

Cameron Yarnold tops All Breeds Dairy Youth Camp

Team YDDP: Taylor Walker (left), Tamara Loughridge, team leader – team leader Beth Scott, Erika Quinn, Jaclyn Lindsay, Julia Ash, Marty Hore.

John Hinkley

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NEWS // 7

THE DEATHS of more than 100 cows due to heat stress in southern Victoria have been described as the worst ever seen and have prompted concerns that farmers will have to do more to counteract rising temperatures.

About 70-80 cows died in Gippsland and 40 in south-west Victoria at the end of a prolonged heatwave in mid-Janu-ary, despite farmers taking preventive measures to protect their stock.

The deaths happened at the end of a four-day heat blast which saw tem-peratures soar above 40°C and stay in the mid-20s over-night, an unusu-ally long succession of heat in southern Victorian areas.

Other dairy farming regions were not so badly impacted by heat stress problems.

While farm-ers are not being blamed for the deaths, the tragedy has sparked con-cerns that they will have to do more to care for their cows on extreme days as temperatures con-tinue to soar.

Australia recorded its hottest year on record in 2013 amid predictions that temperatures will con-tinue to rise.

The deaths and hot weather have also hit pro-duction across the regions.

Some farms in south-west Victoria lost between five and 10 cows and one lost 14 from a lack of water due to a malfunction-ing water trough after the cows broke a pipe.

Deaths were recorded across several properties in Gippsland on the fourth day of the heatwave.

Dr Jakob Malmo from the Maffra Veterinary Centre described the Gippsland deaths as the worst associated with heat stress seen in the district.

“In more than 50 years as a vet in this region I have never seen heat related deaths of that mag-nitude,” he said.

“There have been one or two deaths on very hot days over the last decade or so, but nothing before

then and nothing like this. It has been devastating.”

Dr Malmo said lack of shade had contributed to many of the deaths. “It seems some farmers made the mistake on the fourth day of taking their cows to good feed but this left them out in the sun with-out shade,” he said.

Cows were not likely to eat a lot on extreme days and shade should be the priority. “It is best to try to feed them in the morning and then make sure they have shade and water.”

He added that none of the farmers were negli-gent.

“We are talking about very good farmers. They

were conscientious and did the right things but may have underestimated the impact of four days of very, very hot weather.

“Everyone has learned some lessons. We have to make sure cows have shade no matter what and we need to regularly check on both their condition and their water supply.

“If they are showing signs of heat stress such as panting, you have to get them to a cool place and make sure they have enough water.”

Dr Malmo said sprin-klers helped to ease stress, as would access to a cool water hole. “There is con-cern about mastitis from being in water but it is better to treat a cow with mastitis than have a dead cow.”

He said farms need to be set up to cope with more hot days.

Farms should have big enough water pipes to ensure they can supply the herd and sprinklers in the dairy.

“When you get tem-peratures of over 40°C, the risk is always going be

there, especially if we are getting more of this sort of weather.”

Locals rallied around the worst hit farm in Gippsland, donating cows to help cover a substantial loss of production.

Timboon-based vet with The Vet Group, Dr Zoe Vogels, said four days of oppressive heat, hot nights and no wind had led to the deaths, despite farmers taking preventive action.

“These are farmers who were doing every-thing right,” Dr Vogels said. “They had the cows in shade with water, were checking their condition, and had been hosing them

down, but some didn’t make it through that last day.

“One farmer tells me that his cows wouldn’t normally have gone under the sprinklers and would very care-fully stay out of their way, but on the last hot day they were all for it and enjoyed a shower,” she said.

Dr Vogels said heat-related cow deaths were rare in the region. “I’ve never seen cows die from heat stress before and other vets who have been here for longer agree that it is a rare occur-rence,” she said.

“If a farmer sees a cow looking distressed, pant-ing or drooling from heat stress, they should try to cool them down by hosing them with cool water - and a fan if possible.”

The cow deaths and hot conditions have put a dent in production but did not make a huge impact.

Farmers in south-west Victoria have reported that production dropped by a couple of litres per cow during the heatwave.

Murray Goulburn field services manager at Maffra, Gregor Allen, said production had dipped during the hot spell but not as much as expected.

“We usually see a drop at this time of year and we were probably 1 to 1.5% below that,” Mr Allen said.

“Farmers have man-aged it pretty well and we were not hit as hard as expected.”

Heatwave claims 120 cowsRICK BAYNE

Zoe Vogels

Despite the best efforts of Gippsland and Western Victoria farmers, successive hot days and nights claimed 120 cows.

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8 // IDW 2014

A PARTNERSHIP of the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria and International Dairy Week will drive consultation for a potential Australian Dairy Expo.

Victorian Agriculture Minister, Peter Walsh, and dairy industry representatives, including

Dairy Australia chairman, Geoff Akers, and managing director, Ian Halliday, met at IDW last month to learn about the concept.

The showcase of the Australian dairy industry would include all aspects of the dairy supply chain.

IDW coordinator

Robyn Barber asked the cross-section of the dairy industry whether the concept was worth pursuing, potentially as an event held every three years, similar to Beef Australia in Rockhampton, Queensland.

Ms Barber travelled to the World Dairy Expo in

Maddison, Winsconsin, last year for inspiration.

This annual event, which dominates the international dairy calendar, registered 2905 international guests last year, had 843 competitors from 29 countries and 2225 cattle.

It also includes trade

exhibits for commercial dairy farmers. The show is financed by the commercial exhibitors, gate fees and sponsorship. Ms Barber said the cattle show remained central to the event but did not earn money.

Ms Barber said the Australian Dairy Expo

could strive to do everything the World Dairy Expo achieves, albeit on a smaller scale.

Ms Barber said the Expo, if staged every three years, would mean IDW would not be held in the same year.

The location for the event would need

to address sufficient accommodation, nightlife and have a world class facility, she said.

Points raised by the crowd included joining the Australian Dairy Conference into the event and working with NZ to make an Australasian event.

Push for Australian Dairy Expo

HOLSTEIN FAIRVALE Morty Lady 51 was named grand champion cow at International Dairy Week last month for the second time.

It was the third time in six years Lisa Thompson, from Bracknell, in Tas-mania, and her parents, Lindsay and Sandra, have won the grand champion award.

The 8-year-old calved at the end of November with twins.

Production statistics include a high of 15,406 litres, 513 kg of butterfat and 465kg of protein in 305 days, which was recorded two years ago.

The Thompsons milk 220 cows and 75% of their herd are registered Hol-steins, although they are increasing their number of Jerseys from 50 head.

Judge Juan Jose Felis-sia, from Argentina, praised her udder, “physi-cal characteristics”, capac-ity, strength and style.

All six judges then put in their nominations for the Australian champion, placing Lady 51 at the top

of the pack against all the other breeds.

The last time the cow won the award was in 2011 as a 5-year-old.

It will be the last show-ing for the champion cow, who can now retire in style.

The National Jersey Show proved to be another success under the belt of Brunchilli Jerseys.

The Boyd family from Finley, NSW, were no strangers to the spot-light, having won Premier Breeder and Exhibitor again for the 13th consecu-tive year.

They took home the major award of senior and grand champion cow with Brunchilli Sambo Priscilla.

Brunchilli also won junior champion with Brunchilli Reagan Rose.

The National Guern-sey show finished with a very familiar result when 8-year-old aged cow,

Florando SD Koala of the Joyce and Gass fami-lies won the supreme title for the third consecutive year.

“What a marvel-

lous cow with a beautiful udder, she’s carrying her-self and moving terrifically for a cow of her age,” said judge, Blaine Crosser.

Mt Gambier breeder, Jennifer Van Rijthoven, won the top ribbon in the Brown Swiss class with Grasslands Aurum Sashay.

German judge Alfred Weidele said it came down to “functional traits”, highlighting the qual-ity of Grasslands Aurum Sashay’s teats, rump struc-ture and setting, as well as her tail setting.

The Coburn family were awarded champion Illawarra exhibit for Wing-anna Empire Handsome, a 7-year-old cow.

The Coburns also won intermediate champion, senior champion and best udder, equalling their best IDW haul.

Steve and Gary Joyce, Broadwater, and Kevin Gass, Simpson, were awarded the supreme Guernsey exhibit for Florando SD Koala 7 - its third champion breed ribbon.

The Guernsey, which will be nine years old this year, was bought at the Camperdown saleyards in 2011.

Guernsey judge Blaine Crosser, from the US, said the cow had a lovely udder that had stood the test of time.

Holstein claims second interbreed title

Interbreed champion with exhibitors Lindsay and Lisa Thompson, Bracknell, Tasmania, with Andrew Dee, Nathan Thomas, Canada, William McKay, Bracknell, and judge Juan Felissia. HOLSTEIN AUSTRALIA kicked off

its centenary celebrations at International Dairy Week.

The larger gathering will be followed by a series of local celebrations culminat-ing with a national centenary celebration at the association’s annual general meeting in Toowoomba in October.

“One hundred years of breeding black and white dairy cows is an amazing achieve-ment, and we look forward to celebrating with our members throughout the year,” acting chief executive David Jupp said.

“Much of the association’s longevity is the community spirit amongst members. It’s not just about breeding cows but Holstein Australia membership also provides a forum for lifelong friendships and fellowship.”

Holstein Australia is encouraging all its sub-branches to participate in in some way, either a standalone event, or label one of their regular activities as their centenary even, in what will be a milestone year for the Association.

“We will also be marking our centenary

with a Centenary Book and a Centenary medallion,” Mr Jupp said.

The Centenary Book, to be unveiled in October, will report on the association’s key achievements over its 100 year history. It tells the stories of people, cattle, family, friendship, hard work and Holstein breed development.

A Centenary Medallion has also been commissioned to recognise outstanding service to Holstein Australia by individual members. Each of HA’s 27 sub branches will be invited to nominate a member – past or present – as the recipient of the Cente-nary Medallion.

The medallion will be awarded to a member who, in the eyes of their peers has gone unheralded and given extraordinary service to their sub-branch over an extended period of time.

“2014 promises to be a big year for Hol-steins. We are encouraging our members to join in the celebrations of our 100th year, particularly in Toowoomba where it all began,” Mr Jupp said.

Holstein Australia starts centenary celebrations

Lowis White, Luccombe Holsteins, Finley, NSW, and Henry Bevan, Bevandale Holsteins, Ravenshoe, Qld.

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10 // NEWS

World dairy prices to remain highINTERNATIONAL DAIRY commodity prices are expected to remain high at least for the first half of 2014, according to Rabobank.

Rabobank analyst, Tim Hunt, said the increase of export supply since Sep-tember last year, as pro-ducers have responded to improved margins, has

been largely soaked up by vigorous buying from China.

“Global prices have remained high despite the taps being turned on in

key export regions,” Mr Hunt said.

“China continues to buy exceptionally large volumes of product from the international market

to supplement falling local milk supply.”

Despite a small soften-ing in prices in October and November last year, global prices remained

Tim Hunt

high due to an uptick in December.

By mid-December, Whole Milk Powder (WMP) held above US$5000/ton in free on-board Oceania trade, while prices of other key commodi-ties rose between 3% and 5%, as Southern Hemisphere proces-sors switched milk type towards the higher yielding whole milk powder (WMP).

China’s buying has left the rest of the buyside of the international market with less supply to go round, keeping the market tight, Rabobank said.

It believes many of the buyers in regions includ-ing South East Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, have used up all meaningful back-up stocks after a period of prolonged belt-tightening.

They are now strug-gling to secure enough supply to sustain sales of key lines.

With export supply still in the early stages of recovery, prices edged up even further in the last quarter last year to ration supply.

The global dairy market has entered 2014 with farmgate milk prices at record or near record highs in many export and import regions, Mr Hunt said.

Meanwhile the prices of commodity feeds such as soybeans and corn have fallen 10% to 40% below

prior year levels in US dollar terms, opening up large margins for milk pro-ducers in intensive feed-ing regions.

Rabobank expects a further increase in Chi-na’s dairy purchases from the world market this year. A strong Northern Hemisphere production season, following on from an exceptional season in the Southern Hemisphere should generate more than enough exportable supply to exceed China’s additional demand.

“2014 will be an intrigu-ing period for the global dairy market,” Mr Hunt said.

“We expect prices to hold around current highs before easing from mid to late 2014 with continuing supply growth in response to significantly improved margins.

“Any subsequent reduction in pricing will be limited by structural constraints on suppli-ers, the need to replenish depleted inventories and ongoing demand growth in line with a slow eco-nomic recovery.”

“Global prices have remained high despite the taps being turned on in key export regions.”

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NEWS // 11

BLESSED ARE the cheese makers, is a famous line from Monty Python’s Life of Brian, and it is they who are the biggest beneficiaries of Australia’s Free Trade Agreement with South Korea.

The FTA (which the Ricegrowers Association declared an FTA in name only, as it excludes rice) signed off in early December after four years of nego-tiations.

Australian cheese producers will gain duty-free access to Korea’s growing middle class market. Aus-tralian cheese exports currently face Korean tariffs of up to 36%.

Cheese, butter and infant formulas are in the deal, with varying timelines for tariff removal, while pow-dered milk has been excluded.

South Korea is a growing market for the world’s dairy products, importing 196,000 tonnes of dairy in 2012, of which Australian products only accounted for 9%.

The Federal Government said independent model-ling showed the FTA would be worth $5 billion between 2015 and 2030 and boost the economy by about $650 million annually after 15 years.

Agricultural exports to Korea will be 73% higher after 15 years as a result of the FTA and overall exports to Korea will be 25% higher resulting in the creation of more than 1700 jobs, the Government said.

The agreement eliminated tariffs of up to 300% on Australian agricultural exports such as beef, dairy, sugar and wheat but excluded rice, while removing a 5% tariff on Korean car imports, amid other benefits.

The FTA also demands South Koreans gain For-eign Investment Review Board (FIRB) approval before investing in any Australian agribusiness worth more than $53 million, compared to the current threshold of $248 million on most foreign business investments.

However, the monetary threshold for referral to the FIRB for all non-agribusinesses will be raised from $248m to $1 billion in line with Australia’s FTA with the United States.

Cheese tariffs removed under Korean FTA

AUSTRALIAN DAIRY Farmers president, Noel Campbell, hopes the upcoming National Dairy Farmers’ Summit will lay the foundation for a road-map for the industry.

“Many of the chal-lenges facing the industry have been well publicised, however, what is needed now is a positive plan that identifies where we, as an industry, would like to be in the medium to longer term and the opportuni-ties that will define our future,” Mr Campbell said.

“This will be critical if we are to grow as an indus-try sustainably and prof-itably, thus ensuring we attract and retain the next generation of dairy farm-ers.”

ADF is hosting the summit on March 13 in Melbourne in conjunction with the Australian Dairy

Industry Council and Dairy Australia. Coles will sponsor the event, which attracted headlines on its announcement.

Mr Campbell said the Summit aims to shape a future vision for the dairy industry and identify the key steps to get there.

The morning ses-sion will include keynote addresses on government priorities for agriculture and the place of dairy; addressing challenges and hot to set a new indus-try direction; dairy’s place in Australia; and setting industry direction through farmer-led innovation.

The afternoon ses-sion will comprise work-shops to discuss one of six themes: human capac-ity; farm business fitness; social license/public trust; competitive value chain; market growth; and cohe-

Dairy summit to address future growthsive dairy community.

More than 100 farm-ers, dairy processors and manufacturers, state dairy farming bodies, farm-ing organisations and state and federal govern-ment representatives are expected to attend.

“Shaped by the thoughts and ideas of dairy farmers from across Australia, the Summit will

provide a future-focused forum to challenge the

industry to think ahead in posing its preferred future state and the industry pri-orities required to get there,” Mr Campbell said.

The involvement and contribution of farmers from across all of Austra-lia’s dairying regions will be integral to the Summit, he said.

“As the title makes clear, this will be a Summit

that is informed every step of the way by the thoughts and ideas of dairy farmers Australia-wide.

“Registration for the summit is now open, and I encourage my fellow farmers to get involved and help shape a posi-tive future vision for our industry,” he said.

For interested inter-state farmers unable to

attend, Mr Campbell encouraged them to regis-ter their views with their local State Dairy Farming Organisation (SDFO) or State Farming Organisa-tion (SFO) to ensure their voice can still be heard.

The Summit is free to attend with registration now open online at www.australiandairyfarmers.com.au

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12 // WORLD

Fonterra launches $250m bond issue in ChinaFONTERRA’S $250M bond issue in China is largely to expand its domestic milk supply on its China farms, says ANZ rural economist Con Williams.

The co-op needs to invest capital if it wants to hit its objective of one billion litres of milk produced in China by 2018, Williams told Dairy News.

“That is part of its strategy to plan to square the milk curve a bit in New Zealand and that’s critical to its long-term strategy to build more of a presence in dairy nutrition and con-sumer businesses in Asia.”

Fonterra announced last week it has raised 1.25 billion Chinese renminbi (about NZ$250 million) through a five-year “dim sum” bond issue (Chinese renminbi raised offshore) as part of its commitment to developing its China business.

Fonterra chief financial officer Lukas Paravicini says the funds raised will be used for growth of its businesses in China and refinancing some of its existing China opera-tions. Growth includes further expansion of its consumer, foodservice and farming operations.

Fonterra president Greater China & India Kelvin Wickham says the co-op has had a strong focus on driv-ing growth in volume and value as it develops its inte-grated business model in China. “Last year we successfully launched our premium milk brand Anchor and also launched a new paediatric formula product tailored for the China market under the Anmum brand.

“At the same time China is expected to see a contin-ued gap between the demand and supply of raw milk so our farming business will continue to build supplies of raw milk to meet local consumer demand.

“Our foodservices and ingredients businesses, which import products from New Zealand, are also expecting to see continued growth.

“The renminbi bond issue will support the growth of our whole business, in particular our consumer brands business which are a key focus for growth given it is at an earlier stage of development,” Wickham says.

This is the second time Fonterra has issued bonds denominated in Chinese renminbi. The first time was in 2011 when it became the first Australasian company to tap the dim sum market.

EU quotas abolished but red tape remains

Fonterra chief financial officer Lukas Paravicini .

ALTHOUGH THE strong Irish dairy sector and union are get-ting ready to ramp up produc-tion after the end of milk quotas in 2015, European dairy farmers still face excessive red tape, cap-ital issues and expansion blocks.

So says New Zealand Nuffield Scholarship recipient and North-land DairyNZ regional manager Tafi Manjala after six months in Europe, South America and North America.

Mr Manjala travelled through Canada, the US, Ireland, England, the Netherlands, Italy, France, Denmark, Mexico and Brazil to connect with rural leaders and professionals and explore how to better communicate current and new ideas to farmers.

Mr Manjala said although milk quotas will finish in 2015, the single farm payment scheme, paid to farmers for owning and working on land, looks likely to stay in place until 2020 at the earliest.

The average Irish farm is 34ha and landowners must actively manage the property year-round

to get the subsidy, Mr Manjala said.

Dairy farmers looking to expand are having difficulty finding the land to do it. “There needs to be alternative ownership models to generate enough reve-nue that owners need.”

Farmers are also struggling in the UK, Mr Manjala said.

With processing facilities con-trolled by retailers, farmers are price takers, and with high-input systems they only break even, at best. “Pasture-based farmers made 8–10c/L surplus.”

High input costs and heavy debt are causing difficulties for farmers in Denmark too, where farmers were offered loans 120% larger than the value of the prop-erties they intended to develop.

Mr Manjala said the industry there is now in such disarray that the price of dairy land had fallen 50% and most farms are being bought by Dutch farmers.

Farming leaders Mr Manjala talked to were surprised at New Zealanders’ moves away from grass-based to high-input sys-tems.

“People overseas talk about our competitive edge being

grass, and I completely agree with them.”

One of Mr Manjala’s goals was to learn how to better help the spread of information between farmers, and from researchers to farmers.

He promotes closer collabora-tion among rural professionals, in line with the aim of the New Zea-land Institute of Primary Indus-try Management.

Though New Zealand farm-ers are supported by such rural professionals as bank managers, farm consultants, fertiliser repre-sentatives and vets, these are not always on the ‘same page’ and can give conflicting advice, thus con-fusing farmers, Mr Manjala said.

In Ireland, more rural profes-sionals talk to each other, guard-ing against conflicting advice.

“When a consultant suggests there’s an option to increase the stocking rate, the bank manager might say ‘hang on, we don’t have the money in the budget to pay for the extra infrastructure’.”

Getting rural profession-als to work in partnership need not be difficult, and Mr Manjala said Northland DairyNZ mem-bers have been trying to do their

bit by including consultants’ and bank managers’ email addresses in emails they send to farmers.

“If we know you’re the trusted advisor for a business, we ‘cc’ you into discussion so you can help with ongoing discussions or sup-port for the farmer.”

Mr Manjala was impressed by Irish farmer discussion groups, which take information sharing to a higher level.

Each group had a facilitator who accesses farmers’ produc-tion information and farm data and then puts it on a document available only to the group.

It means discussion groups are able to make better sugges-tions on actual data rather than rough.

“Ireland is ahead of us in farm systems research and many coun-tries lead us in using social media to share farm practices.”

Mr Manjala met with the pro-fessor emeritus of social sci-ence in psychology at Stanford University, Albert Bandura, and discussed his theory on social learning, which suggests that sub-jects need to see similar people making gains through a process before they themselves do it.

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New Zealand Nuffield scholar Tafi Manjala says farmer discussion groups are more sophisticated in Ireland.

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WORLD // 13

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THE NEW head of US dairy farmers’ lobby group wants reforms of New Zealand’s dairy policies as part of a final Trade-Pacific Partnership deal.

In his first monthly commentary to farmers, National Milk Producers Federation chief executive Jim Mulhern said a prior-ity for the organisation is to maximise the value of the pending TPP trade deal to US dairy farmers.

Negotiations of this pact will likely determine this year whether the TPP final agreement represents a net positive opportunity for the US dairy sector, Mr Mulhern said.

“We need greater disciplines on non-tariff barriers, as well as greater access into Canada and Japan, in order for a TPP agreement to be useful to America’s dairy farmers. We also need reforms of New Zealand’s dairy policies as part of the deal.”

Mulhern replaced Jerry

US dairymen want halter on Kiwis

Jim Mulhern

Kozak, who stepped down on January 1 after 22 years with the US dairy indus-try. The NMPF represents 35,000 dairy farmers.

The Trans-Pacific Part-nership is a trade deal under negotiation by 12 countries: New Zealand, US, Singapore, Chile, Brunei, Australia, Vietnam, Peru, Malaysia, Canada, Mexico and Japan.

Japanese dairy farmers oppose the TPP, fearing

the accord will wipe them out by triggering an influx of cheaper imports. Some Japanese media reports suggest the Government is seeking to exempt agricul-ture from the pact.

However, TPP is not the top item on Mr Mul-hern’s list. He said estab-lishing a new and better safety net for dairy farm-ers is his top priority.

What should have been achieved by the US Con-

gress in 2012, and what had a chance of getting done last year, was passage of a new farm bill contain-ing the Dairy Security Act, he says.

NMPF and its mem-bers have been working hard with Congress since 2009 to devise and pass a new dairy programme.

The good news is that it appears we’re on the cusp of getting a farm bill done as 2014 begins, he said.

“Members of the House and Senate are returning to Capitol Hill this month, and finalising the farm bill is also at the top of the list of New Year’s resolutions for them.

“I am cautiously optimistic that the farm bill negotiations between members of the House and Senate agriculture committees will produce an economically and politically viable bill.

It’s been bedeviled by controversies ranging from the marketing of catfish and eggs, to the level of spending on food stamps and crop insurance; but differences over these items can and will be resolved.

Mulhern said another item that’s a holdover from the past, but that is also critical to the success of the dairy industry, is immigration reform.

SUDESH KISSUN

THE END of milk quotas in Europe from 2015 will add another dimension to the global milk supply, says Fonterra chairman John Wilson.

Mr Wilson told said there are differing views on whether milk supply out of Europe will increase once quotas are lifted.

Given that EU’s milk consumption is relatively stag-nant, he believes increased production from the bloc will end up in the global market to meet growing demand.

He said Fonterra‘s joint venture with Netherlands-based A-ware Food Group is an example of the co-op tap-ping into the changing EU dairy environment.

Fonterra and A-ware Food Group are developing a new cheese plant and dairy ingredients plant in Heerenveen in the north of the Netherlands. A-ware will operate a cheese plant and Fonterra will operate a dairy ingredients plant alongside it.

Cheese will be produced for A-ware’s customers in Europe and the whey and lactose produced will be pro-cessed into premium nutrition dairy ingredients for Fon-terra’s global customer base. A-ware will be sourcing milk from Dutch farmers, who are expected to ramp up pro-duction when the milk quotas go. Wilson said this could add another billion litres of milk to Fonterra’s global pool.

Mr Wilson expects global growth in milk production to be 0.5% higher than a year ago.

Global dairy demand is forecast to grow by 120 billion L by 2021, 40 billion L of that in freely traded markets – largely the emerging markets. New Zealand is expected to see 2% or 3 billion L growth during the same period.

Mr Wilson said this highlights the importance of Fon-terra’s strategy to support New Zealand milk by ensur-ing access to global milk pools so we can accommodate demand growth.

Current global demand for milk products is growing at just over 2% per annum. In China, demand is expected to grow 7% by 2020 – but milk supply will grow by only 4%.

China’s dairy industry is changing rapidly, with evi-dence this year of consolidation at the farming and man-ufacturing levels of the supply chain, said Mr Wilson. – Sudesh Kissun

EU milk tipped for global market

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AS THE CURRENT season has unfolded and payouts have heated up over the ditch, many farmers here are asking the inevitable question – how do Australian farmgate prices compare to New Zealand’s?

To address this question more fully, we need to look beyond the current season and examine a long term com-parison.

Freshagenda’s analysis of payments made by Australian manufacturers com-pared to Fonterra’s over the past 13 years (including a forecast for 2013/14) show Australian prices have been ahead by around A$0.19/kgMS on average.

This is once adjustments have been made for protein – measured as “crude’ in New Zealand and “true” here, and converting NZ prices to Australian dol-lars.

What the green and black bars on the chart indicate (in US dollars this time) is that since 2009, Australian farmgate prices have been more resil-ient when there have been downturns in the international market, while New Zealand’s prices have responded more quickly and fully when commodity prices head upwards.

One of the major reasons behind this observation is the different exposures to the world market of the two indus-tries – more than 90% of New Zealand’s production is exported while Australia’s exports have hovered around 40% of output in recent years.

With a greater focus on retail prod-ucts and contracted sales in Australia where commodity price changes are slower to take effect, domestic returns tend to lag the more volatile move-ments of the international market. This is great for the Australian industry in a down turn, but frustrating when global commodity prices move up, and the local market doesn’t quickly respond.

Another factor is product mix. The lines on the chart track prices in US dol-lars of the major commodities (in terms of milk use) for both industries – ched-

dar cheese for Australia and whole milk powder for New Zealand.

While over time cheddar returns have tended to be more stable – whole milk powder prices – powered by Chi-na’s insatiable demand have been pushed much higher than cheddar at times, particularly this year.

Australia’s cheese production is almost equally split between domes-tic and export, and Japan remains our largest export market – at least in value terms. Once again, many of these sales are subject to longer term agreements, so cheese prices tend to be more stable.

Currency is also an important driver of real returns to farmers in both indus-tries.

The Australian dollar has been strong in recent years, due to factors well outside the dairy industry’s influ-ence, and that has affected the compet-itiveness of our dairy exports.

Interestingly in the current cycle, as the US currency is strengthening against most others, New Zealand’s dollar is actually being held up by the strong performance of dairy – which represents a large proportion of the Kiwi economy.

As a result, the two currencies are now moving closer together.

The mechanisms for determining farmgate price in New Zealand have also changed in recent years, as Fonterra has undergone its capital restructure and established the Fonterra Shareholders Fund.

In order to have a transparent

way of retaining profit, and therefore paying dividends to investors – Fon-terra first introduced the Global Dairy-Trade (GDT) online auction platform in 2008 to establish a reference price for traded commodities, and then intro-duced a “Milk Price Manual” in 2011/12 that calculates payout with a formula that is directly linked to the GDT auc-tion results.

That said, we saw the Fonterra Board override the manual just before Christ-mas – maintaining its record payout forecast despite the manual calcula-tion indicating a higher rate should be paid, based on milk powder returns. In reality, higher milk intakes meant Fon-terra was no doubt facing lower returns from products that weren’t covered by the manual formula.

While this demonstrates the Fon-terra Board still has some discretion when it comes to determining payouts, there is probably less opportunity to smooth farmgate prices between years

than there was previously in New Zea-land.

For many farmers the concern behind this question of Australia versus New Zealand is that our industry is losing competitiveness and will con-tinue to trail our Kiwi neighbours to a larger extent into the future.

The differences in farmgate prices are just one indicator of the divergence in the two industries over the past decade. The New Zealand industry has developed its capability to efficiently process large and growing amounts of seasonal milk and market its product to the fastest developing markets around the world.

While there has been a push to value add, commodity products are still a dominant part of the product mix. In Australia, in the face of a stagnant or shrinking milk pool, manufacturers have looked for opportunities to max-imise returns, shifting their product, customer and market mix higher up the

value chain wherever possible - through a less-efficient supply chain. This hasn’t always been easy given New Zealand’s advantages in terms of scale, delivery and access to expanding markets such as China.

There are clearly risks and opportu-nities inherent in both approaches and New Zealand’s performance will and should continue to be a benchmark in terms of the value the Australian industry can extract from the market-place. However, as this analysis shows, those comparisons need to be made understanding the important differ-ences between the industries, and over the long run – rather than for a single season.• Jo Bills is a director of Freshagenda, a Melbourne-based consulting and analysis firm that provides food value chain insights and solutions to a wide range of clients from farm to retail.Visit www.freshagenda.com.au to view their Australian Dairy Export Index.


14 // AGRIBUSINESS

FRESH AGENDAJO BILLS

New Zealand vs Australia – who does better at the farmgate?

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AGRIBUSINESS // 15

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GLOBAL IMPACTJOHN DROPPERT

Dairy NewS aUSTraLia june, 2012

With season 2011/12 only a few weeks from ending, attention is now focused on 2012/13 milk prices as farm-ers consider strategies for the coming year. In some domestically-focused regions, renegotiated contracts incor-porating lower prices and reduced ‘tier one’ access are undermining farmer confidence and supply stability. For many farmers in export-oriented regions, a lower price outlook relative to the current season not only adds to the challenges of doing business, but seems to contradict the positive medium term outlook of Asia-driven dairy demand growth.

Dairy Australia’s indicative outlook for southern farm gate milk prices – published in the recent Dairy 2012: Sit-uation and Outlook report, is for an opening price range of $4.05-$4.40/kg MS and a full year average price range between $4.50 and $4.90/kg MS. The report considers the wider market pic-ture and summarises the many factors at play; the key theme of the current sit-uation being that of re-balancing in the dairy supply chain.

In regions of Australia focused on producing drinking milk, many farmers face a re-balancing market in the form of renegotiation of supply contracts and reduced access to ‘tier one’ supply.

Shifts in private label contracts and pro-cessor rationalisation have seen milk companies adjust their intake require-ments and pricing to meet the chang-ing demands of a highly pressured retail marketplace. Lower contract prices and a lack of alternative supply opportuni-ties present challenges in a market with limited manufacturing capacity. Despite these challenges, the underlying domes-tic market is stable, with steady per-cap-ita dairy consumption and a growing population providing a degree of cer-tainty beyond the current adjustments.

In the seasons following the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent com-modity price recovery, farmers in export-oriented regions have seen solid global supply growth (see chart) - with higher-cost competitors in the North-ern Hemisphere amongst those expand-ing output as their margins increased. This season, favourable weather con-ditions have further enhanced milk

flows. 2012 milk production in the US is up around 4% on 2011 for the year to April (leap year adjusted), whilst early data suggests EU-27 milk production finished the March 2012 quota year up 2.3% on the previous year. New Zealand production is widely expected to finish this season up 10% on last year - a huge market influence given 95% of NZ milk is exported. Argentina is also enjoy-ing solid production growth, but a sig-nificant supply gap in Brazil prevents much of this additional milk from leav-ing South America.

Despite wider economic uncer-tainty, demand has remained resilient as importing countries like China and

those in south-east Asia and the Middle East maintain consistently higher eco-nomic growth rates that support increased dairy consumption. How-ever, the surge in supply has outpaced demand growth in the market.

This situation has seen the scales tip in favour of buyers in dairy mar-kets, with commodity prices retreat-ing steadily over recent months. Butter prices are down some 30% from their 2011 peaks, whilst powder prices have lost more than 20%. Farm gate prices have subsequently been reduced in most exporting regions. The average basic farm gate price for milk in France for example, dropped 12% from 32 Euro

cents/litre in March (AUD 41c/L) to 28 Euro cents/litre (AUD 36c/L) in April. Profit margins are under pressure in the US, and in NZ Fonterra has announced the final payout for the 2011/12 season has been cut from NZ$6.75-$6.85/kg MS to NZ$6.45-$6.55/kg MS (AUD$4.96-$5.04).

Effectively, global dairy markets are rebalancing. Lower prices will both slow production growth and stimulate demand, and as this occurs we will ulti-mately see a price recovery. Key factors to watch on the global scene will be the rate at which milk production overseas slows in response to lower prices, the impact of the current financial worries on consumer confidence, the path of China’s economic growth, and the value of the Australian dollar.

Demand for exported dairy prod-ucts remains a positive and will con-tinue to grow with the middle class in large emerging markets such as China, with changes in diet and with increasing urbanisation - and also in conjunction with global population growth. Locally, the domestic market is supported by a growing population and stable per-capita consumption. Whilst the dairy market is currently a challenging place to be a seller, all signs indicate that bal-ance will ultimately return.

agribusiness // 17

austraLian FooD company Freedom Foods Group Ltd is to build a new milk processing plant to cash in on growing demand in Asia.

The plant, to be built in southeast Australia, will be the first Australian green-fields expansion in UHT in 10 years.

Freedom’s wholly owned subsidiary Pactum Australia will run the plant. Some of its products will be sold in Australia.

The company says given Asian consum-ers’ rising incomes and improving diets, demand there will grow for qual-ity dairy products from low-cost production bases such as Australia, whose milk is well regarded.

The new plant will allow Pactum to meet growing demand for UHT dairy milk, and add to capacity for value-added beverages at its Sydney factory. Pactum is expanding its capabili-ties at the Sydney plant

to provide portion pack (200-330ml) configura-tion for beverage prod-ucts.

The NSW location will provide access to the most sustainable and economic source of milk. Pactum has strong links to the Austra-lian dairy industry and will expand its arrangements with dairy farmers for supply of milk. The new plant will increase scope for Australian milk supply – value-added, sustainable and export focused.

Initially the plant will produce 250ml and 1L UHT packs from a process line capable of 100 mil-lion L. The processing and packaging plant will emit less carbon, use less water, and be more energy-effi-cient than equivalent UHT facilities in Austra-lia and SE Asia. Pactum expects site preparation to begin in October 2012 and start-up by mid-2013.

Pactum makes UHT products for private label and proprietary customers.

Freedom Foods planttargets Asia

Malaysia FTA benefits dairyaustraLian DairY, rice and wine exporters to Malaysia are the biggest winners in a free trade agreement (FTA) signed between the two coun-tries last month.

The deal, signed after seven years of negotia-tions, allows a liberalised licensing arrangement for Australian liquid milk exporters and allows access for higher value retail products.

It guarantees Aus-tralian wine exporters the best tariff treatment Malaysia gives any coun-try. It also allows open access arrangements from 2023 for Australian rice with all tariffs eliminated by 2026.

The National Farmers’ Federation says the trade deal will improve inter-national market access for Australian agricultural goods.

“After seven years of negotiation, the NFF is under no illusion of how challenging it has been to complete this FTA with Malaysia,” NFF vice presi-dent Duncan Fraser says.

The FTA will fill a number of gaps within the

ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand FTA (AANZFTA).

“Protectionist senti-ment over agricultural goods is rife and grow-ing across the globe, so in this context it is pleas-ing Australia has managed to forge an agreement with Malaysia that has dealt with some sensi-tive agricultural issues not effectively covered by AANZFTA,” says Fraser.

“While under the AANZFTA agreement most of Australian agri-culture’s key interests had tariffs bound at zero, dairy and rice are two sec-tors where incremental market access improve-ments have been negoti-ated under the Malaysian FTA.

“This trade deal was also particularly impor-tant for sectors such as dairy that have been facing a competitive dis-advantage in Malaysia compared with New Zea-land which already has a completed FTA with Malaysia in place.”

The FTA also sig-nals some administrative benefits for Austra-lian agricultural export-

ers through streamlining of rules-of-origin dec-laration processes and improved marketing arrangements for certain commodities.

The Malaysian market is worth about A$1 bil-lion in Australia agricul-tural exports – including being its fourth-largest sugar export market and fifth-largest wheat export market. With an annual economic growth at about 5%, Malaysia forms an impor-tant part of the ‘Asian Century’ story and the opportunity this presents for Australian agricultural producers, says Fraser.

Despite the comple-tion of this agreement, much remains to be done for Australia’s farmers to tap into the full potential of the Asian region and beyond.

He says the NFF will now throw its attention towards ensuring agricul-ture remains front and centre in completed FTAs with South Korea, Japan, China and Indonesia as immediate priorities.

“These are all markets with enormous growth opportunities and where significant barriers to trade in agriculture still exist, not only through tariffs that restrict trade

but also through technical or so called ‘behind the border’ restrictions.”

The FTA was signed on May 22 in Kuala Lumpur by Australia’s Trade and Competiveness Minis-ter Craig Emerson and his Malaysian counterpart Mustapa Mohamed.

Emerson says Australia will be as well-positioned in the Malaysian market as Malaysia’s closest trad-ing partners in ASEAN, and in some cases better. The FTA will guarantee tariff-free entry for 97.6% of current goods exports from Australia once it enters into force. This will rise to 99% by 2017.

incremental change in milk production (year-on-year)

Export demand remains strong

Sealing the deal: Malaysian trade minister Mustapha Mohamed with Australian counterpart Craig Emerson after signing the deal.

gLobaL impacTJohN DropperT

016-017.indd 17 6/06/12 1:41 PM

FROM A commodity market perspective, the 2013/14 Southern Hemi-sphere dairy season is increasingly a ‘done deal’.

Milk production is well past its spring peak, and product sales are focused on an April-June 2014 delivery period. Weather influences still have signifi-cant potential to ‘upset the apple cart’ at farm level (as we saw a year ago), but if anything this would drive prices higher.

New Zealand looks likely to enjoy an extended season as farmers cash in on record farmgate pric-ing; but the sustained supply recovery required to dislodge commod-ity prices is more likely to come from the Northern Hemisphere. That’s where attention is beginning to turn as the seasonal transi-tion in supply looms.

Most in the industry had expected the United States to produce a rapid supply response follow-ing a large 2013 corn har-vest and rapidly increasing milk prices. This hasn’t happened - November and December milk output was virtually flat compared to the same months in 2012. Declining cow num-bers have been blamed: heavy culling last year out-weighed the supply of replacement heifers, and restocking is expected to take at least the first half of 2014. Feed is readily avail-able but quality is below par in many places, keep-ing per-cow production relatively static, and ham-pering farmers’ ability to get the most milk from the cows they have.

Local sources suggest that with a bruising year behind them, US produc-ers are more risk averse than historically, opting to bolster their equity position before pursuing expansion – a sentiment many Australian farmers would relate to.

Notwithstanding the challenges – including a worsening drought in Cali-fornia – growth is expected to accelerate through 2014 as margins remain favour-able. The USDA’s forecast for 2014 US milk produc-tion is over 93 billion litres, representing 2% growth on 2013.

EU-November 28 data revealed a 4% increase in milk deliveries compared to that month in 2012. In member states such as the Netherlands and Ire-land (the latter up 19% for the month) an appe-tite for post-quota growth is readily apparent, with some farmers willing to pay super-levy fines for exceeding quotas, rather than suppress production.

However ongoing chal-lenges have seen further contraction in countries such as Italy. On balance,

industry forecasts indicate the current modest growth tra-jectory is expected to continue, with 2014 milk deliveries tipped to hit 147 bil-lion litres (up 1%).

The 2% and 1% growth for the US and EU respectively represent around 4 billion extra litres of milk – just under half of Australia’s annual total production.

However, much of this growth will be soaked up by recovering domestic consumption, while con-tinuing supply gaps in China and Russia have left other markets such as the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia short of prod-uct.

In short, though the market is looking to the Northern Hemisphere for indications that a price correction is around the corner, sedate supply growth and ongoing demand strength provide little clue as to the timing. Pricing remains buoyant, with recent gains reflect-ing the flow-on effects from prioritisation of better returning product streams. However; with so many eyes on the prize, the question remains not if the world’s suppliers catch up to the demand for dairy, but when.

Global supply falls short of expectations

The question remains not if the world’s suppliers catch up to the demand for dairy, but when.

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16 // OPINION

EDITORIAL

MILKING IT...

RUMINATING


Milk vs beerYOUR COLUMNIST, in a past life, had the unenvi-able task of trying to con-vince a room full of beef producers that Australian beef was not the best in the world�

It was a mock debate, but still a tough position to be in�

However, a tougher project has been launched by the good folk behind the DairySA Central Confer-ence, to be held in the Adelaide Hills on March 12�

They have asked any-one interested to produce a short film, saying why milk is better than beer!

Now, farmers may love their cows and believe in the product they produce, but what do they head for in the fridge after milking on a hot afternoon?

Let’s see if our amateur cinematographers can convince them�

Contact Penny Schulz at [email protected] if you want to have a crack�

Wind warningTHE FOLLOWING story poses a serious health and safety matter and should not be taken lightly�

It seems dairy cows with a serious case of flatulence have simultane-ously ‘broken wind’ and blown up a building in a fiery explosion�

Methane gas from 90 flatulent cows exploded in a German farm shed last month, damaging the building’s roof, accord-ing to the esteemed wire service, Reuters�

Apparently high levels of the methane gas had built up in the farm shed on the dairy farm in central Germany�

A “static electric charge caused the gas to explode with flashes of flames”, the local police force said in a statement�

One cow was treated for burns� Longer term consequences of the blast on the cows’ health are not yet known�

Hot air warningOH TO be a columnist in our national paper, where facts can be deemed un-necessary if they stand in the way of your argument�

Judith Sloan saw the demise of SPC in Sheppar-ton as a black and white argument – no shades of grey involved at all�

Predictably, it was the union’s fault the business was uncompetitive� Even more predictably, the Gov-ernment ran the same line� Shut it down�

And the farmers, well they can either buy the machinery themselves, or convert their fruit farms into dairies� See, a black and white issue solved in 600 words�

Local member Shar-man Stone thought otherwise, tweeting: “She’s joking? Sloan in @austra-lian today says orchards can turn into dairy farms! It costs $2-$3m to start dairying and blocks are too small�”

Now now, Sharman, you’re bringing facts and nuance to the debate� How will we arrive at an outcome that way?

From another planetHERE WE go again�

The website www.one-greenplanet.org has come up with a helpful list for the gullible and misinformed�

It has listed several ridic-ulous ‘myths’ about milk, stating: It is not the best source of calcium; does not aid strong bones; cows don’t need to be milked; and that cow milk is not good for humans (that old chestnut)�

With such ridiculous claims, we suggest they change their name to www.onanotherplanet.org

Advertising�Chris Dingle 0417.735.001

[email protected]

Editor��Stephen Cooke 03.9478 9779 or 0427.124 437 [email protected]

� Publisher� Brian Hight

� Production� �Dave Ferguson Becky Williams

Sub�Editor Pamela Tipa

� Published�by RNG Publishing Ltd

� Printed�by PMP Print

Dairy News Australia is published by RNG

Publishing Limited. All editorial copy and

photographs are subject to copyright and

may not be reproduced without prior written

permission of the publisher. Opinions or

comments expressed within this publication are

not necessarily those of the staff, management

or directors of RNG Publishing Limited. WWW.DAIRYNEWSAUSTRALIA.COM.AU

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SEEMS THE dairy industry has been awash with cash of late.Saputo of course has just paid an estimated $530 million for

Warrnambool Cheese and Butter. This amount will rise if Lion decides to sell its 10% stake in WCB, which would push Saputo’s shareholding close to 90%, which would see it pay $9.60/share.

Bega said it would receive between $94.7 and $101 million from the sale of its shares, booking a profit before tax and costs of between $61.8 and $68.2 million, after originally buying into WCB in 2010.

Murray Goulburn has said it will receive cash proceeds of at least $92.9 million and gain on investment before tax and costs of about $51 million.

On the other side of the state, United Dairy Power has been sold for an estimated $70 million.

Now that Saputo has control of WCB, and Bega and MG have banked sizeable profits for their part, and the privately-owned UDP has changed hands, the farmers crucial to the fortunes of all four are right to ask how they will benefit.

When Saputo made its initial offer for WCB, the price tag was $390m. That was before MG became involved and pushed the price at least $140m higher.

How will this additional money affect its proposed expansion of the processing facilities and its push into Asia (the main reason they pursued the company with such vigour)?

It is a massive company, but the additional funds are not small change.

Essentially, they have paid $530 million dollars for processing facilities and 10% of Australia’s milk supply. In contrast, Murray Goulburn has 33% of the country’s milk supply tied up. It has said it will seek more suppliers, but processors raiding each other’s supply pool won’t help the industry.

All processors need to grow the national milk supply and the best way to do that is to reward their suppliers with a healthier milk cheque.

For all the talk of the Asian food boom (and we do get tired of hearing how it will be the saviour of Australian agriculture), our processors need to claim a meaningful high-value stake and share the spoils with their suppliers.

Extra returns for Australian milk will give suppliers the confi-dence to invest in their business; international bidding wars don’t.

Of all the talk of investment and expansion, farmers want to see action – and the money.

Will the money trickle down the supply chain?


OPINION // 17

FARMERS ARE famous for having their eyes on the sky and predicting the weather from their deep knowledge of sea-sons past, often going back many generations. Unfor-tunately, the past is no longer a good guide to the future.

Last year was Austra-lia’s hottest year on record, with the hottest summer and the hottest January and September on record, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. By itself, one hot year doesn’t make for global warming, which is why it’s important to stand back and see the bigger picture.

In Australia, the number of record-high temperatures exceeded record lows by about five to one. Rainfall in south-ern and parts of eastern Australia is dropping and, when it does come, the rain is apt to arrive in tor-rents, raising the risk of flood. The continent’s average temperature is now nearly a full degree higher than it was in 1900, in line with global warm-ing predictions.

The problem as was recently explained by cli-mate scientists at the University of Melbourne shows the odds against these very hot weather conditions being due entirely to natural variabil-ity are 100 to one.

In other words, the warming cannot be

explained by natural causes alone. Climate change is happening and in all likelihood is caused by human action, whether we like it or not. The future of the dairy industry, then, depends on how well it accepts and adapts to this truth.

According to 97% of climate experts, human activity is making the weather hotter than it would otherwise have been if left to its own devices. The long term financial impost on agriculture of an increasingly warmer, drier world is much larger than a carbon price which would help to slow that change.

In fact, for most pro-ducers and consumers alike, the effect of a price on carbon would almost certainly be swamped by the costs of more hostile weather.

Let’s look at the dairy cow as an example. Dairy cows feel the effects of heat in numerous ways.. Hot spells are known to drop milk yields, by up to a quarter in some studies. A return to normal produc-tion levels may take some time. Relatively simple measures, such as ade-quate shelter and water, are often enough to pre-vent the sort of tragedy that saw around 80 cows perish near Maffra, NSW, in January’s heat wave.

In the long term though, many scientists warn the climate is likely

to change in fits, starts, and jumps, rather than a nice, gentle, slow rise in average temperature. This makes the task of adapta-tion on farm trickier.

And it’s not just the livestock that must grapple with more extremes. The physical and mental effects of prolonged hot, dry weather, as well as cat-astrophic fires and floods, are per-haps better understood by farm-ing families than most. Farmers are a resilient lot, but our resilience has limits that could be sorely stretched in the years ahead.

The Dairy industry is aware of the risks of cli-mate change both from a physical but also from a policy perspective.

As was reported in the Weekly Times on the Janu-ary 29, “Dairy leaders fear their international reputa-

tion as a sector that takes climate change seriously is being undermined by the Federal Government’s policy uncertainty. The Australian Dairy Indus-try Council has backed its farmers and manufactur-ers to play a major role in reducing emissions inten-sity with the right Com-monwealth support, despite being one of the most vocal opponents of the carbon tax.”

This foray into the cli-mate debate is under-standable. The dairy industry, through Noel Campbell, is saying some-thing needs to be done.

In a sub-mission to Fed-eral Par-liament’s inquiry of the Coali-tion’s Direct Action policy, Mr Campbell

argues the lack of policy detail at present is making it risky for investors. In line with these arguments the Climate Institute has long argued the Govern-ment should reveal the policy details of its own direct action proposal before they repeal the cur-rent clean energy legisla-tion.

Despite a weakened global economy, debt and extreme weather, the value of our agricultural

Overheated cows merely the tip of the iceberg

exports has continued to grow strongly. But our future is tied to the fate of the world. What hap-pens elsewhere affects us here. In particular, rising Asian demand for animal protein generates major opportunities for Austra-lian producers, but, as the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank warns, even a few degrees rise in the average global temper-ature has the potential to undo decades of economic growth in the region.

Should the growth in demand stall in our export markets, this would be an impact of climate change on the Australian dairy farmers as much as the heat waves and drought here. And don’t forget, cli-mate change will bite into the affordability of fuel, feed, and other inputs.

A key element of Aus-tralian agriculture’s strong competitiveness is its world-class quality man-agement, from paddock to plate. The task now,

for all farmers, is to make sure our competitiveness is shored up by high-qual-ity environmental perfor-mance, including in the carbon arena, and despite politicians’ shenanigans.

To hold the view that the world’s leading cli-mate scientists have got it wrong, that farmers have more to fear from climate policies than from climate change itself, is radical and deeply concerning. Like all parts of our business we need to manage the risks that come with climate change.

A prudent and prag-matic risk management approach is shared by a lot of farmers and global food companies like Uni-lever and Fonterra, with both making public state-ments accepting the chal-lenge of a low-carbon economy. Fonterra has taken a proactive approach to climate change—the kind that should serve its members well in the long term. The company suc-

cessfully lobbied govern-ment for assistance to help farmers understand their energy use and make sav-ings. In fact, it showed that the costs of the previous government’s carbon price could be offset by straight-forward energy efficiency measures. Unfortunately, that message was lost in the political fray and scare-mongering that ensued and undid the Clean Energy legislation.

Let’s not beat about the bush, a carbon price does pose challenges for some producers, but there are far bigger risks to farmers: lingering policy uncertainty and political flip-flopping, to name one; the sheer physical reality of a changing climate, to name another. Overheated cows are merely the tip of the iceberg, a rapidly melt-ing one at that. • Mark Wootton is princi-pal and manager of Jigsaw Farms, Hamilton, Victoria and Chair of The Climate Institute.

Many scientists warn the climate is likely to change in fits and starts, rather than a slow rise in average temperature.

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18 // BREEDING MANAGEMENT

JOHN HINKLEY has enjoyed seasons in the sun and seasons in the rain in 30 years of dairy farming, but he has never wavered from his belief in low-risk, seasonal farming.

Keeping a lid on pro-duction costs, maintaining a fertile cross-bred herd, feeding almost exclusively home-grown pastures and maximising the benefits of spring rainfall have been the keys to his success.

The low-risk system means Mr Hinkley is not frightened by dry years and has been able to main-tain a consistent return on capital of 8% or more, regardless of weather con-ditions.

Milking 525 crossbred cows off a 320ha milk-ing platform with a 160ha run-off at Elingamite near Cobden in south-west Victoria, Mr Hinkley has pegged production costs

to $2.85 kg/MS plus the variables of labour and leasing costs.

The farm averages pro-duction between 380-420 kg/MS per cow.

Mr Hinkley grew up on a small dairy farm at nearby Tesbury but was working as an office clerk for the local shire when the dairying bug hit at age 26. “I guess I just wanted to be like my dad,” he said.

He and wife Jan started in 1984 with 12 Friesian cows on 64ha.

His mentor, Colac-based farm management consultant Kevin Maher, introduced him to the sea-sonal farming system.

“It made sense to me. Seasonal farming is how we’re going to get the industry back on track,” Mr Hinkley said.

“To grow the industry we must get processors to pay farmers for making spring milk.

“The simple philos-ophy is calve them, join

them and dry them off.”With a focus on profit

over production, the system is working.

The Hinkley farm has consistently stuck with a single mid-May calv-ing. “That is in synch with when the season starts. It gives us the chance to set up the farm for the season.”

For three years in the mid-1990s the farm went away from its traditional calving time, moving to late June and feeding a lot

of grain.“We got caught up in

the production cycle. We still dried the cows off but the profit in those three years of chasing high pro-duction was the worst in our time of farming.”

Apart from that brief sojourn, profit takes prec-edent over production levels.

“You have to build a system with a certain level of returns and control the costs,” he said.

The farm moved to cross-breeds in 1995 after leasing more land.

“We realised we needed more cattle. Everything we could possibly get hold of we reared. By 2000 we realised the cross-breeds were far out-stripping the rest of the herd, in production, conception rates, toughness…every way.”

From 2000 the farm has used a New Zealand based animal because of the seasonality of their

WHO: John Hinkley WHERE: Elingamite WHAT: Seasonal farming

RICK BAYNE

Low risk but high return

system. “They are very strong seasonal farming enterprises over there. It has been fantastic for us. We go on size, rather than an actual breed.”

The farm calves on a range of 450-500kg.

They use A.I. for six weeks and mop-up bulls for seven weeks. A concep-tion rate of between 4 and 8% not in calf is testimony to the farm’s success. “If you dry off, it will breed fertility into your system,” Mr Hinkley said.

The farm uses LIC genetic products to assist the process, chosen because LIC has a seasonal calving system.

While he concedes his stocking rate of .65 per cow per hectare and pro-duction rate of around 400 kg/MS seems low in today’s farming environ-ment, however when the industry was struggling in recent years the farm

retained a return to capi-tal of 8%.

“That is because of low-risk, seasonal farming.”

The cows consume 90-95% home-grown feed. “Fully feeding cows off home-grown pasture is the optimum of our oper-ation.”

The farm uses only 400-500kg of supplements per year, which is part of the low-risk strategy.

“Why should farm-ing be any different to any other industry when it comes to minimising risk? You enjoy it much more when you take risk out of it.”

Dry seasons don’t worry him; in fact he sees opportunities and posi-tives among the chal-lenges.

“You dry your cows off 10 days earlier and you set your next year up…what’s wrong with that?”

The farm achieved

record production two years ago when many farms were struggling.

“We set next October up in the previous Octo-ber. We work out what we need to grow on farm and what our stocking rate needs to be, to mini-mise our risks going into summer.

“Banks like to know you’ve got risks under con-trol and banks like profit-able farms.”

The farm has an ongo-ing process of pasture improvement, keeping the “typical dairy country with loam and heavy soils and about 850mm of rain” in good shape. They try to dedicate about 10-15% of the farm to summer crops, a bit lower than industry standards but sufficient for their needs.

“We aim to be environ-mentally and economi-cally sustainable farmers,” he said.The Hinkleys use a crossbred herd.

John and Jan Hinkley started their dairy operation in 1984 with 12 friesian ows on 64ha.

John Hinkley has never waivered from his belief in low-risk, seasonal farming.

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BREEDING MANAGEMENT // 19

DAIRY FARMERS are being asked to provide as much mating data as they can for inclusion in the April 2014 Australian Breeding Values (ABVs), to help improve fertility in the dairy industry.

The amount of fertil-ity-related data contrib-uted by dairy farmers to the Australian Dairy Herd Improvement Scheme (ADHIS) has already increased significantly.

Between October and December 2013, dairy farmers submitted 858,110 mating records, of which 123,325 were from cows that had not previously been part of ABV calcula-tions.

This is more than double the average increase over the last three years for the same period. The increase follows a recent upgrade of one of the key herd management software packages used on dairy farms, Easy Dairy.

Dairy Futures CRC’s CEO, Dr David Nation, said this was an excel-lent start to a coordinated industry effort to boost dairy cattle fertility.

“Dairy farmers need breeding values in order to select for fertility, and breeding values are only reliable if they are based on plenty of good data,” he said.

“Improving dairy cattle fertility is one of the CRC’s key research focuses, and we know that a lot of qual-ity fertility data is being lost. Farmers collect it for their own herd man-agement, but it does not always flow from farms to data processing centres.”

The solution was a coordinated effort between Dairy Futures CRC, the ADHIS and a range of other parties to maximise the industry benefits from the work being done on farms. Since early 2013, the project team has been working to identify and remedy barriers that prevent fertility data being included in breeding value

calculations.Dr Nation said the

upgrade by Easy Dairy was very timely and had pro-duced immediate results.

“This recent boost in data is a very promising result from early adopt-ers of the upgrade, and we hope to see even greater impact as more farmers get on board,” he said.

ADHIS extension and education manager, Michelle Axford encour-aged farmers to ensure their data was included in Australian breeding value (ABV) calculations.

“We know there is a lot more quality data on farms that could be used to bring about faster genetic gain within herds,” she said.

“We’re asking farm-ers who use herd manage-ment software to check they are using the most recent version, and make sure they enter mating data by mid-February so it can be included in the April 2014 ABV calcula-tions.

“We expect to see better fertility breeding values in April because more data is flowing.”

Dr Nation said the fer-tility data project was just one of a number of ways the CRC was working with other industry organisa-tions to improve dairy cattle fertility.

“Earlier work has improved the fertility ABV by incorporating more fer-tility-related indicators into the calculation model. This ongoing work with fertility data will unlock the benefits by channel-ling more data into the cal-culation.

“Collectively, we believe our fertility work will increase the six-week in-calf rate by 10% over time, which would return the fertility of the national dairy herd to levels not seen since the 1990s,” he said.

The research is being conducted by the Depart-ment of Environment and Primary Industries, Vic-toria.

Push for herd data rewarded

Dairy farmers submitted 858,110 mating records

between October and December 2013.


20 // MANAGEMENT

NSW DAIRY farmer Justin Walsh has changed the diet of his herd in recent months, increasing production and improving his profitability.

Justin is the co-manager, with his father Colin, of the 200 hectare family farm at Jaspers Brush, near Berry, where they are milking 220 head, with hopes to increase numbers.

The herd comprises 95% Holsteins with some Jerseys, and Justin also man-ages the Waljasper Holstein Stud.

The Walshes had always used pel-lets in the dairy but Justin said the cost was preventing them from expanding their herd.

“Whichever way we looked at it, we knew pellets were the biggest cost,” he said. “We used pellets because it was convenient and we didn’t want the extra work associated with traditional feed mills.

“We spoke too many of our indus-try contacts and one in particular sug-gested that a fully automated system with almost no extra work from Skiold & VMS might be worth looking at.”

After speaking with Martin Liese of Skiold & VMS, based in Jimboomba, Queensland, they purchased a complete Skiold Flex Mix plant including a Skiold disc mill two months ago. Skiold & VMS also did the complete installation.

“I was impressed with the level of expertise Skiold & VMS offered throughout the design, sales and instal-lation of the feed mill.”

It has increased their versatility,

opening up many feeding options. “There are very few things we can’t

feed cows now. We can adjust to what-ever is most cost effective,” Justin said.

“We are feeding barley, wheat and canola at the moment – that is the base of the ration. We might do corn and lupins if they get cheaper as well as any-thing else that might suit.”

The rule of thumb at the moment is 40% wheat, 40% barley, 10% canola then additives. He was surprised at how his herd adjusted from pellets to 100% grain.

“The odd girl was a bit fussy but there was no real problem.

“Our milk production has gone up because we have more milk produc-ing ingredients in the mix. Our pellets contained 10-20% millrun but we can replace that with grain now.”

They grind and mix 1.6 tonnes a day, with cows fed 7.5 kg over the course of a

day. The Skiold Flex Mix control system means no extra labour and will auto-matically produce the desired feed mix.

“The Flex Mix control also keeps records allowing us to know the quan-tity of ingredients we are using and what recipes we have made.”

The Walshes plan to have around 10-12 rations from baby calves right through to the milking herd. “When it comes to our show animals we can easily customise a diet for a particular individual or group with the touch of a button if needed.”

The mill will be set up to run on off-peak power.

The Skiold disc mill and flex mix control easily caters for their require-ment of 600t of grain a year.

Change of diet improves profit at Jaspers Bush

WHO: Justin Walsh WHERE: Jaspers Brush, near Berry WHAT: Change of diet

“If I want to milk up to 500 cows down the track, I don’t need to spend more. It’s ready to go,” Justin said.

The switch from pellets to grain is saving an esti-mated $200 a day and the mill and associated equip-ment, including silo and auger, will pay for itself in 18 months.

With these savings, Justin is already think-ing of the day they replace their old 18-a-side swing-

over herringbone. “We couldn’t afford to build a new dairy without doing this first,” he said.

The seasons continue to vary in the district, with two very wet winters fol-lowed by two extremely dry springs.

“We had our biggest flood in quite a while in winter, then almost nothing until Christmas,” Justin said.

However, milk prices are better at 53.5 cents a litre, now they are supply-ing Parmalat.

With less outlay due to their recent change in feed composition, they can skim more of that milk price off for profit.

Justin Walsh with his show cows at International Dairy Week.

The Skiold Flex Mix control system means feed requirements can be changed at the touch of a button.

Justin Walsh believes the Skiold Flex Mix plant will pay for itself in 18 months through feed savings.

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MANAGEMENT // 21

FARMERS ATTEND-ING International Dairy Week were urged to prop-erly test their supplemen-tary feed sources to avoid compromising produc-tion.

Geraldine Perkins, from CRC AgriSolutions, told an industry informa-tion breakfast that not enough farmers were get-ting optimum value for their feed investment because they don’t feed test, and many that don’t test are taking an overly-optimistic guess about their feed quality, or are incorrectly estimating dry matter percentages, which

can have a big impact on dry matter intake.

“There are more farm-ers who are testing their feed now than there were five years ago, but still not enough,” Mrs Perkins said.

It was important for industry service providers to encourage their clients to feed test.

“If you don’t do it you run the risk of compromis-ing production,” she said. “If you think your feed is better than it is, you’re not going to hit your milk pro-duction targets. The tests will help you to balance your rations more accu-

rately in order to achieve better results.

“At the end of the day, there’s no point kidding yourself; you need to know exactly what you’re getting so you can make decisions about adequate supple-mentation to achieve your desired energy and protein levels.”

She urged farmers to not necessarily purchase the cheapest feed options when buying in feed.

“Even if something looks expensive on a per tonne basis, it is important to break it down to a cents per megajoule or cents per unit of protein basis to

Limit production losses with proper feed testing

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IT IS HOPED a new robotic dairy appointment will drive the uptake of robotic dairy technologies across the industry.

Dr Nicolas Lyons has been appointed to the newly created robotic dairy position based at the NSW Department of Pri-mary Industries’ (DPI) Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute in Camden. The new national posi-

tion is funded by the DPI and will work closely with the University of Sydney, Dairy Australia and the Future Dairy project.

DPI manager dairy and in-tensive livestock industries, Tim Burfitt, said the new robotic dairy role will help the dairy industry tap into new technologies and improve the efficiency of their business.

understand the true feed value.”

Mrs Perkins added that feed found to be low grade could still be used on lower production cows or to supplement dry cows.

Feed Central Sheppar-ton branch manager Kim Colwell said the informa-tion breakfast gave clients and the local farming com-munity an opportunity to find out the latest details about feed testing and local production levels.

Ross Read, from Feed Central’s Shepparton branch, demonstrated the new NIR feed testing facil-ity which is the only one of its type approved by lead-ing international labora-tory Dairy One for use in Australia.

This optical near-infrared technology gives unmatched performance across the full wavelength range of 400 to 2500nm and tests for moisture, energy and protein, or more demanding param-eters such as amino acids, ash or fibres, producing accurate results in less than a minute.

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DAIRY AUSTRALIA has released a new smart phone app to help body condition score cows more effectively.

Designed in consultation with dairy farmers and advisors, the Cow Body Condition Scoring Tool app is easy to use featuring large graphics to help dairy farmers and advisors get a standardised mea-sure of cows’ body energy and pro-tein reserves at critical times of lactation.

Dairy Australia’s Feedbase pro-gram manager, John Evans, said the app will help farmers work-ing with seasonal and split calv-ing herds take greater control over their herd’s feeding.

“The app has been designed to make the body condition scor-ing process easier so farmers can realise the benefits in their herd’s reproductive performance and milk production.

“In the past farmers and advi-sors would have referred to photos in books such as the Condition Magician. This app uses the same simple scoring method using the graphics and the touch screen and

it takes only seconds to score each cow,” he said.

The app also features three scoring methods that are also avail-able to suit beginners, intermediate and advance users so anyone is able to use it, Dr Evans said.

Herd results are provided instantly after each scoring event with suggested actions to con-sider. A results summary includ-ing a graph can then be emailed as a permanent record.

Tasmanian-based herd nutri-tion advisor, Pip Gale, of Van-guard Nutrition, said the app will make the recording process easier for farmers and the high quality of reporting would be of great value.

“The great thing about the app is that you can take it anywhere, anyone can use it and you can circu-late the information on the spot,” Mr Gale said.

“It’s often the case that you are out in the paddock with your pen and paper and you are trying to record your BCS average by hand so the app makes the process easier that way. Sometimes you lose the piece of paper so to have a perma-

nent record saved on the phone for next time that you can immediately compare with is very handy.”

Farm stakeholders such as vets and farm owners could also be kept up-to-date as the results summary could be emailed. As the results were also offered in graph form they were also easier to interpret, Mr Gale said.

The app is available for both

Android smart phones and iPhone.To download the app visit www.

dairyaustralia.com.au/BCS for a direct link or visit the Google Play or iTunes Apple store.

For farmers who don’t have a smartphone Dairy Australia has also created a new BCS handbook and recording sheets that will be available from the Dairy Australia website.


22 // MANAGEMENT

Measure so you can manageI OFTEN hear farmers talk about more cows meaning more milk production, but although true sometimes, more commonly, a few less cows will make a farm more efficient and profitable.

The farm system will dictate the correct stocking rate, with it possible to have high and low profitability in all production systems.

But ultimately profitability is determined by the operator’s ability to achieve the planned combined result from efficient use of cows, feed and other farm resources.

Over the years, cows have become more efficient at using feed to make milk, to the extent where farmers actually need fewer cows every year for the existing feed resource.

This has been well demonstrated in a number of trials and in the demonstration at the Lincoln University Dairy Farm (LUDF) in

New Zealand. It runs a pasture system with pasture baleage being the only supplement, where a significant drop in the herd size by 40 cows helped to facilitate an increase in milk production from 420kgms up to 485kgms/cow.

It also resulted in cash savings, as a smaller herd means fewer replacements and reduced costs for things like wintering, health and mating.

Clearly there are physical and biological limits to potential efficiency gains but every year farmers are making gains in the levels of production of both harvested pasture and production per cow. Calculated example of fewer cows which are more efficient

Let’s take a farm with 14,000kg pasture DM, reliably able to be eaten by the herd, and they purchase a further 2,500kgDM/ha as wintering and silage:

Using the feed source above Table 1 shows how feed is much more profitably used

at 3.15cows/ha than 3.53cows/ha assuming management is skilled enough and the overall environment is such that the production per cow can be achieved.

Table 2 represents the same total feed but with an average of 12.0MJME/kgDM, showing the other key driver of stocking rate and profitability – feed quality.

Knowing how much feed is produced and consumed in a farm system and being able to manipulate the numbers around that are key to resetting and maintaining profitable farm systems as the costs of inputs and milk price change.

Simple recording and benchmarking tools provide farmes with the tools and background numbers needed to analyse and therefore predict with a greater degree of accuracy what will happen when changes are made to a farm feed supply or stocking rate.

As with anything in farming, the general rule is always to measure, so you can manage.

kg ms/cow 360 380 400 420 440cows/ha 3.53 3.43 3.33 3.24 3.15ms/ha 1270 1302 1332 1360 1387

kg ms/cow 360 380 400 420 440cows/ha 3.68 3.57 3.47 3.38 3.29ms/ha 1325 1358 1390 1419 1447

Table 1

Table 2

GEORGE REVELEY

14,000 kgDM Pasture eaten/ha 2,500 kgDM Supplement eaten/ha 16,500 total eaten 11.5 MJME/kgDM average

Body condition scoring made easy with new smart app

Pip Gale with the body condition soaring app.

DAIRY FARM MANAGER POSITION

Macquarie Franklin is seeking applications from experienced dairy farm managers on behalf of a client.

The farm is located on King Island. The position provides an opportunity to join a highly productive and progressive business during an exciting time of industry growth. The farm has significant potential and applicants should have an interest in the management of farm development as well as being capable in managing day to day operations.

The successful applicants will be able to demonstrate a high level of skills in the following:

• Animal husbandry including calf rearing• Pasture management and feeding• Staff management• Operation and maintenance of dairy,

irrigation and farm equipment• Farm development supervision

An attractive remuneration package will be offered including accommodation located on the local school bus route.

An application in writing clearly indicating experience and referees should be forwarded to:

Dairy Farm Manager Position Macquarie Franklin

112 Wright Street East Devonport TAS 7310

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Applications close: COB Wednesday 19th February 2014

For further information please contact: Basil Doonan 0400 455 158

[email protected]


MANAGEMENT // 23

A HAY WEIGHT and quality estimating com-petition held during the South Gippsland Dairy Expo last year showed some very interesting, but not surprising results. The results reinforce the importance of weighing hay bales so that farm-ers do not over-feed their animals, leading to need-lessly wasted hay, or do not under-feed, causing lost production (milk or weight) and overgrazed pastures.

The competition also showed that simply look-ing at a bale of hay is not necessarily a sound way to estimate fodder quality. Anyone who is purchasing hay (or silage) should seri-ously consider investing in a feed test and having the quality analysed before doing a deal.

Over the two days of the Dairy Expo, 125 people had a crack at estimating the fresh weight of a large square bale (240 x 122 x 87cm, ie 8’ x 4’ x 3’ bale size) of lucerne hay and a round bale (145 x 144cm, ie 5’ x 4’) of pasture hay. Before being transported to the Expo the bales were weighed dry at the DEPI Ellinbank Centre, to the nearest kilogram.

The estimations, and obviously “guesstima-tions” in some cases, ranged widely. Many people estimating weight and estimating hay quality perhaps should have been a lot more accurate than they were.

The actual weight of the lucerne bale was 627kg but weight estima-tions ranged from 150kg to 2145kg, and the aver-age estimated weight was 717kg. When the outlying six estimates which were under 300kg and four that were over 1500kg are excluded, the average esti-mated weight was 707kg, which is still way over the actual weight.

The actual weight of the round pasture bale was 415kg and the average of the estimated weights was 429kg. Not too bad, eh? Well, the estimated

weights actually ranged from 124kg to 1650kg. Now that’s shabby. Only 36% of estimates were within 50kg of the actual weight of 415kg, of which two thirds underestimated the weight.

If hay was bought or sold solely on an esti-mated weight per bale basis, the load of hay will have been very prohibi-tively expensive or ridicu-lously cheap.

If we don’t have rea-sonably accurate weights for the hay bales being fed out, farmers could be over- or under-feeding animals. Over feeding is usually easy to see but under-feed-ing is often not so obvious and either can have a large impact of your animal’s daily intake and resultant production, and needless expense due to waste.

To pick the winners of the hay quality estima-tion we assessed both the megajoules of metabolis-able energy per kilogram of dry matter (MJ ME/kg DM) and per cent of crude protein (CP) for the clos-est nutritive values. These are the most important components of feeds, but this is not to undermine the importance of the per cent value of neutral detergent fibre (NDF) as also being very important.

On the quality front, the round bale of pas-ture hay tested at 9.6 ME, 10.8% CP and 62.3% NDF. The average estimated quality values for the pas-ture round bale ranged from 6.7 to 11.0 ME, 4.6 to 16.5% CP and 53 to 80% NDF (with estimated aver-ages being 9.0, 10.9 and 59.6 respectively).

The large square lucerne bale tested at 9.4 ME, 21.8% CP and 41.2% NDF. The range of esti-mates from contestants was 9.0 to 17.5 ME, 10.2 to 28% CP and 30 to 80% NDF, (with estimated averages being 12.1, 20.2 and 52.9 respectively).

Unfortunately, only 15 people attempted esti-mating the nutritive value of the large square bale and only 10 for the round bale. However, during some conversations I found many folk do not

Hay weight competition exposes poor judgmentFRANK MICKAN

have a good handle on the nutritive value of fod-ders that are being fed. Even more worrying, was that even though many people understood the importance of crude pro-tein and what that term meant, many did not know what metabolis-able energy (ME) or neu-tral detergent fibre (NDF) stood for, much less what

they meant when used to describe quality of feeds.

These are the basic terms used to describe the nutritive value of all feeds being offered to animals and understanding these terms is the guts between knowing when an animal is being fed for high, medium low production, or not even fed enough to prevent weight loss. With

the cost/price squeeze continually happening over the long term, farm-ers need to know and be able to use this informa-tion to help to stay ahead of the game.• Frank Mickan is with DEPI, Ellinbank.

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24 // ANIMAL HEALTH

IF YOU think it has been hot out on the farm...you’re right.

Bureau of Meteorol-ogy figures show 2013 was the hottest year on record. The average tempera-tures were 1.20°C above the long-term average of 21.8°C, breaking the previ-ous record set in 2005 by 0.17°C.

All states and territo-ries recorded above aver-age temperatures and Australian temperatures have warmed about 1°C since 1950.

This year is off to another scorcher with suc-cessive days over 40°C across the country.

The increasing tem-peratures, higher humid-ity and more back-to-back days of excessive heat are putting more strain on farmers to ensure their herds don’t suffer heat-related illnesses.

At the same time farm-

ers are being advised to ensure cooling measures don’t inflame mastitis problems.

Dairy Australia’s Cool Cows website outlines various strategies to help cows cope with the heat. These include providing shade in paddocks, bring-ing cows to a shade shed prior to milking, sprin-kling cows, ensuring they have ready access to cool drink-ing water and ensuring they have adequate minerals in their diet.

As con-ditions worsen, these mea-sures can be ramped up to include morning and eve-ning sprinklings, keeping cows in a close paddock so they don’t have to walk too far, changing milking time to later in the day, feed-ing higher quality forage

and using fans to create air movement.

Dr Rod Dyson, princi-pal veterinary consultant and team leader at Dairy Focus in northern Victo-ria, said that while these measures are essential, they also increase the risk of mastitis.

Dr Dyson said the use of shade and sprinklers are vital to keep cows alive as

the region reg-ularly copes with up to five back-to-back days of temper-atures above 40°C.

“It is a pri-ority for farm-ers to deal with the heat stress but they should think about

how they do it and take precautions to reduce the risk of mastitis,” he said.

Dr Dyson said factors leading to increased mas-titis risk included con-tamination of the teat with bacteria-laden mate-

rial from cows congregat-ing in small shaded areas, the condition of the teat end and orifice, and milk-ing practices such as sprin-kling which leads to wet teats and higher risk of bacteria.

However, farmers can make simple adjustments to reduce the risks.

“If you put the water

Fine-tuning heat protocolsRICK BAYNE

trough 50m down a lane-way they will defecate less in the shaded area, and you could also con-sider if the cows need to stay overnight in the same area,” Dr Dyson said.

“If possible, farmers should manage the envi-ronment by grading and scraping the area to avoid mud, faeces and urine get-ting on the teat.”

He suggested a timed on-off sprinkler system. “That will use less water, provide better cooling, reduce the risk of exces-sive water over the teat, and the water is less likely to contaminate teats.”

Dr Dyson recom-mended introducing either a wash and dry pro-gram, or just a drying pro-gram for wet teats prior to cups on during hot days, to substantially reduce bacte-ria on teats.

Farmers should also be careful with use of sprin-klers after cups-off.

“Ensuring optimal

milking conditions, mini-mising over-milking and maximising post-milk-ing teat disinfection will reduce the risks,” he said.

Dr Bob Rheinberger, from Ironmines Veteri-nary Clinic in Mittagong NSW, said farmers should use their “cow sense” in monitoring stock.

“It has been hot but we haven’t seen severe heat stress this summer, mainly because we’ve had cooler nights and breaks in extreme temperatures which have helped them to drop their core tempera-ture,” Dr Rheinberger said.

“Farmers generally act responsibly in monitoring their stock.”

Dr Rheinberger said increased humidity and persistent long-term heat could be dangerous for cows and farmers should watch for warning signs such as increasing respira-tory rates and drooling in their cows.

There are several

techniques that can be employed to reduce core temperature and prevent heat stress.

Dr Rheinberger sug-gested ensuring cows are in paddocks with shade on extreme days if pos-sible, adding shade cloth on dairy yards and using sprinklers to keep them cool.

“A lot of farmers don’t sprinkle their cows with water in the morning because they seem cooler, but I would encourage them to do that if it is going to be an extremely hot day,” he said.

“It might also help to have fans in the dairy yards to keep them cool after using the sprinklers. There is a concern in feed-lots that just wetting the cows could add to the humidity.”

However, Dr Rheinberger warned farmers not to let the

“Cows are particularly susceptible to humidity and while shade is a priority, airflow is often overlooked.”

TO PAGE 26

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ANIMAL HEALTH // 25

HAPPY NEW Year to all the readers of Dairy News Australia. I hope you all had a safe Christmas break, and as I write this, the kids are starting back at school eager to engulf themselves in a new year also.

I also wake up each morning and look envi-ously across the road at my neighbours grow-ing maize crop. It really is a beautiful thing to see. What it reminds me of though is that I need to write this month’s article about the risk of botulism in silage.

Botulism is a poten-tially devastating dis-ease caused by the toxins produced by the bacteria Clostridium botulinum.

The bacteria survive in the environment as a very resistant spore form, and when the right condi-tions occur, the vegetative (growing) organism mul-tiplies and produces toxin. The most common toxins we observe causing dis-ease in cattle are the type C and type D toxin and these have been respon-sible for some very severe outbreaks and some mon-umental losses of both milk production and live-stock.

The botulinum toxin type A is better known as Botox, and is used to smooth the wrinkles on the faces of everyone from housewives to Hol-lywood stars. The way it stops wrinkles is basically by paralysing the mus-cles that cause frown lines to form, and when a cow consumes sufficient bot-ulinum toxin it acts the same way, but it will para-lyse the muscles associ-ated with swallowing. A cow that cannot swallow will quickly become dehy-drated and will die. The toxin has no specific anti-dote, and only long term intensive nursing care can save but a few affected ani-mals. Most affected ani-mals are best humanely destroyed to prevent suf-fering.

Silage, whether pit or round bale, is a common source of botulism. This may occur because the silage is poorly made allowing large numbers of the bacteria to repro-duce and make toxin in the spoilt, rotting vege-table matter, but a more common way for botulism

to occur is for snakes or other reptiles, carcasses of mice, rats, foxes or other dead animals, or even poultry litter to contami-nate the silage.

Often, when feed-ing silage out in rings or fed out in the paddock, if the feed is spoiled, cattle will refuse that part of the silage or only a handful of animals will be exposed to the contaminated feed, reducing the risk of wide-spread disease.

But when silage is fed out as part of a mixed ration using a feed mixing wagon, the contaminated silage is widely distributed throughout the feed, pal-atability issues are negated and many animals can become ill from only quite a small amount of contam-ination.

For this reason that I recommend that all pro-ducers who feed any amount of silage through a mixing wagon should vac-cinate their entire herd on an annual basis, including any young stock.

For herds that do not feed silage at all, or don’t use a mixer wagon, their risk profile is lower to somewhat lower. I still would recommend vac-cination in many of these herds as an insurance policy against the possi-bility of losses. It is this assessment of individual risk that each producer must make, best done in discussion with your dairy vet to determine whether vaccination is best. It forms part of a larger dis-cussion regarding risk management, and because individual producers have different attitudes to risk, different cashflow situa-tions etc, it is hard to make a one size fits all recom-mendation.

For some of my clients who have very high value individual cows, the loss of just one cow would cover the cost of many, many years of vaccination.

There are a number of vaccination options avail-

Reduce the risk of botulismable, and it can be quite confusing what to recom-mend. Ironically, some of the very long-term vac-cinations (which only need boosters every 2 or 3 years) actually require a consistent low level exposure to the toxin to maintain the long-term immunity. In low or very low risk herds, they may be an inappropriate vac-cine choice.

This is one of the many reasons why you should

consult with your herd veterinarian when decid-ing on your vaccination program as they are the only animal health profes-sional who can give you unbiased, scientifically sound advice to manage risk and ensure your herd’s future health. • Rob Bonanno is a past president of the Australian Cattle Veterinarians Asso-ciation and a Director of the Shepparton Veterinary Clinic.

ANIMAL HEALTHROB BONANNO

Farmers must be especially careful of spoiled silage when using a feed mixing wagon.

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ARE YOUR cell counts increasing and above 100,000 and is your clin-ical mastitis above 10% of the herd for the whole year? If so, it will be cost-ing you money.

The first step in man-aging mastitis is to assess what you are doing and critically examine control measures on your farm.

The most common form of transfer of bacte-ria from cow to cow is in the dairy shed when cups

are put on a cow, because the cups will contain bac-teria from milking a previ-ous cow that had clinical or subclinical mastitis.

Bacteria do not enter the teat straight away as it takes time to migrate from the sides of the teat down to the bottom and normally enters the teat canal between milkings.

Teat spraying has been shown to prevent this form of transfer and will reduce cell counts and clinical mastitis by 50%. Yet poor teat spraying effectiveness would be the

most common problem I see when investigating mastitis problems.

In a survey of 200 mas-titis problems, 35% of

farmers were achieving good coverage and 35% were using the correct dilution rate, but only 12% of the farmers had both

the coverage and dilu-tion rate correct. This is despite all the communi-cation and education on the importance of teat dis-


26 // ANIMAL HEALTH

temperature of cows drop too fast on hot days. “We don’t see that very often, but is does create the risk of pneumonia,” he said.

Dr Rebel Skirving, from Gambier Vets in south-east South Australia, said access to shade was the most ben-eficial thing for hot cows but farmers should also use sprays, ensure cows are properly fed and have access to cool water, and have adequate airflow if possible.

“Cows are particularly susceptible to humidity and while shade is a priority, airflow is often overlooked,” Dr Skirving said.

Having enough trees for shade is important, but Dr Skirving said sheds with open air and cloth shades could be successful substitutes.

“Cows tend to eat less in the heat but their energy demands increase and so farmers should encourage extra feeding,” she added.

FROM PAGE 24

Fine tuning heat protocols

Rising cell counts spell loss of profits

Normal teat. Rough teat.

infection as being prob-ably the most important single step in a mastitis control programme.

The next most common issue is teat end damage. Bacteria that cause mastitis have to enter the udder through the teat canal and the cow is very reliant on the integ-rity of the teat end.

A beef cow rarely gets mastitis because her teat end is smooth and supple from suckling by calves. A dairy cow is suscepti-ble to mastitis and a major reason for this is teat end damage from machine milking.

Look at the teat ends of 50 cows and if more than 80% of the teats are not smooth and supple, and the teat opening undam-aged, then you have a problem. There are many reasons for teat end damage. The machine set-tings or liner type may not be suitable for your herd or there may be over-milk-ing causing excessive wear on the teat opening.

If there is teat damage then it would pay to have an assessment done as to possible causes, otherwise you will continue to get

new clinical infections and your cell counts will con-tinue to rise.

Another important issue is cup slip. If a cup slips, air rushes in and blasts any infection in the cluster against and into the canals of the other teats. This results in trans-fer of bacteria into the teat during milking and teat spraying has no effect against this form of trans-fer. Common causes of cup slip include poor clus-ter alignment, unsuitable liners and vacuum too low.

The next thing to assess is how well cows are milked out. There should be wrinkles visible on the udder and you should not be able to strip more than 500ml of milk from the udder. There are multiple causes of poor milk-out, but the most common is cow discomfort due to teat damage.

Mastitis happens for a reason. Critically exam-ining your situation is the first step in achiev-ing 100,000 cell count and less than 10% clinical mas-titis.• Adrian Joe is a vet and mastitis consultant based in New Zealand.

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WHEN A bulk milk somatic cell count is higher than it should be, the guess work often begins.

Farmers can now focus on managing mastitis at the cow level with the DeLaval Cell Counter (DCC), according to DeLaval marketing man-ager Rowena Harper.

The DCC is a portable instrument for testing milk samples that gives an accu-rate result within one minute. It can also be operated during milking when you need the information the most.

Mick and Nicole Uebergang from Ayreford have now reduced their cell count to a current average of 91,000 where several years ago they found it difficult to stay in the premium milk band.

Simple strategies like testing every colostrum cow with the DCC before

putting her in the main herd, and repeat testing cows that weren’t low enough after another five days have made a big difference.

The Uebergangs said getting their cell count down “saved us a fortune in not only dollars, but time, frustra-tion and stress”.

In Ecklin South, Alex Fulton has found that the DCC has improved

his overall herd and masti-tis management program too.

“The results are available to us instantly and we can make direct individual or herd management decisions during the course of milking,” Mr Fulton said.

“We continually test cows throughout the season and it has taken a lot of the guess-work out.”

Mr Fulton has also reduced the amount of unnecessary culling of cows, because he is now dealing

with facts. “The DCC paid for itself within

the first 12 months, and our cell count average has dropped to around 100,000 with much less work.”

By treating mastitic cows proac-tively, the cross infection rates are reduced too, further benefiting the herd’s somatic cell count.


ANIMAL HEALTH // 27

Magnesium deficiency can be a production thief before calving

STAGGERS, GRASS TETANY, hypomagnesae-mia, magnesium downer cow: whatever you want to call it, if you don’t have the right program in place, some of your cows will die.

Magnesium defi-ciency can be a problem when soils are deficient, and by default the pas-tures will also be lack-ing. Coupled with cows calving in winter/spring, which is when the weather is cold and wet, the mag-nesium dietary deficiency is amplified because we can’t adequately get mag-nesium into our cows through some methods when climatic conditions turn sour.

The critical time for magnesium deficiency to be a production thief is just prior to calving, and then the fortnight after calving while the cow is in negative energy balance. If she becomes a downer cow or is an induced cow, she can go down again any number of times while she still can’t physi-cally eat enough to sus-tain her production. At calving, there is a huge demand for dietary mag-nesium because not only is magnesium diverted to

milk, but it’s required by muscles during birth, and it’s also required to aid in mobilising calcium stores from bones.

There is no denying that downer cows cost money.

Additionally, she will take up a place on the cull or a sale list when you may have other cows that were far more suitable candi-dates to exit the herd.

Best practice for sup-plementing magnesium is to alter your strategy to cater for your herd’s needs in accordance with the weather, and within your budget.

Therefore, well before your calves are due, talk to your veterinarian, farm consultant and magne-sium supplier to devise a plan most likely to reduce the risk of downer cows on your property.

There are a number of methods that you can use, and it’s likely that achiev-ing the least number of downer cows in a season will need to combine a few of the available meth-ods. Identifying your at-risk cows in the herd is a good place to start. These are older cows and heifers, anything in light body con-dition, and any cow that has been a downer cow. These ones you need to

watch, and they may well be among your top pro-ducers.

The susceptibility of your property to magne-sium deficiency, the size of your herd, and the per-centage of cows on your at-risk list, will guide you as to what supple-mentation methods will work best on your farm. Improving your magne-sium supplementation may reduce the risk of cal-cium deficiency (milk fever), but the two condi-tions are different. If cows are going down with milk fever, post-calving calcium supplementation will be required as well.

The common options for supplementing magne-sium are:

■ Dusting magnesium oxide is good and effec-tive in fine weather, but can be hard on equip-ment and people

■ Dosatron/Water system is good and effective in fine weather, though cows already magne-sium-deficient tend to reduce the fluid intake, and may not drink enough to get appropri-ate supplementation

■ Lick blocks are good and effective if the block is hard and can withstand rain, and you need to have enough of

them near feed bins or water troughs so that all cows have access to them. Often they con-tain other minerals like copper and selenium, which support the immune system and good health at calving

■ Magnesium in molasses is good and effective. Molasses encourages consumption, and molasses is also a com-plement feed as it pro-vides energy for rumen microbes to support their efficiency in feed utilisation. Using with a lick wheel to pre-vent gorging, or adding to supplement can be helpful

■ Organic-farming mag-nesium recipes that also contain herbal remedies may help, but check the withholding periods of ingredients before use

■ Feeding supplements that have high levels of magnesium, such as magnesium oxide that is either spread on, or mixed through silage

■ Short acting drench – either a daily drench of oxide, perhaps mixed with other things, or a starter drench that con-tains magnesium and other useful nutrients

■ Long-acting drench

JO WRIGLEY

Magnesium in molasses is good and effective for cows.

– using a magnesium pidolate drench (More-mag) that has a form of magnesium that can be stored, gives up to 10 days protection from magnesium deficiency. This means they can

be used either prior to calving, or as cows come into the colos-trum mob.

■ Injectables are an effec-tive treatment for downer cows, but be careful not to overdose

when using lots of bags, and follow the instruc-tions for use. If the cow does not get up within the hour, call your vet-erinarian

• Jo Wrigley is manager director of Dominion Health

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28 // IRRIGATION

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.

Farmers involved in the trials used the moisture meters to guide their deci-sions about irrigating maize crops. They reported a number of benefits includ-ing the ability to plan watering sched-ules several days in advance, and greater confidence in irrigation decisions.

The study revealed that waterlogging occurred at critical crop times.

The Department of Primary Indus-tries collected and analysed soil mois-ture records from the participating farms.

It expected to find that under-water-ing and moisture stress were limiting crop yields but it also discovered that over-watering was an issue at times.

Waterlogging 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 frequently 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-logging occurs.With a moisture meter farm-

ers can confidently 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.

Assoc Professor Garcia said irrigation timing wasn’t a simple decision.

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

FutureDairy research has identified the two most crucial times when irri-

gation affects maize yields: crop estab-lishment (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 limited water, the best way to use it is to fully irrigate the crop when it is around the tassel-ling stage – two weeks before and two weeks after.

“This is a better option than under-irrigation across the whole season.”

Moisture meters improve planting

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

Latest valves improve efficiencyTHE LATEST range of valves from irrigation company, Netafim, prom-ises increased efficiencies for operators.

The company launched a new generation of cast iron, chemically-resistant polypropylene and plastic valves last year, available in a range of sizes and con-figurations for irrigation and industrial markets.

Netafim Valve prod-uct manager Peter Sulli-van said the valves, which replaced the company’s Raphael range, incorpo-rated latest advances in technology to create an extremely efficient valve.

Mr Sullivan said all valves featured lower opening pressures, which would help to reduce energy costs.

“Operating pressures start from just 0.3-0.4 Bar,’’ he said.

“The valves offer high flow range capability and low head loss.’’

Mr Sullivan said an innovative internal body design also provided for extremely fast valve responses.

Other features included ease of connec-tion, a long neck body to the flange, which aids easy assembly and installa-tion, and the valves can be used with a full range of threaded and Victaulic end connections.

There is also a full range of plastic and metal pilots, solenoids and accessories to suit a wide

range of configurations.Netafim’s plastic

valves come with a univer-sal flange, allowing easy connection to different flanged tables.

Cast iron valves suit standard Table D flanges, but can be supplied in other valve configurations upon request.

“There is capability to self-configure the valves to specific requirements.

They can be hard plumbed in copper and stainless steel upon request,’’ Mr Sullivan said.

The new generation of Netafim valves are man-ufactured to ISO 9001 international standards.

The cast iron valves are rated to PN16, the plas-tic valves to PN10 and the polypropylene valves to PN8.Tel. (03) 8331 6500

Netafim Valve product manager Peter Sullivan and chief valve assembly technician Alex Lakous pictured overlooking the new valve assemblies.

A STRONG agronomic and engineering background has led Melbourne-based irrigation systems specialist, Mait Industries, to develop innovative monitoring and control solutions to assist dairy farmers to improve water management practices.

Mait’s flagship technology is called Intellitrol, an integrated monitoring and irrigation-control system which readily interfaces with a wide range of sensor technologies to provide a convenient automated system to save time and money and increase water-use efficiency.

The development of the system was guided by what customers told Mait Industries that they wanted to know and to be able to do with their irrigation.

No two farming operations are exactly the same; there will be differences in soil type, topography and microclimates, land size, as well as differing crop requirements.

So Mait Industries designed a solution that uniquely fits the particular dairy farm needs.

Intellitrol’s scalability is a key to its popularity and cost-effectiveness across a diverse range of farming enterprises. Its open framework allows the system to grow and evolve over time as needs change.

For instance, it can start off as one sensor and a base station, with sensors and control apparatus added over time to evolve into a totally automated system across the whole farm.

With flood irrigation, Intellitrol eliminates the need to get up through the night to open and shut gates or bay outlets to water the

paddock bays. Automated watering can be programmed at the PC in a matter of minutes to save time and labour.

Mait Industries have developed a raft of innovative hardware, software and firmware that include Intelliweb (web-based data collection and control) and software, such as Intelligraph and Intellipump.Tel. 1300 739 920

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IRRIGATION // 29

Drainage system boosts productivityRICK BAYNE

WHO: Alex and Robert Robertson WHERE: Simpson WHAT: Drainage system

SIMPSON, ACCORD-ING to brothers Alex and Robert Robertson, is “like God’s country” when it comes to dairy farming.

Blessed with good sandy soils and excellent regular rainfall, the south-west Victorian region is prime dairying land, but even ‘God’s Country’ needs a bit of help from time to time.

With annual rainfall of 900-1000mm or more, the Robertson’s 263ha farm was prone to pugging in the wet season and a lack of water during the dry period.

However, a constantly expanding drainage system that now covers about 35% of the farm has eased those problems, making the farm more accessible, more consis-tent and more productive.

It has also allowed the Robertsons to expand from 330 to 720 Friesian cows within a decade.

“We’re in a really green belt,” Alex said. “They call it God’s country. We only need a sniff of rain and we’ll be off.”

The drainage, installed by TG Drains, is well suited to the sandy land. “The land is what makes the drainage a winner,” Alex said.

The brothers farm with Robert’s wife Carol and their mother Bev plus three staff. Their father Ian bought the farm in 1981, which was one of the last farms established in the soldier settlement area.

They also have a 161ha farm at Swan Marsh and are adding a 44ha prop-erty across the road from the home farm, which will be ready to go when an underpass is completed.

After running a con-tracting business, Alex returned to the farm about a decade ago after the death of their father.

Milk production has been climbing consis-tently in recent years after the farm called in support from agronomists, nutri-tionists and the drainage system.

“We feed pretty heav-ily and farm fairly aggres-

TO PAGE 30

sively in terms of getting the most out of our fertil-iser and the most out of our paddocks.”

In consultation with Tim Beets from TG Drains, the farm’s exten-sive drainage system has

been expanding over the past decade.

“We wanted to run more cows per acre, be able to do silage when we want, fertilise when we want, grow more grass, have paddocks recover

and have access to re-fill the stock water dams quicker,” Robert said.

The system has worked – cow numbers have dou-bled and they successfully maintain a stocking rate of

Robert and Alex Robertson.

Alex Robertson on his Simpson property.

“We now have faster flow, with all the convenience of automation. What used to take four and a half days now takes 22 hours.”

Stephen and Lisa Cox milk 700 cows, and when they pulled out their gravity-fed arrangement to install a comprehensive pipe and riser system, they needed to efficiently control the watering to each of their flood bays at the right time.

Their radio-controlled ‘iNTELLiTROL’ electronics and software system from Mait Industries controls the two pumps and 91 risers. The risers are fully automated, individually programmed and supply to individual flood bays, with a sotlar panel to provide power for every three risers.

Lisa programs the times for each pump to start, and which risers to operate, either individually or as part of a designated group. “We looked at three systems. There was nothing that the others offered that Mait didn’t, for about half the price. It was so simple to follow,

they installed the software, I had a one hour lesson and I was ready to go.”

Mait Industries provides innovative monitoring and irrigation control solutions for dairying. With extensive agronomic and engineering expertise, we can assist farmers to improve water management practices.

To find out how ‘iNTELLiTROL’ irrigation solutions can save you time and money, and increase water use efficiency, contact Mait Industries on 1300 739 920 or call Dean Taylor on 0428 994 716

www.mait.com.au

Stephen and Lisa Cox, Yalca, VIC

MI11411_280x 187_DN.indd 1 3/02/14 7:41 PM


30 // IRRIGATION

about 3-4 cows per hect-are.

While they admit drain-age might look expensive, they say it has been a good investment. “It pays for itself as you go along. You

keep finding new spots to do and you keep doing more and so you grow more grass,” Alex said. They estimate their grass growth has doubled over the past decade.

“We wouldn’t have

Drainage system boosts productivity

been able to have these cow numbers without it.”

Another benefit is fill-ing dams over summer.

“Last year we had a dry autumn but because we’ve got the pipes leading down to our stock water dam, as soon as you get a bit of run-off it starts running into the dam. That was an unexpected benefit,” Robert said.

After flooding a few years ago, they decided to add more pipes to slow the rush into dams. “As a consequence, it helps regulate flow going down the creeks; it also fills the stock dam and makes the paddocks dry,” Alex said.

“Now it doesn’t bog up.”

Before the drain-age system was installed, boggy paddocks were a regular problem. “You’d put on the spring appli-cation and leave wheel marks you could lie in,” Robert said.

“Now we can get around the paddocks, don’t have cows covered in mud, and we can fertil-ise when we want.”

“It has made it more manageable,” Alex added.

The farm previously calved all year but over recent times has concen-trated on calving three times a year because, as Alex puts it, “it pays well”.

The farm has two dams

and an effluent pond which is recycled out to irrigate paddocks, partic-ularly for summer crops. “We look at it as a neces-sity,” Alex said. “We’ve got so many cows and so much effluent that we have to dispose of it prop-erly.”

Robert adds it can be used as irrigation on drained paddocks without fear of bogging them.

“We don’t have to re-sow as much because we’re not bogging the pad-docks as much. It enables us to cut more silage and when we want to do it.”

They cut between 750 and 1000 dry tonne of silage off the home farm. They say that the drain-age system has allowed the farm to “become more consistent”.

With about 35% of the farm covered by drain-age, the Robertsons have no specific plans for future drainage scheme but will continue with the scheme where it is most needed and on their new out-pad-dock.

“We’ll just do it where it is needed, usually on the wettest parts of the farm and work our way around,” Robert said.

“We’re lucky that we have a 400mm sandy top soil and we can regulate the level of water by using those pipes.”

FROM PAGE 29

Robert and Alex Robertson

PASTURE IMPROVEMENTThe huge productivity gains available through pasture renewal have been proven by research and by farmer experience over recent years. Renovating pastures with new high yielding grass varieties means more milk in the vat and more money in the bank. The March issue of Dairy News will feature a special report on the latest technology, equipment and techniques to use to get the most out of Pasture Improvement.BOOKING DEADLINE: February 26 MATERIAL DEADLINE: March 4PUBLISHED: March 11CONTACT: CHRIS DINGLE T: 0417 735 001 E: [email protected]

NEXT ISSUE: MARCH

SPECIAL REPORT


MACHINERY & PRODUCTS // 31

A PRIME exam-ple of the importance of a strong relation-ship between a machin-ery dealer and their customer is obvious in the dealings of John and Cherie Gardiner of ‘Avonlea’ at Cardinia, on the south-east outskirts of Melbourne.

They have a purpose-built covered feed shed, which can hold about 240 cows, just beyond the holding yards for the dairy. So some years ago they moved away from round bales into more pit silage and needed a feed-out cart to make it easier in the feed shed.

“We didn’t want to go down the path of a feed mixer”, explained Mr Gar-diner, “we would have needed an extra tractor and there is more time involved in mixing.”

They didn’t have to

look far to purchase their McIntosh Multi-crop 900 forage wagon through dealer principal Alan Slater at Claas Har-vest Centre in nearby War-ragul.

“We’ve known Alan since he was a boy when we sold cows to his father. He is straight up and down and tells it as it is. We knew he wouldn’t give us a bad steer.”

The Gardiners built a new milking shed on this 170ha (420 acres) prop-erty in 2011 to replace an old herringbone set-up,

in preparation for moving from their Five Ways farm when it was sold for turf farming. They had already purchased the property a few years previously to run their dry cows on.

They started milking in February 2012 on a 40 unit rotary and are milking 200 cows at present, all year round, with a total of 260 on the place.

John has been milking

Forage wagon fits best

WORKING CLOTHESCHRIS DINGLE

WHO: John and Cherie Gardiner WHERE: Cardinia WHAT: Forage wagon

TO PAGE 32

John Gardiner with his McIntosh Multicrop 900 forage wagon.

Strength / Quality / Performance

www.mcintosh.net.nz

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titan Series 7.8 - 25m3

The Titan Series Forage Wagons are built for the serious farmer. Heavy-duty 13mm floor and elevator chains and larger diameter sprockets are designed to handle larger and heavier volumes of material with ease. Larger floor and elevator shafts and bigger gearboxes give trouble-free operation and extended service life, with less time needed adjusting chains.


32 // MACHINERY & PRODUCTS

gea farm tech39x2

THE ALL-NEW New Holland Roll-Belt variable chamber round balers replace the BR7000 series and delivers capacity increases of up to 20% when compared to the previous BR7000 series, according to the company.

It is available in 1.5m and 1.8m maximum bale diameters.

The pick-up has been com-pletely redesigned to boost capac-ity by up to 20% in silage.

The standard heavy-duty, five solid tine bar pick-up with rein-forced rubber tines, which are 10% stiffer laterally and last five times longer, will maintain pick-up per-formance in difficult, uneven and stony terrain.

The new feed assist roll trans-fers the crop from the pick-up to the rotor while simultaneously merging the flow of the crop to ensure that it matches the exact width of the bale chamber.

To improve baling flexibility, owners can choose the SuperFeed standard rotor with New Holland’s ‘W’ pattern fingers.

The 455mm diameter rotor maintains high throughput of all crops.

The CropCutter model deliv-ers the densest bales, with 15 inte-grated knives.

During tight baling windows, stopping to unblock clogged balers wastes valuable baling time.

After extensive consultation with farmers, New Holland has introduced ‘Drop Floor’ function-ality.

Operated from the comfort of the cab, when large wedges of crop block the rotor, the floor is simply lowered to provide additional space in the feeding zone, and baling can continue.

The Roll-Belt baler features four 273mm wide belts to improve tracking performance.

The increased belt stability ensures a large contact area with the crop to improve both reliabil-ity and bale formation.

Constructed using ultra-mod-ern endless belt technology, these

belts are much stronger as there are no joints.

Furthermore, the belts’ texture has been engineered by design to assist cleaning and to prevent clogged belts for efficient bale for-mation.

The addition of a second hydraulic density cylinder has increased bale density by up to 5% when compared to the BR7000.

The system which has a den-sity cylinder on either side of the chamber provides improved den-sity control, which is ideal for all operations, as uniformly denser bales improve the fermentation profile for more nutritious crops and storability.

New Holland baler up to 20% higher capacity

cows since he left school. His parents, Harley and Valmai, had run their Avonlea Holstein stud since 1948. The stud is a prominent one and John says that he is breeding functional animals, “because farmers want trouble-free cows”.

They calve all year round, using AI with a well-bred bull to mop up. “We know our cow fam-ilies very well, some go back to 1948, and we breed with what we see,” he said.

The McIntosh forage wagon was built in New Zealand with a capac-

ity of 14.3 cubic metres with tandem axles. It cer-tainly comes across as a robust and rugged unit. It is pulled by a five year old Claas 510 tractor and Mr Gardiner says it needs between 90 and 100 horse-power.

It has three floor chains in the main section and the belt cross conveyor, which slides out 200mm, drops the feed out on the right hand side into the feedpad. McIntosh says the elevator angle allows the front of the wagon to be fully loaded against, and will start every time without the need to back

off the load.Mr Gardiner said the

feedpad is filled every day and they wanted to keep the operation as simple as possible. The wagon is only used in the feed shed and not in the paddocks to avoid wasted feed.

“Since we’ve been doing it this way, we’ve saved two tonnes of feed per day – and that is sub-stantial.”

When we called in during late January, the feed was a mixture of pas-ture grass and maize and he said that they were feeding out between 2.2 and 2.4 tonnes each day. “It depends on the time of year and that may double later.”

Mr Gardiner said they were looking at upgrading but the drop in the milk price in the last 12 months

and an extremely wet winter in Gippsland has put that off for a while. So the wagon had just been returned to work the week prior after an overhaul.

The rest of the machin-ery on ‘Avonlea’ reflects their loyalty to the Claas Harvest Centre.

It includes a Claas 630 tractor, a Claas baler, rake and tedder, and an Ama-zone power harrow.

Forage wagon fits best

FROM PAGE 31

John Gardiner on his Cardinia farm.

Total solutions

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Milfos has a complete range of highly efficient milking systems. Each system is designed to suit a number of stalling packages so you have the flexibility to build the best solution to suit your needs.

The Houle directional manure spreader offers excellent manoeuvrability and control on all types of terrain. Its agility means less ground impact when turning and hydraulic power-steering and superior quality suspension provide overcome obstacles.

WestfaliaSurge IQ Milking Clusters are the world’s first four-way teat clusters with revolutionary technology to ensure maximum milk quality, quantity and udder health.

They provide faster milk out times, quieter operation, improved udder health, reliable performance and easy maintenance.

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Houle

GE11482_72x390_DN.indd 1 31/01/14 8:10 PM

whilst not compromising on density in the process.

To enter this new dimension of performance, the machine incorporates a number of upgraded com-ponents, from the pick-up all the way down to the eight double knotters.

The flywheel now weighs 608kg and is backed up by an intermediate gear-box that increases its speed to 1,180rpm, boosting the

performance and keeping the input power low while ensuring quiet running.

The main gearbox is able to handle a power flow of up to 1,230KW (1,680hp). The new Big Pack also fea-tures the Active Pickup, the crop press roller and the mechanical feed roller as standard specification. The pick-up also handles extremely wide swaths and short and brittle crops.

The updated VFS

Variable Filling System has its three packer arms reinforced, and its feeder arm now receives larger cam rolls, a modification that increases the capacity of the feed chamber. The packer elements themselves have been updated on the Big Pack HDP II (larger control arms, larger ball bearings, more tines on the feeder arm), which improves the crop flow and optimises

the baler’s stability and operational dependability.

Six pressure rams oper-ate the HDP II chamber doors, the top door being

operated by two 140mm rams and each of the two side doors by two 110mm rams.Tel. 1800 334 653

KRONE PRESENTS a new generation of high-capacity square balers that take throughput and bale density to a new level with its Big Pack HDP II.

The new Big Pack 1290HDP II – 4’ x 3’ baler comes in addition to the Big Pack High Speed range of large square balers that was introduced in 2013 with 1290 Standard and 1290HDP 4’ x 3’. Customers around Australia have con-firmed very high through-put and density rates with their High Speed machines.

Krone said it introduced a new baler with eight knot-ters because of customer demand.

The company said the

new HDP II can bale 10% more dense bales or bales at the same bale weight but with even more productivity.

It also allows users that are chasing big weights in straw to add 10% more weight on top of that of cur-rent High Density balers allowing for constant straw bale weights between 500 and 600kg.

Contractors and farmers who currently run several balers can literally replace two balers with one, as the new HDP II pumps out up to 70% more bales an hour than the original 1290 HDP baler that was introduced in year 2005,


MACHINERY & PRODUCTS // 33 32 // MACHINERY & PRODUCTS

Lely updates Tigo loader wagonsLELY HAS further extended its loader wagon range with new Tigo PR loader and silage wagons, replacing the Tigo R Profi model.

There are three models in the in the Tigo PR range with capacities 31m3 to 41m3.

Lely Tigo PR wagons combine new features of the Tigo XR such as movable bulkhead with the capacity of the Tigo R Profi.

The maker cites the machines’ superior crop han-dling and chopping. The 25mm wide edges on the tines and the minimal space for the knives ensure good results. The feed channel behind the rotor is also much shorter than on earlier models, and this means the grass or other crop is pressed into the wagon faster with minimal contact between crop and steel.

Lely derived the concept for its Tigo PR loader and silage transport wagon from the Lely Tigo XR.

The bulkhead design enables the user to trans-port 6m3 more crop above the shaft. This makes the unit shorter than comparable wagons with the same capacity. This bulkhead also distributes the weight so the wagon handles better on the road and has more manoeuvrability in the paddock.

The new chopping system has 40 knives and is easy to swing out using the tractor panel or two buttons on the left side of the wagon. Because of this, no tools are needed and no loose bolts are swinging about. The new central lock unlocks all knives at the same time. The knives can then be easily removed without tools.

Lely says the most critical time when unloading a silage wagon is the start because the whole load has to move. Depending on the model of the Tigo PR, the bulkhead takes 10-15% of the load with it. This means a lot less weight ends up on the bottom of the wagon so it takes pressure off the floor drive. As soon as the floor drive starts to move, the bulkhead, including the load, tilts backward, pushing on the whole load.

New level of bale density

The new Krone balers can bale 10% denser.

The new Lely Tigo PR loader and silage wagons.

THE TOP PERFORMING

SEEDMATICAIRPRO 4132T MK2

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SAVE NOW ON EARLY ORDERS

Contact your local Reese Agri Aitcheson dealer for details, or free phone 1800 140 196Brendan Prentice 0400 540 300

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SUPERIOR PASTURE DRILLS

The Aitchison 4132T MK2 Airpro folds down to a narrow 2.75m transport width this together with large flotation tyres ensures easy and fast transport even over narrow farm roads or bridges.

›› Excellent trash clearance

›› Straighter lines & unique Aitchison boot design

›› European airseeder technology

›› Transport width 2.75m

›› Large capacity seed & fertiliser hoppers

›› Direct drill into existing pasture

›› Direct drill into maize stubble

›› Able to drill in arable conditions

›› Better contour following abilities

›› Sowing width 4.8m

Aitchison uses the world renowned Aitchison inverted ‘T’ boot system mounted on a coil spring and disc coulter undercarriage.

Despite a sowing width of 4.8m the Aitchison 4132T MK2 can be comfortably towed by a

120hp tractor.


34 // MACHINERY & PRODUCTS

Holden Colorado lifts its gameHOLDEN HAS fettled its offering in the competi-tive ute market, with good results. The big changes are to the drive chain (more power and more gears) and in the cabin (the new My Link enter-tainment unit).

First, the engine: for the automatic version the 2.8 litre Duramax engine gets 11% more power and 6% more torque, up from 132kW and 470Nm respectively to 147kW and 500Nm; the manual version gets the same increase in power, but torque remains at 440Nm. However, the

five-speed manual is replaced by a much more useful six speed and the engine modifications have improved the availability of torque across the rev range.

We drove the LTZ automatic model, which now gets more kit includ-ing rear parking sensors, a reversing camera and a

nifty chrome sports bar.The extra torque is

instantly noticeable and the LTZ felt grunty on the road and effortless off road. Torque is now read-ily available and the auto-matic no longer has to hunt through the gears to find it. Holden now rates the towing capacity at a class leading 3.5 tonne.

The chassis dynam-ics are not class lead-ing – Ranger/BT-50/Amarok have moved the goal-posts – but the Colorado has surpassed the big selling Hilux, for now. It is fine by

ADAM FRICKER

ute standards though and is easy to live with as a daily drive. Loading the tray or towbar up, as its maker intended, settles the ride.

The entertainment system, dubbed My Link, is a well regarded unit now found in other Hold-ens such as the Com-modore and Malibu. It is fitted standard on the LTZ, adding useable navigation and hands free for your phone to the Colorado. It can also link to your smartphone’s full range

of functions, giving you access to all your favourite apps. Admittedly, extract-ing full value from that last feature in a truck was beyond us.

Overall though we found the upgraded Colo-rado a much better vehi-cle, offering plenty of power and features for the money. It is also a tough looking truck and in LTZ form with the 17 inch alloy wheels and chrome sports bar, it has more than a hint of American pick-up about it.

Monitoring water troughs from homeMAINTAINING A reliable supply of stock drinking water is made easier by a new wireless water monitor-ing system from Gallaghers.

The product accurately measures water levels in tanks or ponds and transmits this to a touchscreen display unit that can be mounted at, say, a house, farm dairy or implement shed.

Easy to operate and install, the system helps farm-ers keep track of water storage and highlights potential water problems before they get serious.

It’s a crisis averter, says Gallagher’s Mark Harris. “As well as constantly measuring water levels in

storage tanks and ponds around the farm, the wire-less water monitoring system can also alert farmers to abnormal water loss caused by problems like broken water pipes or overflowing troughs.

“If the level in one or more tanks begins to decrease quickly then farmers know they have a problem.”

The system uses a high quality sensor to measure water pressure in the tank. Information from this sensor is transmitted via a solar-powered wireless com-munication unit, mounted on top of the tank, to a wall-mounted or desktop touch screen display unit located up to 4km away.

“It’s a big time saver because you don’t have to physically visit the tank or pond.”

Up to nine tanks can be monitored by one display unit. The display features a 2.8inch colour touch screen and can store water level information to give the user a clear picture of historical tank levels over 30 days.

Optional equipment includes a wireless pump con-troller that allows the remote control of a pump to ensure water levels are maintained as required. A direc-tional long range antenna is also available to increase the range of the signal up to 10 km. The system can also be used to monitor effluent ponds.

Holden Colorado

FARM WORLD SHOW PREVIEWIn the March issue of Dairy News we’ll be previewing Farm World. One of the largest field day events in Australia, Farm World attracts visitors from throughout Victoria, southeast of South Australia and Tasmania. It has grown to be Victoria’s largest regional agricultural event, attracting more the 650 exhibitors and 50,000 people through to Warragul between March 21st - 24th.Farm World allows exhibitors to launch new products, generate sales and leads, highlight industry changes and provide an opportunity to develop and maintain contacts. Make sure farmers know where to find you at Farm World by advertising in our preview.

BOOKING DEADLINE: February 26 AD MATERIAL DEADLINE: March 4PUBLISHED: March 11CONTACT: CHRIS DINGLE | T: 0417 735 001 E: [email protected]

NEXT ISSUE: MARCH

SPECIAL REPORT

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dairy news australia feb 2014

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