Dairy News Australia November 2014

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NOVEMBER 2014 ISSUE 53 // www.dairynewsaustralia.com.au

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NEWS // 3

NEWS ......................................................3-15

OPINION .............................................. 16-17

MARKETS ...........................................18-19

BREEDING MANAGEMENT ..... 20-21

MANAGEMENT ...............................22-23

ANIMAL HEALTH ...........................24-27

EFFLUENT & WATER MANAGEMENT ............................... 28-31

MACHINERY & PRODUCTS ...................................... 32-34

Warrnambool vet Dr Jon Kelly says new research reveals fresh sexed semen produces better results than frozen sexed semen. PG.20

Murray Goulburn farmer Lloyd Walpole has upgraded to a 12 metre hay rake to keep food up to his 2000 head herd. PG.32

Six months after robot milkers were installed, Gippsland farmer Trevor Mills discusses the impact on his herd and his business. PG.22

THE DESCENT of the Australian dollar against the US dollar contin-ued this month, when it plunged to its lowest level in more than four years following the US mid-term elections.

The Aussie dollar fell to a low of US85.64 cents the day after the mid-term elections, with analysts attrib-uting it to weaker commodities, strong US jobs growth and hopes that the Republicans’ win would prove positive for stocks.

The dollar is also lower against the Japanese Yen and the Euro.

The National Australia Bank’s global co-head of foreign exchange strategy, Ray Attrill, said the Aussie dollar/greenback is the weakest major currency pair, while the New Zealand dollar has also taken a hit.

The last time the Australian

dollar had been trading in the US85c was in early July 2010.

Dairy Australia industry analyst, John Droppert, said the falling dollar is a positive for the Australian industry, easing the pain of the current slump in commodity prices.

In 2012/13, the Australian dollar was fetching US$1.05, placing pres-sure on exporters.

“In terms of impact at the farm-gate, I don’t think this is going to fundamentally alter the outlook for the season,” Mr Droppert said.

“Most processors have flagged their best efforts to hold the open-ing milk price; I suspect this will just make that a bit easier for them.”

Mr Droppert said he did not believe the currency alone would influence a rise in farmgate prices.

“Maybe it will make the differ-

ence between a step-down or no step-down, but I can’t see it coming through as step-ups.”

NAB’s Vic/Tas Agribusiness head, Neil Findlay, said the lower Australian dollar is continuing to soften the impact of falling global dairy prices on Australian dairy farmers.

“While global dairy prices are currently down more than 25% since February, a falling Australian dollar means that our price forecast for 2014-15 is for a drop of less than 13% in Australian dollar terms.

“The lower Australian dollar pro-vided some relief to Australian dairy producers in September, with the 1.4% global price drop for the month translating to a 0.7% increase in Australian dollar terms.

“Future falls of the Australian dollar by 1 cent would see local

weighted dairy prices rise more than A$55/tonne, based on September international dairy prices.”

Prices held steady at the first GlobalDairyTrade auction of the month, which was held the day before the Australian dollar fell to its four-year low.

On a trade-weighted basis, the GlobalDairyTrade price index slipped 0.3%.

The average winning price auc-tion rose slightly to US$2649 a tonne, but is still down almost 48% compared with February.

Volume was also down sharply, with a total of 45,499 tonnes sold compared with 50,816 two weeks ago.

Russia’s sustained ban on dairy imports meant a glut of European produce continued to depress prices in many other categories.

Falling dollar softens global dairy price falls

The cow in front is an ideal milking cow, according to cattle judge and classifier Graeme Hopf (pictured), who spoke at a Livestock Improvement field day on Alex Macarthur’s Maffra dairy farm recently. Find out what makes it so special on page 21.

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4 // NEWS

Making Vision a realityDAIRY INDUSTRY stakeholders will meet later this year to plan how to achieve the goals outlined in the Aus-tralian Dairy Vision, released earlier this year.

The Australian Dairy Vision came out in July, following the Australian Dairy Farmers National Dairy Summit and ADIC Strategic Forum, both held this year.

Australian Dairy Farmers say it is a statement of what the industry aims to be known for and proud of by 2025.

The vision includes a desire to

attract, develop and retain highly skilled people from farm to market; to grow wealth; and to drive innovation.

Australian Dairy Farmers CEO, Nat-alie Collard, said the Australian Dairy Industry Council, the umbrella organ-isation with representatives from ADF and the Australian Dairy Products Fed-eration (which represents processors), will soon begin developing a plan with dairy industry bodies.

“Having an implementation plan is important so that the dairy industry knows all its bases are covered before

it launches into new projects,” Ms Col-lard said.

“The plan will outline industry activ-ities and projects under each of the five elements of the vision - Innovative, Responsible, Valued, Unified and Pre-ferred.

“In some areas the first stage will be to develop more detail about what needs to be done, who is doing what and with which partners.

“There will be focus on developing and advancing new projects to comple-ment existing activities so that we can

progress toward achieving the priorities defined in the Dairy Vision.”

Ms Collard said the plan would use stakeholder feedback and input, as well as adopting a reporting framework to provide an indication of success against the Dairy Vision’s priorities.

ADIC chairman, Noel Campbell, said having a clearly defined vision tells everyone with an interest in dairy “what we stand for as an industry and where we see our future”.

“This is as relevant for dairy farm-ers in Australia as it is for our custom-

ers overseas,” Mr Campbell said.“The vision’s priorities will ensure

our industry is better equipped to meet the challenges facing Australian dairy and capitalise on the opportuni-ties through growth.”

At the time of the vision’s release, Dairy Australia chairman, Geoff Akers, said the vision was a milestone for the industry.

“It’s a significant achievement to forge a collective vision and it will help guide the collective action of our indus-try,” Mr Akers said.

Dairy Australia boosts on-farm investmentDAIRY AUSTRALIA invested $61.8 million into the industry in 2013/14, a 6% increase on the previous year.

Sixty-two per cent was directed at research, development and extension activities across the supply chain.

The major investment was made in farm margin improvement ($21.2m), including animal performance, farm business management, feedbase and animal nutrition and resource man-agement.

Other major investment was made in capability development ($10.7m), including attracting and retain-ing people, and market support and insights ($9m), including interna-tional market support.

Industry promotion, including the new Legendairy campaign, received funding of $8.4m.

Dairy Australia spent $5.4 million in 2012/13 on marketing and promoting the industry, and $4m in 2011/12.

Dairy Australia received almost

$52.2m in levies and matching govern-ment payments, a fall on the previous year’s total of almost $56m.

Payments to suppliers and employees in the financial year were $62.3m, up from the previous year’s total of $54.5m. This contributed to an operating loss of $5.08m in the financial year.

Dairy Australia managing director, Ian Halliday, said DA identified sav-ings in excess of $500,000 last finan-cial year, in addition to the ongoing savings maintained from previous years.

“Most savings were realised by rationalising externally commis-sioned services,” he said in the report.

“We will continue to focus on costs to ensure we are delivering benefits to farmers efficiently.”

DA chairman, Geoff Akers, said DA has worked hard to strengthen over-seas collaboration as an important strategic area, recognising the value of knowledge sharing.

“We have developed close ties with DairyNZ and Teagasc in Ireland, among other equivalent dairy organ-isations overseas, to assess opportu-nities for jointly funded international research,” he said.

“Our overseas research connec-tions are becoming increasingly important and we must focus on con-necting our own researchers with top researchers around the world to help address the research issues facing the Australian industry.

“Dairy Australia continues to put significant resources and effort into protecting and developing Australia’s reputation in the international market space, providing expert advice to the Australian Government in ongoing trade negotiations with China and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and tech-nical market access work to educate Australian exporters about require-ments in our export markets.”

The full report can be found at www.dairyaustralia.com.au

MG delays capital raising schemeMURRAY GOULBURN has delayed its timeline to put its proposed capi-tal restructure to a vote, but has added items to the agenda of its annual general meeting which will help pave the way for change.

The co-op, hoping to raise $500 million under its proposed share plan to improve its processing facilities, wrote to its sup-pliers late last month to advise them of the delay.

Previously, the plan involved a fourth round of supplier meetings in November 2014, an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) around February 2015 and subject to this outcome, a potential capital raising in March 2015.

Chairman Philip Tracy said the board had considered a range of factors includ-ing the interruption of the Christmas period and “other key project parameters” and has decided to extend the timeline.

The fourth round of supplier meet-ings is now planned for early 2015, to be followed by an EGM and, subject to this, a potential capital raising in mid-2015.

Mr Tracy said formal consideration of the capital structure proposal would not be considered at the upcoming AGM and would be looked at separately at the EGM proposed for 2015.

Supplier shareholders will vote at the AGM on November 27 on proposed changes to the constitution, as well as con-sideration of a voluntary buyback of MG’s B and C class preference shares.

Under the buy-back proposals, Murray Goulburn will offer all B and C Class Pref-erence Shareholders the opportunity to sell their B and C Class Preference Shares for $1.25 per share.

“The c onstitutional amendments will assist in facilitating the proposed capital restructure, however all changes are of a general nature and, if approved, will apply regardless of whether the capital restruc-ture occurs,” Mr Tracy said.

Murray Goulburn recorded reve-nue of $2.917 billion in 2013-14, up 22%. It reported a net profit after tax of $29.3 million, which was down on the previous year’s result of $34.9m.

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FEDERAL TRADE Minister Andrew Robb has said an injection of capital and continued investment in the Aus-tralian dairy industry is just as important as a free trade agreement with China.

Minister Robb addressed about 120 people, including local Member for Coran-gamite Sarah Hender-son, and local dairy farmers, at the Larpent dairy farm of Craig Bill-ing and Sam Simpson last month.

Minister Robb was discussing the China FTA negotiations, which are expected to be concluded and announced this month.

Minister Robb and the Federal Govern-ment have long spruiked they wanted a “NZ plus” agreement but at the time conceded he still had “a way to go with dairy”.

“In part because they know it is the most important thing,” he said.

“None of it is con-firmed, we have sort of finished lots of things.

“If we get a hiccup at the end that could put a ripple back into things already done.

Minister Robb said achieving a satisfactory FTA with China was one thing, but a large capital investment needed to be made to enable Australia

to stay ahead of its inter-national competitors.

“If the FTA leads to better investment in higher-value products in Australia, that’s a good benefit,” he said.

He also predicted the FTA could lead to signif-icant investment in ser-vices. One example given was an expansion of Avalon airport to enable it to cope with extra exports.

One member of the audience expressed her displeasure at Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s aggressive comments towards Russian Pres-ident Vladimir Putin. Russia was a significant exporter of Australian dairy products before

banning it, among other countries, as a result of the stance taken over the destruction of airflight MH17.

“A plane was shot down with Russian equipment, at some stage you have to take a stand,” Minister Robb said.

“Putin has not fol-lowed through with promises to help inves-tigate MH17, so Tony Abbott was within his right to stand up to him.”

On a question regard-ing foreign investment in Australia, Minister Robb said it was important to move with the times, but the Government should still keep an eye on developments.


NEWS // 5

Investment as important as the right FTA

Dairy seeks $16b capital injection

AUSTRADE IS pursuing leads from September’s Australian Dairy Farm Investment Forum in a bid to help the industry reach an ambitious target of attracting a $16 billion capital injec-tion by 2020.

The leads – including many from China – are now being pursued by Austrade and state governments.

Analysis has found about $16 bil-lion of new capital is required to regain the international market share Australia enjoyed in 2000.

Dairy Australia’s group manager- trade & industry strategy, Charlie McElhone, said to capitalise on the growth opportunities available, par-ticularly in the Asian region, Austra-lia needed a big investment of capital from all sources.

“There’s additional competition from the likes of New Zealand, the United States and Europe. We rec-ognise that with new capital we can build our competitiveness and retain some of the growth opportunities that are out there, particularly in the Asian region.”

Mr McElhone said Dairy Australia was “not holding ourselves” to the $16 billion figure but was confident it was a good time to invest in the industry.

“$16 billion is a big figure but it’s also about making sure it is well-informed investment and the inves-tors come in with their eyes open and are aware of the different services that are available to make sure their invest-ments are a success.”

Mr McElhone said there was posi-tive feedback from the forum but no new investments that could be con-firmed at this stage.

“Absolutely there’s cause for hope,” Mr McElhone said. “There have been a lot of leads and potential opportunities for new capital invest-ment into the industry.”

Austrade brought a big delegation of 40-50 participants from China to the investment forum, along with key domestic investors.

“They are continuing to follow-up on leads that have emerged as a result of that,” Mr McElhone said.

“None have eventuated at this stage; it’s all in that realm of discus-sion and further information gath-ering as far as I’m aware, but the feedback from the investment com-munity both internationally and here in Australia has been really positive.”

More than 300 farmers, inves-tors and industry leaders attended the forum to explore potential ways to grow the industry to meet demand from overseas markets.

In keeping with the recent trend,

the most prominent interest has been from Chinese foreign investment.

Speaking from China where he was meeting with customers, reinforcing the importance of a free-trade agree-ment and attending an APEC con-ference, Mr McElhone said Dairy Australia aimed to provide more and better information about what con-stitutes farm profitability and what investment in the industry looks like.

“There is a general improvement in the level of engagement with the investment community.

“Dairy Australia is not the match maker. We don’t have direct engage-ment with investors in terms of helping them to find investment opportunities, but what we do is help provide information for informed dis-cussion,” he said.

“Organisations like state govern-ments and Austrade play a greater role in working with specific investment targets and looking at match-making opportunities.”

At the Australian Dairy Farmers summit earlier this year two of the top three industry priorities centred on the need for investment in the indus-try, particularly at the farm gate level.

“As a service provider Dairy Aus-tralia takes that feedback and identi-fied that we needed to be involved to make sure there are facts for informed discussion,” Mr McElhone said.

RICK BAYNE

Trade Minister Andrew Robb addresses the Dairy Farm Investment Forum in September.

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BELOW AVERAGE or minimal rainfall across most of the country, combined with rising temperatures in northern Victoria, SA and Queensland, are starting to place pressure on farms nationwide.

Promising early winter rainfall ended abruptly in several of the coun-try’s dairy regions, with less silage expected than last season in most regions.

Demand for hay is starting to increase, particularly in Queensland, south west Victoria and South Austra-lia.

A dry start to spring and recent heat-wave temperatures are taking a heavy toll in Queensland, with winter pas-tures quickly fading and a dire need for storm rain soon to establish summer pastures.

The Queensland Dairyfarmers’ Organisation said while many of the State’s irrigation supplies are in rea-sonable condition after the March flood event, decent rain will be needed soon and farmers are hoping the coming summer is more favourable than 12 months ago.

The Bureau of Meteorology has indi-cated Queensland is facing a drier than normal November to January.

In southern Queensland, demand for hay is picking up once again as conditions remain hot and dry. New season hay becoming available in NSW will ease some supply pressure on the northern market but the latest Dairy Australia hay and grain report said sup-plies will be tight in 2015.

In the Bega district of NSW, which has recorded average rainfall, spring silage season is well underway and above average production is expected.

The hay season is now well under-way in northern Victoria and yields are reported to be average or better with quality good.

Rain across Gippsland in late Octo-ber will help boost pasture production while silage yields have generally been

good, according to Dairy Australia.Growers are optimistic about the

season and particularly about silage yields.

Silage is well underway in south west Victoria but yields are well below aver-

age, raising some concern about fodder supplies for the coming year.

Larpent (via Colac) dairy farmer Mark Billing said they had cut as much silage as last year but very little hay.

“Last year we had a cracking spring

and a really good autumn this year. We carried over a reasonable amount of silage and some hay.

“The season’s about five weeks ahead, so now we’re seeing pasture growth drop right off, and we will have

t o start feeding. “We normally open up the silage the

week before Christmas, but I think we’ll have to in a couple of weeks’ time.”

Hay traders are reporting lots of enquiries for new season hay from the region’s farmers.

Silage yields are well below average in SA.

Dairy farmer and hay contractor from near Adelaide, James Stacey, said it was likely to be an average year and he recommended dairy farmers start securing supplies for summer.

“People have cut a bit more than usual but now their pastures are shot. It’s going to be a long summer,” he said.

“There’s going to be hay around but if I was a punter I’d be securing your hay needs fairly soon because a lot of regions are going to be hand-feeding stock and going through a fair bit of hay over the next seven or eight months.”

After a promising start to winter, conditions have deteriorated.

“We haven’t had any substantial rain since the end of July,” Mr Stacey said.

“Higher rainfall regions in SA have had below average silage cuts and hay cuts are expected to be below average with the dry spring,” he said.

Mr Stacey said the biggest challenge would be supplies of protein hay. “It’s been too dry for clover and vetch hay,” he added.

As hay supplies are generally low in Western Australia, many growers are interested in baling pasture hay and silage this year, according to Dairy Australia. There are some reports that silage yields have been below average so far.

The wet winter in Tasmania has ben-efitted farmers in the north-west who are having a favourable silage season, with good yields reported. If the favour-able conditions continue in the north of the state a good pasture hay season should result.


6 // NEWS

Faltering season puts pressure on farmers

GARY AND Lee Hibberd received 336mm of rain in July, which even in a district with a traditional annual rainfall of 1200mm, was unusual.

“We had a wet period through June/July, and into early August, and it stopped mid-August and we’ve had nothing since,” Mrs Hibberd said.

“In Warrnambool they were saying it was too wet, then after 4-5 weeks, it was too dry. It was one extreme to the other.”

The Hibberds had a “booming” year last year, and were still getting a second cut for silage in January.

They have cut 700 rolls so far this year, which is down on last year, but can still be declared a success. “We could get good summer rain yet, it’s not all over yet,” Mr Hibberd said.

From one extreme to the other

No rain since mid-August on Gary Hibberd’s Simpson farm.

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time. We topped the whole lot before we grazed it.”

The farm was only

achieving seven litres per cow when Bernie and Sharon took over.

“We started feeding in the shed and had them up to 15 litres within 10 days. We’re about 25 litres per cow at the moment,” she said.

“We feed them well and now they’re milking very well.

“We could only feed them a small amount extra at a time and gradu-ally increase it every two weeks by a kilo. They were on a 14-day round when we came here. We stretched it right out and got the grass growing, topped every-thing and the cows have been awesome.”

They have managed the herd by culling some lesser

producers and bringing in more young stock.

Shed feeding has been the big difference with the cows now up to 6kg of grain.

“We’d like to get the cows to 35 litres plus get our numbers up. We’re milking 190 on 84ha. It could do a lot more – we’d like to get to 300 cows but we only have a 15-a-side double up so it’s a very long milking.”

They are considering moving to once a day milk-ing with half in the morn-ing and half at night to allow bigger stock num-bers.

They are also look-ing to find another bigger lease farm, with potential to buy.


NEWS // 7

Poor wheat cropoffset by goodglobal supplyTHE 2014/15 Australian wheat crop is expected to yield between 23 million metric tonnes (MMT) (Rabobank) to 25MMT (USDA) - compared to an estimated 27 MMT last year.

However, Dairy Aus-tralia industry analyst John Droppert says expo-sure to international grain markets has provided Aus-tralian dairy farmers with some relief, as expec-tations of good global feed grain availability have depressed global markets since September.

However, the global market can prove to be a two-edged sword.

“While good overseas supplies may help lessen the pressure on domestic feed grain stocks through

lowering the prices exporters are willing to pay, they are also likely to support continued strength in northern hemisphere milk produc-tion,” Mr Droppert said.

“Purchased feed costs are a major influence on farmgate margins across many dairy exporting regions, and are therefore one of the key drivers for global dairy supply.”

Data from the Vic-torian Dairy Farm Monitor Proj-ect shows average expenditure on grains, concentrates and other feeds accounted for 29% of cash costs during 2013/14, demonstrating the potential for a spike in grain prices to impact on margins.

Milk production is currently

tracking around 3% above last year in data to September, however deteriorating seasonal conditions are increasingly likely to weigh on production heading into summer, according to Mr Droppert.

“Feed prices remain a challenge in northern Australia, however yields and quality of early harvested grains have generally been accept-able, while sorghum planting will be supported if rains forecast for early November eventuate.

“Barley is coming under pressure from exporters, but good news for feed buyers is that in parts of New South Wales screenings have been a problem.”

• Global Impact: Global dairy regions feel pressure of feed prices, page 18

Dry season but NZ farmersright at home in GippslandTHEY MIGHT call their farm NZMozzies, but New Zealand expats Bernie Carnachan and Sharon Finnerty have found Aus-tralia to be the land of opportunity, even if the season is a bit dry.

The long-time friends moved to Australia in July 2013 with husbands Zane and Tony to manage two farms in Gippsland.

In April Bernie and Sharon leased a dairy farm at Dennison and have achieved a remarkable turnaround and are con-tinuing to travel well with low rainfall.

With Zane and Tony contract milking on the original farms, Bernie and Sharon have pushed their leased farm to record pro-duction.

The annual record is 42,000kg/milk solids (MS) and Sharon and Bernie have already achieved that since starting the lease on April 1. It’s an “all-girl” farm with the lessees sup-ported by a female milker.

“Australia has been awesome,” Bernie said. “It’s the land of oppor-tunity; that’s the way we put it.”

An intensive feeding program has led to the turnaround and the pair hopes to expand on that growth even in drier con-ditions.

“I don’t think the rain-fall is as good as last year,” Bernie said. “We were get-ting spill water, which is

excess water in the lake due to rain which we can order and it doesn’t come off the allocation, until December 15 last year. But we haven’t had any for a long time this year.”

However, the drier con-ditions haven’t been debil-itating. “It hasn’t been too bad. If it starts getting really dry we order water in, and then it rains,” Bernie said.

They have cut about

100 bales of silage already and have got more shut up ready to go.

“I don’t think they cut any silage last year,” Bernie added.

Their priority when leasing the farm was to increase production and numbers.

“We lifted the numbers a little bit. It was quite run down when we took over and a lot of the pasture had been grazed for a long

RICK BAYNE

John Dropport

Sharon Finnerty and Bernie Carnachan.

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8 // NEWS

IT HAS been 10 years since Picton, NSW, dairy farmers John and Sally Fairley launched Country Valley milk into the local market in 2004.

The Fairley family has been farming in the Picton district for more than 150 years, with John a sixth generation farmer. They decided to process their own milk in the wake of dairy deregulation.

Before the advent of social media and relying on word of mouth pro-motion, the business was slow to get off the ground, racking up losses for the first five years.

“We certainly paid for our early mistake of not having a market for the volume of milk we were producing when we launched into process-ing. It was slow building

sales through the first few years.”

However, things changed that fateful Aus-tralia Day in 2011 when Coles launched its $1/litre house brand milk.

“Our market growth was starting to come along nicely when the advent of $2 a litre milk in the super-markets caused a demand spike of 45% in one year,” Mr Fairley said.

“Everyone knew the farmers were getting screwed and suddenly they wanted our branded product.”

“We had to get our management of the pro-cessing plant up to scratch to get production to the level of demand.”

With Mr Fairley increasingly focused on marketing Country Valley Dairy, the dairy operation is now supervised by his son, Tom, a seventh gener-ation farmer.

The small herd of 100 to 110 Friesian-Jersey cross milkers on the 125 ha prop-erty average about 20 litres of milk a day.

The business is now drawing milk from six other local farms and pro-cessing throughput has expanded to 110,000 litres a week.

Country Valley mar-kets regular and skim milk and an organic product drawn from three certi-fied farms, as well as natu-ral and sweetened yoghurt and cream. Cream is also supplied to the artisan butter maker in Sydney, Pepe Saya

Mr Fairley said opportunities for joint venture cheese production using their milk were also being explored.

Sales are expand-ing through the Sydney market with a distribu-tion system into Canberra and regular attendance at

farmers markets.“We are now in the

local supermarkets in the area and they are treating us really well with good shelf exposure for our products.”

Mr Fairley said the supermarket interest was a reflection of changing customer attitudes with a growing demand for local and naturally produced foods.

He engages directly with consumers, mark-ing extensive use of social media and is building a public profile as an indus-try ambassador.

“We are not so much selling a bottle of milk as an emotional story and I am passionate about get-ting our message across, about connecting with people.”

He has built a large social media follow-ing with regular postings which keep building the

Coles decision sent Country Valley milk sales rocketingGORDON COLLIE

relationship with Country Valley.

This has flowed on to a range of public appearances promoting the value and goodness of dairy products and sharing his passion for dairy farming. This year he was invited to make a

presentation at the Qantas Epicure food event in Melbourne and appear in a video advertisement.

“I was in a high class delicatessen in Melbourne and was recognised from my Twitter account. The reach of social media networks is unbelievable,”

he said.Taking photographs

of Mr Fairley with the Country Valley herd for Dairy News Australia, he had his phone out to share the picture of contented cows with his growing band of social media followers.

John Fairley

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NEWS // 9

PROFITS FROM sales of SADA Fresh, the South Aus-tralian Dairyfarmers’ Association’s own milk brand, will soon flow into the coffers of SA dairy farmers.

Sales of the milk brand have generated as much as $140,000 for industry projects in the first 12 months.

The milk is processed and packaged under a special licensing agreement by Parmalat, which pays SADA 20 cents for every litre sold.

Profits will go into a new industry fund to finance proj-ects that will help secure the future viability of the indus-try.

Mr Basham said the fund would have $120,000-$140,000 after expenses following the first year of sales. He hoped that up to $250,000 a year could be collected in the future.

Legal and financial arrangements have also been com-pleted to officially form the new SA Dairy Industry Fund. It is being chaired by Dennis Mutton, a prominent figure in South Australian agriculture with vast experience in the rural research and development sector.

“The overarching purpose of the fund is to finance proj-ects that directly benefit the South Australian dairy indus-try and its communities, and to encourage and promote the South Australian dairy industry and its communities,” Mr Mutton said.

“Now that proceeds from milk sales have started to accumulate, we will be putting out the first call for con-cept proposals before the end of the year.

“We plan to identify a shortlist from the proposals received, and then work with applicants to develop more detailed submissions.

“We are greatly looking forward to receiving innova-tive proposals that offer some exciting opportunities to reinvigorate an industry that’s been vitally important to the state and its economy for many years.”

Milk profi ts fl ow back to farmers

SADA Fresh sales pass 1m litresSADA FRESH, the South Australian Dairy-farmers’ Association’s own milk brand, has passed the one million litre sales mark - just in time for its first anniversary.

SADA Fresh is sold exclusively through Coles supermarkets in SA, where it now accounts for 3.8% of milk sales, compared with SADA’s initial target of just 2%.

Backed by sustained demand over 12 months, SADA has begun negotia-tions to expand the retail network for the brand, and the range of products offered.

SADA president David Basham said South Aus-tralians had overwhelm-ingly supported the brand from the moment it hit the supermarket shelves in October 2013.

“We were the first dairy industry association

in Australia to launch its own milk brand and obvi-ously there was a chance that it might not work, but sales are expected to reach 1.15 million litres (in the first 12 months), which is extraordinary,” Mr Basham said.

“It’s not only given consumers an alterna-tive to discounted home-brand milk, it will help to make sure that our indus-try remains viable so that people will continue to have access to fresh, high-quality local produce.

“It has already created a firm foundation to build stronger partnerships with the State Govern-ment, accessing additional resources and opportuni-ties that will benefit the broader economy of the State as well as the dairy sector.

“And, importantly, it’s given dairy farmers a

greater sense of pride in what they do and more optimism about their future.”

The Western Austra-lian Farmers Federation (WAFarmers) will launch its own branded milk on

November 19.A portion of its prof-

its will also be directed to local farmers.

Celebrating the fi rst anniversary of SADA Fresh, from left, SA Agriculture Minister Leon Bignell, SA Premier Jay Weatherill, SADA president David Basham and SA Dairy Industry Fund chair, Dennis Mutton.

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10 // LIVE EXPORTS - NEWS

Sri Lanka builds dairy industryAUSTRALIA’S EXPERTISE in agri-culture is helping Sri Lanka increase its fresh milk supply, reduce its reliance on powdered milk imports and, ultimately, become a self-sufficient dairy producer.

A milk import bill of US$300 million per year prompted the Government of Sri Lanka to seek ways to create its own sustainable dairy industry and make fresh milk more available.

To be self-sufficient, Sri Lanka needed to produce an extra 600 million litres each year – an impossible task for a country with a small dairy industry.

Sri Lanka’s National Livestock Development Board (NLDB) found the answer in Australia.

The NLDB formed a joint venture with Wellard Rural Exports to supply dairy cattle, infrastructure, equipment and management to increase Sri Lan-ka’s dairy herd and raise the average daily yield from three litres of milk per cow to closer to Australia’s 26 litres.

Wellard is Australia’s largest exporter of cattle and sheep, with interests in land, shipping, logis-tics, breeding, processing, animal feed, farm machin-ery, and transport through-out Australia, New Zealand, Asia, the Middle East and South America.Entering Sri Lanka

In the initial US$13 mil-lion phase of the project, Wellard sup-plied 2000 dairy cows to three farms in the central Bopaththalawa region. A mix of Jerseys, Friesians and Jersey Friesian-cross cattle arrived in March 2012.

Johann Wasserman, international project manager for Wellard, is based in Sri Lanka and responsible for all operations in that country. Colin Webb is the Perth-based operations manager responsible for all breeding cattle Wellard exports from Australia and

New Zealand.“The objective was to increase

Sri Lanka’s local milk production by importing high-yielding animals and improving NLDB dairy farms,” Mr Webb said.

“We supplied Sri Lanka with quality Australian dairy cattle, farming infra-structure, plant and equipment, and farm management services. The ini-tial farms were part of a pilot project for subsequent development of large-scale dairy production in Sri Lanka.

“Since the arrival of the first 500 cows, milk production has increased from 3 litres per day to between 18 and 21 litres per day. Fodder development had been the biggest challenge, but all three farms are now self-sufficient in fodder production.”

Despite being a large importer of milk powder products, Wellard

believed Sri Lanka had the natural environment and ability to build a large-scale dairy industry.Business in Sri Lanka

The firm completed a large feasibility study of Sri Lanka to determine whether it could support a dairy industry, and where best to establish a large dairy farm.

Wellard presented its findings to the Sri Lankan Government with a proposal to upgrade an existing NLDB

farm to a high production dairy farm.The Sri Lankan Government

accepted the offer and awarded Wel-lard a contract. At the time, Sri Lanka was yet to import any cattle, and there were no other companies assessing the industry’s potential in Sri Lanka.

Mr Webb said Wellard faced many challenges during construction of the first dairy farm, and Wasserman was based at the farm in an advisory role for the initial stages. In addition, the

NLDB distributed 600 heifer calves from the herds to smallholder farmers to improve local genetics in Sri Lanka.

“The unusually dry conditions pre-ceding the cattle’s arrival, we delayed the shipment and we had to source sup-plementary fodder from outside the farm,’ Mr Webb said.

“However, the biggest challenge was getting the local community to change how it thought a dairy farm worked.

A high intensity farm was new to the locals. Most things we were trying to implement were radical and difficult for people to comprehend.

“However, Sri Lankans are enthusi-astic about making projects work. They are very accommodating, which makes doing different things a little easier.

“The difficulty with Sri Lanka is the lack of service industries. For example, the availability of spare parts and the technology needed to service an inten-sive dairy. We had to bring in most spares from abroad, as well as the tech-nicians to maintain machinery.”

Mr Webb said infrastructure in the more remote areas of Sri Lanka pres-ents obstacles. Obtaining finance in Sri Lanka was also troublesome, but has become easier in recent times.

The Export Finance and Insurance

Corporation (EFIC) played a pivotal role in funding the project. Wellard needed finance to export the cattle as part of the Sri Lankan government’s dairy development program. An export finance guarantee of $10.5 million from EFIC allowed Rabobank to provide a long-term loan to the Sri Lankan gov-ernment to fund the project.

The work has included educating local farmers and farm workers in low-stress animal handling techniques, training veterinarians, and providing higher capacity cows to a country that relies on imported milk powder.

“We’ve trained over 30 internee vets and more than 120 graduates and diploma holders from various univer-sities and agricultural schools in Sri Lanka,’ Mr Webb said.

“The vets and diploma holders got

theoretical and practical training in surgery, breeding, pregnancy diagno-sis, new feeding practices, hoof trim-ming, calf rearing and modern milking techniques, as well as training in how to manage a commercial dairy.

“Some of these trainees are now working for the NLDB or with other dairies around the country.

“We also trained farmers in calf rear-ing, with help from the NLDB, who gave the farmers literature on animal hus-bandry before the calves were distrib-uted.”Future opportunities

Wellard is excited about agribusiness opportunities in Sri Lanka, especially in the dairy industry. As the market expands, Mr Webb expects ancillary industries will develop around the need for better services for dairy producers.

“For example, there is an exceptional opportunity in the supplementary feed industry,” he said. “Currently, there is little supplementary fodder should a dairy run short. There are large tracts of land in Sri Lanka suitable for fodder production, especially with irrigation.

“There is significant interest for additional government and non-gov-ernment contracts, and we see scope for Sri Lanka to become an impor-tant export market for Australian dairy cattle.”

“Since the arrival of Australian cows, milk production has increased from 3 litres/day to 18-21 litres/day.”

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NEWS – LIVE EXPORTS // 11

AUSTRALIAN DAIRY farmers will benefit from the Sri Lankan Government’s stance to boost its domestic milk production and import 22,500 dairy heifers from Australia.

Wellard signed two contracts late last month to supply a total of 22,500 cattle to Sri Lanka worth almost $100 mil-lion.

Sri Lanka currently produces only 42% of its milk requirements and imports the remainder at a cost of $345 million a year.

The Sri Lankan Government has a long term commit-ment to increase domestic milk production.

Wellard dairy general manager Colin Webb said the major Australian exporter would be sourcing Friesian Jer-sey-cross heifers because the breed was best suited to the local environment and production systems.

Wellard expects to send five shipments over the next two years and will be sourcing them from around Australia.

The company will not disclose how much it will pay for heifers, saying it will be at market rates.

Wellard will source and supply 20,000 Friesian Jersey-cross heifers in the next two years to service the larger of the two contracts signed, as well as providing management and veterinary support.

In a second contract, supported by Rabobank and Aus-tralia’s Export Finance Investment Corporation, Wellard will supply 2500 Friesian Jersey-cross heifers to a green-fields farm in Sri Lanka to be built by Wellard complete with sheds, milking parlour and machinery.

Part of the supply agreement also includes technical management and capacity building in-country, through employment and training of veterinarians and farm man-agement advisers and supervisors.

The contracts build on the recent and successful com-pletion of a previous contract to supply 2000 dairy heif-ers to the country, which also included the renovation of existing facilities and provision of management and edu-cation (see story, page 10).

Mr Webb said the previous 2000 cattle supplied by Wellard to the Sri Lankan Economic Development Indus-try had performed well in terms of both reproduction and milk production, and the dairy installed by the company was operating efficiently.

“All parties to the original supply agreement have been delighted with its implementation,” Mr Webb said. “We are therefore pleased to have been able to build on that relationship and the knowledge gain with a significantly larger contract.”

Wellard Asia business development director, Scot Braithwaite, said the contracts were not just the supply of cattle but include management, training and animal welfare education.

“Wellard is excited that it can play a role in aiding Sri Lanka’s agricultural and nutritional development and this once again proves that live export plays an important role not only for Australia farmers but also for farmers around the world,” he said.

Wellard seeks 22,500 dairy heifers for export

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WORLD NEWS // 13

NEW ZEALAND milk sweetened with pineapple juice is a best-seller to children in China, Fonterra reports.

UHT ‘Kids Milk’ is the first product of its kind imported into China.

It is made at Fonterra’s new $120 UHT plant at Waitoa which also makes Anchor cream for global food service clients.

Fonterra said in China last week the product was the top seller on the online shopping site Tmall; 1800 packs sold in eight hours.

Chairman John Wilson said Kids Milk meets the tastes of Chinese markets.

“We have to constantly innovate to meet the demand of our consumers,” he said.

The UHT plant will have five production lines when fully operational.

So far two lines are running and there is provision to expand to eight lines.

“We expect that to happen in a couple of years once we fill the existing lines and when there is demand,” Mr Wilson said.

Demand has recently surged for UHT products. “We know with this plant we are two or three years

too late because the market is changing rapidly. “Any business case we looked at as recently as three

or four years ago wasn’t supporting this sort of invest-ment but now it is.”

Pineapple � avoured milk hits sweet spot

FONTERRA IS offer-ing winter milk contracts in the Waikato district to keep its new $120m UHT plant in year-round pro-duction.

The plant at Waitoa has eight lines and can produce 28 packets of UHT milk and cream per second; it needs 100m litres of milk every year.

The plant produces cream for food service cli-ents in Asia and pineapple flavoured ‘kids milk’ for China.

Year-round milk supply

is needed for the high value, short shelf-life product.

Fonterra chairman John Wilson said some farmers are moving off the strict grass curve and milking cows throughout the year.

“This gives us an opportunity to work with these farmers. We have signalled we need more milk for this plant over the next 18 months,” he said.

“Farmers in Waikato will now plan for that.”

Winter milk suppliers are paid a premium and get “deferential” transport pricing.

Winter milk contracts keep new Fonterra UHT plant at capacitySUDESH KISSUN

They must spend heav-ily to commit to year-around milking, most needing to calve two or three times a year to produce quality milk in autumn and winter.

In addition to a pre-mium price for winter

milk, the suppliers need good returns from such a deal, Mr Wilson said.

“They are proud to see quality milk turned into high value products for export [but] also need to see returns coming in above milk prices.”

The Waitoa UHT fac-tory was opened by New Zealand Primary Indus-tries Minister Nathan Guy last month. It has five pro-duction lines with provi-sion for three more lines.

No milk is stored at the plant. Fresh milk arriving

is immediately processed by heating for the required shelf life then turned into products.

Tetra Pak supplied the plant, which has a helix-shaped accumulator that allows filling lines to keep running during minor

repairs and adjustments.The plant is structured

to double or treble pro-duction capacity if needed.

Fonterra CEO Theo Spierings said this type of plant is needed for Fon-terra to stay competitive around the world.

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14 // WORLD NEWS

Stop Fonterra expansion planFONTERRA’S EXPANSION strat-egy should go on hold when its farmer suppliers aren’t getting a good return, says a shareholder who has tabled a remit for the cooperative’s annual meeting November 12.

“They’ve just got to stop spend-ing for a while and consolidate a bit,” Murray Beach, Marlborough, said. “I feel they’re doing a lot of spend-ing while we’re not getting a lot of money.”

Mr Beach said his remit isn’t a knee-jerk reaction to this year’s low forecast. Rather, it reflects two poor years, fol-lowed by one good, and now a “really bad year.”

“We should be getting more money from Fonterra than the other milk com-panies are paying their suppliers but we’re not.”

Mr Beach’s remit, resolution 7 in Fonterra’s notice of annual meeting document, says overseas investment and New Zealand development spend-

ing should be put on hold when the payout is below $7/kgMS.

“They’ve got to think about the farms which aren’t going to make it. There are going to be a lot of farms sold up at the end of this season.”

And it’s not just farmers: staff and local economies are already feeling the hit, he adds. “We’ve already had to put one worker off.”

With 130 cows producing about 40,000kgMS off his farm at Havelock,

$5/kgMS means “there’s not a lot of income” to meet ever-rising costs.

Mr Beach says he’s not totally against Fonterra’s development plans, par-ticularly those in New Zealand, but believes the

cooperative should reduce debt (see sidebar) before embarking on more expansion which is effectively at farm-ers’ expense.

Asked if Fonterra is ‘living beyond its means’, he says: “That’s what the bank manager would tell us!”

Fonterra released its notice of annual meeting, including Mr Beach’s

resolution, to NZX on October 17. It includes a letter from chairman John Wilson which refers to all resolutions but Beach’s.

In the explanatory notes to resolu-tions, a statement that the “board unan-imously does not support [Beach’s] proposal and recommends that you vote against it” is highlighted in bold, the only bold text used in the docu-ment other than headings and remu-neration figures.

Mr Beach says the board’s recom-mendation “isn’t cricket”. “Voters should be able to make up their own minds.”

He also says postal voting on such a resolution before the issue is debated at the annual meeting “doesn’t seem very democratic.” “I’ve been asked by [Fon-terra] management if I want to go to speak at the meeting out of courtesy but by then 80% will have already voted.”

The notice also includes a share-holders council recommendation to vote against Mr Beach’s proposal, saying the council debated the resolution at its September meeting and unanimously voted not to support it.

Murray Beach

ANDREW SWALLOW

Nestlé invests $39m in China Dairy InstituteTHE WORLD’S largest dairy company Nestlé has launched a $39m Dairy Farm-ing Institute in northeast China.

One of Nestle’s biggest dairy invest-ments, the institute will help modernise Chinese dairying to enable farmers to meet fast-growing milk demand in a sus-tainable way. It is located in Shuangcheng, Heilongjiang Province.

Nestlé says it has long sought to share technical knowhow and to improve dairy farming worldwide via training, responsi-ble practices and partnering with stake-holders including governments and universities.

“We have a 25-year history of devel-oping milk districts and the Nestlé Dairy Farming Institute is an extension of this,” says John Cheung, Nestlé China chair-man and chief executive.

The institute reflects Nestlé’s belief that for a company to be successful over the long term and create value for shareholders, it must create value for society.

Nestlé has three milk districts in

China – Shuangcheng, Laixi in Qingdao and Hulunbeier in Inner Mongolia. It says the China market could almost double in volume by 2020 from current levels.

“Milk is becoming a vital part of the Chinese diet, so the institute will help China [develop] its dairy sector… in a sustainable and efficient manner,” says Hans Joehr, Nestlé’s head of agriculture.

Principles and practices for sustain-able dairy farming will underpin the insti-tute’s teaching curriculum and training activities, in addition to the expertise of Nestlé and its partners.

Nestle says the institute will help modernise Chinese dairy farming prac-tices, allowing “responsible production of safe, quality-assured dairy products” via a wide range of dairy management dis-ciplines, including animal health and wel-fare, milking hygiene, animal nutrition, environmental protection and socio-eco-nomic management.

The institute will include classrooms, laboratories, dormitories and three dif-ferent sized training farms.

‘Zero water’ plant model of recyclingNESTLE HAS turned one of its dairy plants in Mexico into the world’s first ‘zero water’ factory.

New processes and equipment at the Cero Agua factory, in the water-short state of Jalisco, enable it to use recycled water from its dairy operations. Nestlé plans to do this in its factories in other countries.

The daily water savings equal the volume needed to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool or to supply the daily needs of 6400 Mexicans.

For 60 years the water available for each person in Mexico has declined drastically due to population growth, Nestle says. Saving groundwater was therefore important, said chief executive Paul Bulcke.

“In Mexico and around the world water is a vital and fragile resource.”

The Cero Agua dairy factory takes fresh cow milk, normally about 88% water, and heats it at low pressure to produce water vapour. This is condensed, treated and used to clean the evaporating machines themselves. Once the machines have been flushed out the water is collected once more, purified and recycled a second time.

The water can then be reused for watering gardens or cleaning.

The amount of groundwater the Cero Agua dairy saves each day – about 1.6m L – equates to about 15% of the total water used by Nestlé in Mexico each year in its factories and offices.

Such water savings are part of Nestlé efforts to promote the “conservation, treatment, recycling and water efficiency in our operations and among farmers, suppliers and other partners in its supply chain,” said Marcelo Melchior, who heads Nestlé Mexico.

The Cero Agua project, and others, have allowed Nestlé to reduce total water withdrawal in absolute terms by almost one-third globally over the past 10 years, while increasing production. Water use per tonne of product has fallen by half.

Worldwide, Nestlé aims to further reduce its water withdrawal per tonne of product by 40% by 2015, compared to 2005.

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EUROPEAN DAIRY co-op Arla Foods has set its sights on Brazil, buying 8% of the largest dairy company Vigor Alimentos S.A.

Arla swapped its 50% stake in a joint venture with Vigor for the minority stake, becoming a voting member and an observer on Vigor’s board of directors.

Head of Arla’s international markets Finn Hansen says its new agreement with Vigor is similar to one with Mengniu in China. “Only this time it hasn’t been necessary for us to find more funding.

“Vigor is a leading dairy producer with a first class distribution network. We have a history of cooperation and it’s a natural step for us to further build on this partnership to explore the potential in Brazil.”

Latin America is a growth region Arla has watched for a year. Brazil is the largest market there and the world’s fourth-largest dairy market, growing 5% annually.

It has 200 million people and a growing middle class. Arla aims to accelerate its export of products to Brazil to gain market share in imported brands.

Steffen Andersen, responsible for Arla’s value markets, says Brazil is an attractive market especially for branded cheese and butter.

Lurpak is the first Arla brand to be marketed in

Brazil; test results are looking promising.

“We also launched feta, brie and camembert cheese. Together with Vigor, we see a great opportunity to create leading positions for our global brands Arla, Lurpak and Castello,” Mr Andersen said.

The deal with Vigor allows Arla to develop a new business unit within its operation, with a new commercial executive officer. The unit will market and sell imported

products and brands through Vigor’s channels.

When the EU milk quotas are abolished in 2015 and milk production increases, Arla and other European international dairy companies will have to

look to growth markets outside the EU, hence the lure of Brazil as a means of raising the co-op’s milk price, Arla says.

Since 1986 Arla has been in a 50/50 joint venture with Vigor under the name Dan Vigor. In 2013 Dan Vigor achieved sales of $58 million. Under the new agreement Arla will exchange the joint ownership of Dan Vigor for the 8% ownership of Vigor.

Vigor is listed on the Brazilian stock exchange and has annual revenue of $1.3 billion. It has 6000 employees and 14 factories in Brazil. It has 18 large distribution centres and 40,000


NEWS // 15

Arla Foods gains foothold in Brazil

When the EU milk quotas are abolished in 2015 and milk production increases, Arla will look to growth markets outside the EU.

Arla has launched its Lurpak butter in Brazil,

the world’s fourth largest dairy market.

Arla has launched its Lurpak butter in Brazil,

the world’s fourth largest dairy market.

retailers in the most attractive regions. Main product categories are powdered and condensed milk (36%), dairy (36%) and spreads (14%).

Vigor is partly owned

by the world’s largest food processing company, JBS SA.

IN LINE with Arla’s 2017 strategy, its growth markets are China, Russia, Middle East and Africa, where it is spending heavily on a pres-ence and increasing market share.

In the past year, Latin America’s large population, growing middle classes and in-creasing dairy consumption have presented new opportunities. Similar potential is noted in South East Asia and Australia.

2017 STRATEGY

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 10 MATERIAL DEADLINE: January 28PUBLISHED: February 3CONTACT: CHRIS DINGLE T: 0417 735 001 E: [email protected]

FEBRUARY ISSUE

SPECIAL REPORT


16 // OPINION

EDITORIAL

MILKING IT...

RUMINATING

Sacre bleu Australian dairy farmers and processors know what it’s like competing on an unfair playing field against their international com-petitors.

Subsidies across the world mean a lower cost of production or a guaranteed wage regardless of output.

Now, the European Union wants to mo-nopolise common cheese names like feta, parmesan and cheddar, meaning Australian cheese would have to be marketed under different names.

It’s a bit like French wine makers locking up the name champagne and forcing our wine export-ers to call our local drop “sparkling”.

We can see the point of that – champagne is actually a district in France – but feta is simply a Greek word for “slice”.

Our feta is already branded “white cheese” in Korea, which has a free trade agreement with the EU.

It might be a tactic our negotiators can slip into FTA discussions with China – maybe our competitors could be forced to label their milk products “white drinking liquid”.

Mind your mannersWelcome to New Zealand, where security guards ra-tion out bottles of choco-late milk in supermarkets.

A new 750ml bottle of chocolate milk – a partner-ship between Whittaker’s and organic milk producer Lewis Road – has seen customer demand froth over.

The rich chocolate milk brand became an over-night success – so much that customers began queuing early for fresh de-liveries, and some super-market owners installed security guards when one customer tried to take the lot in one go.

With the equivalent of 21 teaspoons of sugar per bottle, rationing it is prob-ably not a bad thing.

On the other handThe realigning of State electorate boundaries in Victoria will have an influence on some seats in what will be a tight elec-tion this month.

Victorian Agriculture Minister Peter Walsh made light of it when speaking at a Rural Press Club of Vic-toria breakfast last month.

The State Agriculture Minister and former grain farmer used to have more grain farmers in his elector-ate, so would tell dairy farmers (with tongue in cheek) that complained about high feed grain prices that prices were fair and reasonable.

Now, with more dairy farms in his electorate, he’s changed his tune – telling grain farmers it’s a bit stiff when feed grain prices get too high.

A consummate profes-sional in his field it would seem.

Hand-milking scandalScandal clouded the World Hand-Milking Champion-ship at the Branzi Fair in Lenna, northern Italy.

Two competitors must hand-milk one cow each for two minutes: top vol-ume wins.

The former Guinness World Record for hand-milking is two litres in two minutes but this was smashed in Italy.

Controversy reigned!Gianmario Ghiradi from

Malonno, Brescia, Italy miked an astounding 8.7l from Mirke the Cow.

Very impressive, it would seem, but last year’s cham-pion, Maurizio Paschetta, stayed out, insisting the absence of checks for doping in the cows made it unethical for him to enter.

“At this level I would have expected strong anti-doping checks on the cows and milkers to protect the animals and guarantee transparency of the top po-sitions,” he told reporters.

After the FTA, what next?IT WAS good to hear the man at the pointy end of the Free Trade Agreement negotiations with China remind the dairy industry that a successful outcome is only the start.

Federal Trade Minister Andrew Robb told those at a forum in Larpent, near Colac in western Victoria, that an FTA was impor-tant, but so is the necessary investment to take advantage of it.

Robb said a satisfactory FTA with China was one thing, but further investment needs to be made in the industry to enable Australia to stay ahead of its international competitors.

We are not alone in eyeing off the huge opportunities China presents.

A successful outcome would be extremely beneficial for Aus-tralian dairy and other commodities, and our agricultural lobby has pushed hard for that.

The NFF, Australian Dairy Farmers president Noel Camp-bell, Dairy Australia and Robb and members of his team have racked up countless frequent flyer points with their recent trips to China.

Robb told the Larpent forum building a relationship with China, as New Zealand has successfully done, is crucial, and Australia has been doing that.

We will soon find out whether the work has paid dividends.Even if we achieve the “NZ plus” deal Robb and the Govern-

ment have been spruiking, it’s only the first step in a new game.How does Australia capitalise on any gains achieved?That’s the next question that must be addressed and it’s going

to take at least as much energy, thought and vision as what has been put into the free trade basket.

Dairy Australia is assisting Austrade and other parties who are trying to coax as much as $16 billion of foreign investment into the farm sector.

Granted, it’s an imposing figure when the current industry is valued at $13 billion, but we have little choice.

DA says that figure is needed by 2020 to return Australian pro-duction back to levels of a decade ago.

The ADF and other industry stakeholders will soon meet to put some flesh on the bones of the Australian Dairy Vision.

There is a vision for the future but discussions will now ensue on how exactly this will be achieved and how it will be funded.

There has been much discussion on the FTA – and a lot of work gone into realising it – but regardless of the outcome, the journey to take Australian dairy to the next level has only just begun.

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OPINION // 17

WITH CONSTANT media attention on booming prospects for dairy and an apparent tidal wave of investment about to swallow our industry things have never looked better, right?

Our “dairy leaders” have had meet-ings, gone to Canberra and paraded a few cows around Parliament house lawns to spread the word about their Vision for a “Prosperous” industry.

Dairy Australia’s managing direc-tor, Ian Halliday, was quoted by ABC rural on a trip to Tasmania in early July stating that the dairy industry wants to grow from 9.2 billion litres to 15 billion Litres.

Apart from Murray Goulburn man-aging director, Gary Helou, who wants more milk flowing through his facto-ries I am not sure who the other indus-try players Ian talks about are.

Is the Vision for a “Prosperous” 15 billion litre industry a realistic propo-sition or has the cart got ahead of the horse?

First up it always pays to look at the market you want to supply. We have 23 million of the wealthiest people on the planet in our own backyard and they consume 60% of our current produc-tion. That’s a pretty good starting point.

The domestic market has the ability to pay at least $6.50/kgMS (if our milk buyers choose to pass enough dollars through to the producer) and we can all make money at that price, can’t we?

Looking at our remaining produc-tion, we have a stable export destina-tion in Japan which, even if the recent FTA wasn’t overly exciting, is a profit-able market for dairy products.

Then we have our friends in China. China’s domestic industry produces around 38 billion litres of milk and it will need to import milk for some time yet, but it has proven this year what a vola-tile trading partner it can be.

Our recent blue with Russia has added to world volatility.

On top of this, our competitors in New Zealand continue to grow and expand their presence in China, while the sleeping giant of world milk pro-duction, the US, now fuelled by cheap corn and Dairy Margin Insurance, are now pumping surplus product onto the market. EU quotas finish next year too.

With a challenging domestic market, and a volatile export market, is another six billion litres really a viable proposi-tion?

To grow an industry by 50% it would help if you had a plan and at this stage I haven’t seen one.

The next thing you need is demand for the product which we have estab-lished is growing but on the export front is, and will remain, very volatile.

Next up you need profitable dairy producers willing to commit to growth. We had a fair few of them during 2013/14 year but unfortunately the numbers will drop off in 2014/15.

The banks have been a bit touchy on dairy since the GFC and many young enthusiastic farmers are now a bit older and still trying to dig themselves out of the property value collapse in equity.

Gun shy bank managers and wiser

and more cautious heads are look-ing at safe bets like steady, profitable growth before rolling the dice on mas-sive growth.

Maybe the tidal wave of interna-tional investment will come rolling in but we will let history be the judge on that.

Even if farmers get cashed up to grow, do we have the available resources of land, rainfall, cows and labour? Repeatable seasons make for stable dairy farm businesses and apart from some regions in Tasmania, I think the rest of the coun-try is light on NZ-style reli-ability.

There are elements within the business a farmer can control, like breeding better cows and training staff, but is it enough to fuel the forecast growth?

Do we have highly efficient logistics and bulk commodity processing facil-

ities to handle the extra milk? I have three different company tankers drive past my place while most major facto-ries of scale in the country have been around for a while.

While the NZ industry is world class in the efficient production of bulk com-modities, the reality is we are only just

in the game.I believe the Aus-

tralian dairy indus-try can grow steadily on the back of market signals which deliver profitable returns to farmers.

Two to three per-cent compound growth may get us to 15 billion litres but it will be in 25 years’ time.

Some in our indus-try need to take the blinkers off and deal with reality, not delusions of grandeur. • James Stacey is a dairy farmer at Lang-horne Creek, South Australia.

Is national production of 15 billion litres realistic?

OPINIONJAMES STACEY

“Even if farmers get cashed up to grow, do we have the available resources of land, rainfall, cows and labour?”.

China will be a large importer of milk but has already caused volatility in world markets.

New Zealand is world class in the effi cient production of bulk commodities.

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18 // MARKETS

PURCHASED FEED costs are a major influ-ence on farmgate margins across many dairy export-ing regions, and there-fore a key driver for global dairy supply.

After being repeatedly downgraded throughout the year, recent estimates put the Australian 2014/15 wheat crop at around 23 million metric tonnes (MMT) (Rabobank) to 25MMT (USDA) - com-pared to an estimated 27 MMT last year.

A sobering trend, but exposure to international grain markets has pro-vided Australian dairy farmers with some relief, as expectations of good global feed grain availabil-ity have depressed global markets since September.

While good overseas supplies may help lessen the pressure on domestic feed grain stocks through lowering the prices exporters are willing to pay, they are also likely to support continued strength in northern hemi-sphere milk production.

The US is the ‘poster child’ for production sys-tems driven by intensive feeding.

According to University of Wisconsin data, pur-chased feed accounted for, on average, 52% of total input costs for Californian

dairy farms between 2006 and 2010.

CBOT December corn futures rose during Octo-ber, but with harvest underway, they remain relatively low, supporting milk:feed price ratios in favourable territory even as milk prices come under threat from falling com-modity values.

Consequently, a strengthening supply response is being observed in the US, with September data from the USDA indi-cating milk production 4% higher than September 2013; bringing year-to-date growth to 2%.

Abundant feed grain will help the US industry in the face of intensifying dairy commodity-driven headwinds, likely keeping production strong into the first half of 2015.

By its very nature, the European industry is much more diverse: pur-chased feed costs for the top five milk producing states range from around 25% of operating costs (Poland) to in excess of 50% (Italy).

Feed expenses thus represent a significant proportion of operating costs – and falling grain prices are helping cushion margins.

European milk produc-tion is now expected to reach a record 151 million tonnes (up 4%) in 2014, despite the impact of fall-ing dairy commodity mar-

kets beginning to reach the farmgate.

The USDA revised expected EU wheat pro-duction up 3MT to 154MMT in October (com-pared to 143MMT last year), and cheap grain con-tinues to come out of France.

Upward pressure is emerging however: international benchmark grain prices have risen in recent weeks, and UK Nov-14 feed wheat futures have followed suit.

The Black Sea wheat crop is generally thought to be considerably smaller than expected, also reduc-ing grain available for export from the region.

Generally recognised as representing ‘the other end’ of the scale, net

Global dairy regions feel pressure on feed pricesAMY BELLHOUSE AND JOHN DROPPERT

feed ‘made, purchased or cropped’ represented only 20% of a typical New Zealand farm’s work-ing expenses in 2011-12 (according to DairyBase),

suggesting an even smaller share for purchased feed alone.

New Zealand relies on international grain mar-kets, producing around 1 million tonnes of grain annually, and importing in the region of 300-450,000 tonnes, as well as palm kernel expeller meal for use in stock feed (NZ Min-istry for Primary Indus-tries).

Given the seasonal nature of most NZ produc-tion systems, world grain price fluctuations are most relevant to whether pur-chases of supplementary

feed will prove economic later in the season, or whether unfavour-able weather will trigger early dry-off of herds.

With a Farmgate Milk Price forecast

of $5.30/kg MS – and most analysts tipping this will fall further – the econom-ics are less likely to stack up in 2014/15.

At around 5% growth to September, milk produc-tion growth in New Zea-land has so far outpaced earlier expectations.

However, a slight less-ening in the pace is still expected, with full season forecasts in the range of

3-4% growth, relative to 2013/14.

Back home, data from the Victorian Dairy Farm Monitor Project shows average expenditure on grains, concentrates and other feeds accounted for 29% of cash costs during 2013/14, demonstrating the potential for a spike in grain prices to impact on margins.

Milk production is cur-rently tracking around 3% above last year in data to September, however dete-riorating seasonal con-ditions are increasingly likely to weigh on produc-tion heading into summer.

In particular, dry con-ditions in southwest Victoria are already under-mining pasture produc-tion and cutting into crop yield potential.

Feed prices remain a challenge in northern Aus-tralia, however yields and quality of early harvested grains have generally been

acceptable, while sorghum planting will be supported if rains forecast for early November eventuate.

Barley is coming under pressure from exporters, but good news for feed buyers is that in parts of New South Wales screen-ings have been a problem.

In contrast to the vir-tually universal dive in global dairy commodity markets in recent months, differing exposures to, and movements in, feed input markets are producing a variety of pressures across the major dairy exporting regions.

To a large extent, it is these cost changes and the ability of individual farm-ers to either seize oppor-tunities or take action against threats, that will determine the speed and severity of the milk pro-duction response to come. • Amy Bellhouse and John Droppert are industry ana-lysts with Dairy Australia.

Abundant feed grain will help the US industry in the face of intensifying dairy commodity-driven headwinds, likely keeping production strong into the first half of 2015.

The US is the ‘poster child’ for production systems driven by intensive feeding.

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markets // 19

tHIs Year has seen a dizzying turn-around in the global dairy market.

After commodity returns reached record highs as 2014 opened, milk powder prices have almost halved in US dollar terms, while butter and cheese have lost about 30% of their value

Here at home, dairy companies in southern regions have signaled there will be no advances on opening prices and are grimly holding on to deliver what seemed so achievable in June, as export returns spiral downwards.

Producers in fresh milk regions are looking at slight increases. On pres-ent indications, farmgate prices may be down 11-13% on average for the 2014/15 season, a significant hit to the top line for Australian farmers, with the pain concentrated in export-exposed regions.

So how are other dairy farmers around the world faring?

Just over the ditch the price signals are much stronger – Fonterra’s cur-rent forecast payout for 2014/15 would deliver a massive 37% hit to dairy farm-ers’ top line – and many analysts are pre-dicting the end-result will go even lower – to prices not seen for the best part of a decade.

The ability to manage margins will be critical, and the opportunities to do so will be highly dependent on climate.

While production has started strongly, NZ farmers are unlikely to invest in supplementary feed to extend their season in a year like this, and the possibility of drier El Nino conditions would further constrain production.

In contrast, US farmer margins are actually positive as the domestic market for dairy products has remained

relatively strong. US supply responded more slowly to

positive international market signals, and production remained subdued for the first quarter of 2014.

However, increased US export activity led to lower butter and cheese stocks, elevating wholesale product prices at home, and keeping farmgate milk prices rising through to September.

The inevitable correction arrived for US wholesale prices in September, and October farmgate milk prices tracked down slightly, however 2014 milk prices will remain relatively strong overall.

The USDA is forecasting a 20% reduction in the all milk price for 2015.

So while signals to US farmers are slowly turning negative, the wall of US milk many analysts were expecting earlier in 2014 looks to have been delayed rather than eliminated.

This is because income over feed costs – a critical measure of US farm margins – is still hovering at its highest level for around four years.

A bumper corn crop is sending feed prices south, and will buffer the impact of lower milk prices on profitability.

Whether the price signal farmers receive will be sharp enough to halt the build-up in cow numbers and dampen milk output growth will be a key supply-side question for 2015.

In the EU, production has been strong through most of 2014, up 5% for the January to August period, while domestic market conditions have been less robust.

Average EU prices peaked in February and have been trending down ever since, and were 8% lower by August.

The Russian ban on agricultural

imports in August has had a direct and significant impact, particularly on the Baltic States and Finland, but there are repercussions for the wider EU.

Emergency funds are being directed toward those states most affected by the Russian ban.

Private storage aid was opened in response to the ban – and had to be halted after six weeks in response to “disproportionate usage from coun-tries who do not traditionally export to Russia”!

Milk production that would have been exported to Russia is – where possible - being directed to an already over-supplied powder market, as local consumption is not growing enough to absorb large volumes of extra cheese.

In the UK, where milk production has been strong, but the market is finely balanced, there have been a series of farmer protests against significant cuts to prices.

While milk price signals for EU farm-ers are certainly more negative, they too will benefit from lower feed costs.

In fact, UK maize prices have dropped 22% since last year. Many farmers in more favoured regions of Ireland, Netherlands and Germany are in the process of gearing up for quota removal in April 2015, they also run the risk of copping super-levy fines.

Milk production is expected to slow from 2014 level, but just how much could depend on quota status leading into next year’s peak.

So while the current international dairy market situation is affecting farm-ers in all major production and export-ing regions, the impacts to date have been quite variable – reflecting a range of exposures to export commodity returns and variable feed inputs. • Jo Bills is a director of Melbourne-based firm Freshagenda, a specialist food analy-sis, advisory and consulting business.

How are the world’s dairy farmers faring?

FresHaGeNDa’s aUs-traLIaN export index fin-ished October at 145, losing 20 points over the month.

The 12% fall in the index was mostly down to lower cheddar and butter prices. Given the share of cheese in Australia’s export mix, the 15% drop in cheddar price had a major impact on the index

Butter suffered the next biggest drop, losing 13% in value over the month. Butter prices had been holding up rel-atively well, but this month’s drop mirrors a sharp correc-tion on US markets, where lower stocks and solid demand had been keeping wholesale prices well above international benchmarks. The butter party

appears to be over now, with greater product availability dampening prices.

Whole milk powder prices were down 8% in October, as New Zealand milk production started the year strongly and Chinese demand remained muted. The latest GDT results show stronger prices from March onwards, as NZ pro-duction heads into its sea-sonal low – given the outlook for payouts, there is likely to be limited supplementation to extend the season this year.

Skim milk powder prices fell 5% for the month, as EU milk diverted from Russian cheese exports is directed into SMP and butter. Strengthen-ing production in the US will

also be keeping a lid on SMP prices for the foreseeable future.

The Aussie dollar traded in a narrow range between 87 and 88 US cents during Octo-ber, and finished the month unchanged.

The index is a lead indica-tor of average export returns - based on spot prices, cur-rency movements and export mix. The index measures cur-rent market sentiment, but in reality it takes 3 to 6 months for prices to translate into actual returns, depending on the timing of contract negoti-ations. It was set to 100 in Jan-uary 2000.

For weekly updates, visit http://www.freshagenda.com.au/

Index loses ground in October

freSh ageNDajo biLLS

NZ farmers are unlikely to invest in supplementary feed to extend their season this year.


20 // BREEDING MANAGEMENT

Heat tolerant cows bound for the tropicsA NEW Zealand company has developed a heat-tol-erant cow that produces more under heat stress.

Developed by a genetics team led by Dairy Solutionz Ltd, Hamilton, NZ, the composite breed will be used on large-scale dairy farms the company is now

helping set up in the US, Colombia and Ecuador, said chief executive Derek Fairweather.

Governments and land owners are also involved. Demonstration farms will open in Colombia and Ecuador by the end of the year.

Cash from Callaghan

Innovation is helping fund the project.

Some of the breed’s origins are based on work at the University of Florida where researchers had bred a recently discovered ‘slick locus’ (originating from Senepol cattle) into American Holsteins. This better enabled the new

Derek Fairweather with Kiwipole Slick Grazer, who is 50% Scotts Comanche.

Trial proves fresh sexed semen betterAN AUSTRALIAN-FIRST study showing fresh sexed semen is better for dairy reproduction could revolu-tionise how farmers use it to improve their herds.

The study conducted by the Warrnambool Veterinary Clinic has found that when fresh sexed semen is used, the results are better for farmers than frozen sexed semen.

Dr Jon Kelly, director and senior dairy veterinarian with the Warrnam-bool Veterinary Clinic, says the results could be a “game changer” for Austra-lian dairy farmers.

“More reliable results mean more people will start using sexed semen,” Dr Kelly said.

“We have used it in heifers in a FTAI program and in cows, and it is better,” he said. Fresh sexed semen gives con-sistently higher conception rates then frozen sexed because the semen is not

damaged by the freeze/thaw process. The Warrnambool Veterinary

Clinic has released the results of fresh sexed semen conception rates and the improvement seen when compare to frozen sexed semen.

Speaking at a ‘Getting the Most Out of Sexed Semen’ FarmChat workshop on November 6, Dr Kelly said frozen sexed semen was a compromised prod-uct that yields variable conception rate results.

“Fresh sexed semen is now available, which theoretically should be better than frozen,” he added.

“Sexed semen has been around for a number of years with the obvious benefits of more heifers being born, but many dairy farmers choose not to take full advantage of its potential to increase heifer numbers and maximise its potential.

“We believe the information we have gathered will help dairy farmers make better decisions.”

Dr Kelly told the FarmChat forum

that farmers need to ensure sexed semen insemination is done correctly to increase chances of getting more ani-mals pregnant.

“Due to the decrease in fertility of sexed semen, it is vitally important that animal selection and management, and semen handling and insemination are the best it can be,” he said.

Individual conception rates for fresh sexed semen in Warrnambool Veterinary Clinic dairy heifers in 2014 show that conception rates of up to 70% are achievable, but 55% was the overall average. This compares to a 40% con-ception rate with frozen sexed semen.

He said the biggest factor in the success of a sexed semen pregnancy in a heifer was achieving critical mating weight of between 55-60% of adult weight. “A bigger heifer is more likely to have reached puberty and be more sexually mature, so underlying fertility is maximised,” he said.

Dr Kelly said synchrony programs can be used to help minimise manage-

ment interventions, and for FTAI pro-grams, can alleviate the heat detection accuracy risk.

An important factor that determines the success of FTAI programs is that the correct hormone, dose, route of injec-tion and timing is adhered to.

Prostaglandin (PG) programs make a heifer show heat can give good con-ception results to sexed semen. Accu-rate heat detection and consistent timing of AI are essential for a PG pro-gram, he said.

Dr Kelly said cows are generally less fertile than heifers when using sexed semen.

“Because early calving cows are the key to a herd’s fertility the next season, I believe a synchrony program is essen-tial when using sexed semen in cows, other than when individual cow are being selected.”

Selecting only the most fertile cows for joining with sexed semen is critical.

Despite the relative success of fresh sexed semen, Dr Kelly said “there are disadvantages with fresh semen, which include the logistics and sire selection, so the holy grail remains a frozen sexed semen product that behaves the same in cows and heifers as frozen conven-tional semen.”

RICK BAYNE

American composite breed to regulate its body temperature while maintaining milk yield under heat stress.

“The Dairy Solutionz team has now taken the slick locus and introduced it into New Zealand pas-ture genetics for the first time as part of what is now a seven-year program.

The cows will be branded Kiwipole. The company has a range of cows and bulls all contain-ing DNA proven as holding the slick locus.

“The Kiwipole dairy cow… has great heat tol-erance coupled with the best pasture genetics in the world,” said Dr Vish Vishwanath, genetics con-sultant to Dairy Solu-tionz. “This creates an animal ide-ally suited to maximise production in grass-based, tropical dairy systems.”

Research earlier this year by Serdal Dikmen and the University of Florida

indicated up to 2L/day improved milk yield per animal through better heat tolerance.

“Mul-tiply this increased milk yield

over a large or national herd and the end result is a significant prize,” Mr Fair-

weather said.The first Kiwipole bulls

– Kiwipole Slick Grazer son of Scotts Comanche, Efficient, Supreme and Super – are ready to make to order.

Many cows have been bred with Kiwipole genet-ics over the past few sea-sons and Dairy Solutionz has begun a three-year proving program.

Since 2007, Dairy Solu-tionz has integrated best-of-breed technologies into its large-scale offshore pastoral farms.

Dr Jon Kelly

“This creates an animal ideally suited to maximise production in grass-based, tropical dairy systems.”


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breeding management // 21

WHen graeme Hopf pulled open his well-trav-elled suitcase of bones, at a Maffra field day recently, participants didn’t know what to expect.

Mr Hopf, an interna-tionally acclaimed cattle judge and classifier, became the most-talked-about presenter of the day, with his presentation on the functional traits of a dairy cow.

The field day was organised by Live-stock Improvement and attracted dairy farm-ers from Koonwarra and Stony Creek in South Gippsland as well as local producers.

The large crowd of participants heard from four presenters about cow anatomy and health, hybrid vigour, fertility, profit drivers and manag-ing financial volatility in the dairy industry.

In the first part of his presentation, Mr Hopf talked about the cow’s pelvic girdle and how cows that lay down detrimen-tally affect their pelvis, udder and leg health.

This leads to loss of production.

He warned against buying cattle out of feed-lots, “because they spend a lot of time lying down”.

“Putting cattle in feed-lots is dangerous. When drought hits, you’re better off putting your cows on agistment,” Mr Hopf said.

He used his collection of leg bones to explain how low heels on the cow

effects ligament damage which leads to lameness – and, again, loss of produc-tion – and talked about the importance of the hock.

“The hock is one of the first areas where defor-mity is going to show up from injury higher up the leg,” he said.

He warned dairy farm-ers against choosing cows with high shoulders.

“With tall cows, you find withers sit up higher than the spine. Therefore the shoulder blade is sit-ting up straight,” he said.

“Once you straighten that shoulder, weight transference moves down the spine to the back legs, placing undue stress on these joints.

“Correct placement of the shoulder bone allows even distribution of weight between front and back legs – an angular shoulder blade is needed for this to happen.”

Mr Hopf agreed that a straight line along the spine “is pleasing to the eye” for competition judg-ing but not well for the animal’s health.

“We need to start saying what shape a cow should be for optimum production and for sur-vival – not for judging in the arena,” he said.

He praised cows with “ribs out past their hiplines” pointing out how the space allowed for a greater rumen area.

“I want to see cows wide rather than tall,” he said.

“When times are tough, they need to turn feed into milk. A wide rumen area

Assess functional traits to save future trouble Jeanette SeverS

allows them to eat more and produce more milk.

“The commitment is so great with our land values today that we have to get the best from production.

“And we want to encourage people in dairy farming, so we need to share knowledge to keep our farms viable.”

Hybrid vigour got the

tick of approval from Mr Hopf, once the presenta-tion moved into the pad-dock.

“These sorts of cows are going to help you make

money out of farming – cows with width, weight and good pin bone forma-tion,” he said.

Participants spent some time with Mr Hopf

selecting cows out of the host farm herd and dis-cussing conformation, ease of calving, placement of udder in relation to pelvis and general health.

Graeme Hopf selected this cow from field day host Alex Macarthur’s herd as an ideal milking cow - not particularly tall, angular shoulders, wide rib cage, lots of room for the rumen, high pin bones in the pelvis and a good-sized udder sitting well under the pelvis.

him.“We would have the

majority of cows, about 75%, milking twice a day, and about 15 cows on once a day, with the rest three to four times a day.”

He has noticed the cows that are limiting themselves to once a day are only producing about 15 litres a day at spring peak, but when offering themselves twice a day that jumps to 22-25 litres.

“I am starting to build a picture of performance, and we will make some decisions at the end of the season about what we will do with those once a day cows.”

Meantime his top cows that produce over 40 litres being milked three times a day will sometimes leap to 50 litres when they come in for a forth milking over a 24 hour period.

Overall he believes production has not suf-fered significantly, and the MIone’s capacity for recording means he is get-

ting a better profile on his herd’s health.

“Conductivity test-ing highlights those cows that are getting mastitis, and the MIone will sepa-rate them out to check. Identifying and treating cows is that much sim-pler. Lameness is also reduced because the cows are coming in on their own time and own pace.”

His herd is enjoying a bulk somatic cell count of 150,000 this season.

The farm has been configured for eight hour grazing, with three laneways featuring drafting gates to control cow movements.

Mr Mills admits after 17 years of conventional milking it has taken him some time to get his mind around accepting that cows will determine the milking period.

“I have learned it’s sometimes better to just leave the machine and the

cows to it, and walk away!”A text alert system pro-

vides him with updates on any technical issues, and these have proven to be relatively easily fixed in the early stages of operation.

Being solo on the farm, Mr Mills says he now appreciates not having to interrupt another job at the conventional milk-ing time, and is starting to enjoy the shift in perspec-tive and time management the MIone brings.


22 // MANAGEMENT

MANY DAIRY farmers in the Gippsland region of Victoria are finding them-selves caught in the same position Trevor Mills was a year ago.

He was grappling with issues of farm scale on his 180-cow unit, trying to bal-ance a need to increase the flexibility of his time against the economic reali-ties of volatile milk returns and labour costs.

“We had done the maths on our options, including share farm-ing, leasing or employ-ing labour. Unfortunately none of it really added up to leave enough in it for us as owners,” he said.

Add in the compli-cations of some health issues, and it was clear the choices were narrowing to possibly even having to exit dairying altogether, not a prospect Trevor or his wife Anne-Marie were particularly keen upon.

“I had never seri-ously considered a robotic milker as an option, think-ing that was more some-thing the next generation could consider, but if we were going to stay on the farm, we did not have a lot of viable options open, and

robotics was one of the most obvious.”

His decision coin-cided with the launch of the GEA WestfaliaSurge MIone robotic milker for the first time in Austra-lia. Mr Mills acknowledges he was cautious about becoming the test farm for the technology, but after six months is start-ing to enjoy the flexibil-ity and insights the system delivers.

While not the first robotic system developed, Mr Mills liked the config-uration of the MIone, and opted for a system with three “boxes”.

He appreciated a layout that features cow access on one side, and easy oper-ator access on the other.

He also liked the capac-ity of the MIone to accept additional boxes for cows without having to invest in significant additional technology to power and manage those additions.

A key point of differ-ence for the MIone system is a single robotic arm that moves between the boxes to work with a specially developed 3D camera.

The camera plays a key part in co-ordinating the

position of individual teats and determining where to place the cups at the start of milking. It effectively guides the teat cups on the milking rack to the cow’s teats

The constant monitor-ing provided by the camera provides a more human like response to unex-pected events, like cups being kicked off, with a rapid movement back to the problem box to correct the problem.

Mr Mills spent the first six months getting himself and his herd accustomed to the system, and is start-ing to see how his herd are responding to the freedom choosing their own milk-ing times brings them, and

Mills leaves cows to make own choices

Trevor Mills

WHO: Trevor Mills WHERE: Drouiin South WHAT: Automatic milker

Since choosing their own milking times, about 75% of the Mills’ herd milk twice a day, with others once a day and some three to four times a day.

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management // 23

WHen YOUR herd produces 2200 kg milk solids (MS) per hectare, off 180 ha, you might think that is enough; but Tinamba sharefarmer Hans Van Wees is still looking for improvement.

That improvement is not just increasing production but in reducing costs of production too.

About two dozen dairy farmers heard about Mr Van Wees’ profit driv-ers at a field day at Maffra, organised by Livestock Improvement, at the end of last month.

Last year Mr Van Wees produced 2200kg milk solids (MS) per hectare from 750 cows; this year he is looking to improve production and increased the herd size to 800 cows.

He spoke to field day participants about his herd management methods and costs of production.

Maintaining body weight on the cows was a hard lesson he learned in a bad year.

“We maintain body weight on the cows to ensure condition … because it’s hard to get it back on them,” he said.

He keeps 25% of heifers each year and runs them as a separate herd, to pre-vent bullying from the older cows and giving them the best chance of growing and production.

“The cows are milked first then the heifers. There’s less competition for the young herd for feed and water, they spend less time on the concrete pad and they get preferential treatment and feeding if necessary,” Mr Van Wees said.

His herd are seasonal calvers in a quick calving pattern. He synchronises yearling heifers and cows and over a period of eight weeks joins them using AI; then follows up with bulls at a rate of 1:30.

All are pregnancy tested and empty

cows are culled ruthlessly; cows that show a tendency to mastitis are also culled.

Last year he sold 5% of the herd as empty cows, 75 late cycling cows were sold in-calf and 50 cows were sold as choppers.

Between 230 to 250 heifer calves are kept as replacements each year.

“We make decisions early and we don’t keep empties,” Mr Van Wees said.

“I have a three strikes policy with mastitis – then they’re culled.

“Record keeping is very important to us, so we can trace back our actions and management.

“For example, using bulls enables us to sell late calving cows rather than keep them, which is another income source.

“This enables us to continue our tight calving pattern.”

The herd is dried off at the end of June and milking begins on August 1 for heifers and August 10 for cows.

“Over a 280-day lactation, last year 520kg MS/cow was sent to the factory,” Mr Van Wees said.

“This year we’re getting up to 2.1kg MS/cow a day, consistently averaging 1.9kg MS/cow.

“This year we’re grazing 7ha more pasture and aiming for 400,000 MS per year production – or more.

“There’s still room for improve-ment.”

Cost of production (COP) in 2013 was $4.50/kg MS for a clear profit of $1 million. This COP included repairs and maintenance.

Feed costs are closely monitored and have been significantly reduced in recent years with capital investment in a 10 megalitre effluent dam that feeds into irrigation channels.

All effluent water is used on the farm, currently fertilising half the property; a mixture of 40kg/ha ammonia, 40kg/ha potash and 40kg/ha urea is used on the remaining pasture.

All fertilising follows the cows’ graz-ing pattern.

Other gains in COP have been made in pasture and making hay. Last year, Mr Van Wees made 900 tonne of pas-ture silage and so far this year has fed out 500t.

“We’ve fed out 500t silage at a rate of 1t/cow and that’s been a saving of $40,000 already.

“The effluent is used for irrigation and is the cheapest, sustainable fertil-iser – it grows a lot of grass,” Mr Van Wees said.

“When we first installed it, we saved $4200 per annum but now we’re saving $10,000 pa on fertiliser costs.”

Supplementary feeding is only used after the pasture has been eaten. He buys in a vegetable by-product – sweetcorn waste – from January 1 to April 30, fed straight onto the paddock at a rate of 500kg/cow dry matter (DM) per year.

He feeds a mix of wheat and canola meal from mid-November to April 30 and wheat and maize in spring.

“We supplementary feed at a rate of 1.8t/cow – 300kg of corn as maize, 150kg of canola meal and 1.35t of wheat,” Mr Van Wees said.

The corn costs $390/t, canola meal is $410/t and wheat is $330/t.

“This year we’re feeding a bit less and using pasture silage and getting the cows to eat more grass, as we try and

maintain margins,” Mr Van Wees said.Using a crossbred herd for the past

20 years, Mr Van Wees has noticed a low conception rate, which does worry him.

“So we’ll have to look at improving genetics to improve fertility,” he said.

“But up to now I’ve been happy to work with hybrid vigour.

“What it comes down to is, our cows make milk.

“In the last financial year, they deliv-ered a clear profit of $1million.

“We are always looking at ways to get more grass into the cow, less sup-plementary feeding, for more income.

“But we’re playing around at the edges, trying to get incremental improvements out of the system we use.

“We’ll try and improve drainage in some pastures.

“And we’ll learn successful manage-ment techniques from other farmers.

“We’ll maintain choosing not to milk through winter.

“There’s still room for improve-ment.”

One eye on production, one eye on margin

who: Hans Van Wees where: Tinamba whaT: High production

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24 // ANIMAL HEALTH

RESPIRATORY DISEASE in calves and young stock can occur sporadically, as isolated cases, but also in outbreak situations.

The effects of respiratory disease can be long lasting, many months or years after the disease event itself.

Research has shown that the presence of respiratory disease in calves under 4 months of age has an adverse effect on weight gain, age at first calving, milk production and longevity.

Thus, every effort should be made to prevent respiratory disease in these young animals.

Respiratory disease can be frustrating and difficult to control. By definition, the pathogens (viruses and bacteria) responsible for respiratory disease are often air-borne, which

means we cannot see how, and when, they are spread from calf to calf.

In contrast, the pathogens responsible for calf scours are primarily present in the faeces of infected calves and carrier cows, which is very visible to us.

Therefore, control measures for respiratory disease are based upon optimising the immune system of the calf and reducing the risk of exposure to respiratory pathogens. The immune system of the calf

The respiratory tract has several defence mechanisms to help prevent bacteria, viruses, dust and other particles from invading the lungs and causing respiratory disease:

The nasal passages are cleverly designed to trap inhaled particles and humidify incoming air.

In the windpipe

(trachea), a lining of cilia (tiny little hairs) move dust and bacteria upwards, towards the mouth to then be swallowed. Coughing helps with this upward movement.

In the lungs, if any bacteria are detected,

specific antibodies are activated and bind to the bacteria. Initially, these antibodies are transferred to the calf passively from colostrum. Therefore it is vital that all calves receive an adequate volume of good quality colostrum as soon as possible after

A breath of fresh air

birth. Also in the lungs,

there are white blood cells, called macrophages, which find and destroy the bacteria, with the help of antibodies. Why do calves get respiratory disease?

Unfortunately there are many respiratory viruses that destroy one or more of these defence mechanisms.

Once destroyed, bacteria can invade and cause clinical respiratory disease. The extent to which this happens depends on how healthy the respiratory system is in the first place.

Along with adequate provision of antibodies from colostrum, the health of the respiratory system will depend on any pre-existing inflammation from chemical or physical irritants.

Chemical irritants, such as ammonia from soiled bedding and poor drainage, and physical irritants, such as dust from bedding and feed, can contribute to disease by causing direct inflammation of the respiratory system.

Viruses and bacteria are more capable of invading an inflamed respiratory system than they are a healthy one. Reducing the risk of exposure to respiratory pathogens

Ventilation is the provision and circulation of fresh, clean air to help avoid chemical and physical irritants and

improve air quality. It is a vital part of reducing the risk of respiratory disease in calves.

Generally, ventilation in Australian calf housing is passive, which means it relies on the exchange of warm stale air with cool fresh air, by convection currents.

For this passive process to happen, any building housing calves needs to have adequate outlets (to allow warm, stale air to escape) and adequate inlets (to allow cool, fresh air to enter).

The number and

location of outlets and inlets will depend on building size and design, along with the stocking rate of calves in the shed.

Some very large calf sheds require active ventilation. This means they do not rely on passive convection currents but instead provide airflow mechanically with fans and positive pressure ventilation systems. This is not common in Australia and is predominantly used overseas.

It is important to note that ventilation is different to draught. Draught is often cold air blowing directly onto calves and should be avoided as it can contribute to poorer feed

conversion efficiency and increase the risk of hypothermia.

The exact air quality, in terms of pathogens per m3 airspace, and air movement can be difficult to assess. However a simple assessment can be achieved by getting down to the calf level.

Do this in several pens in the shed as air flow may differ in different parts of the shed.

You should not be able to smell ammonia or persistent faecal odour and there should not be areas of the shed

with cobwebs (this indicates low air flow). If either of these exist, then ventilation needs to be improved.

There are a variety of ways to provide inlets and outlets to calf housing to allow for this passive

ventilation process. These include:

■ Whirly birds ■ Yorkshire boarding ■ Air gaps near the roof

lineOff-set back walls

While some of these ventilation methods are ideally planned as part of a new calf shed, many can be easily incorporated into existing housing.

Remember that the effects of respiratory disease can be long term and that ‘prevention truly is better than cure’. • Dr Gemma Chuck is a dairy vet working at The Vet Group in south west Victoria. She has a special interest in calf rearing and is undertaking her PhD in this area at The University of Melbourne.

The effects of respiratory disease can be long lasting, many months or years after the disease event itself.

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ANIMAL HEALTH // 25

MORE AND more I am worried by the trend of “trinket marketing” with regards to important animal health decisions made on farms.

Decisions related to things like vaccination and drenching programs are too important to be trivialised to selecting the product that comes with the best esky, porch heater or BBQ free gift.

I have asked a few clients their key influencers for determining which drench they used in the previous year, and was shocked to find it was often nothing to do with the correct drench for their needs, nor was it part of an integrated drench program designed to minimise anthelminthic resistance or that the herd even needed to be drenched at all based on fecal testing.

Common reasons given were it was the cheapest, it was on special, it was what the person at the rural store had recommended or that it came with the best free gift.

Drenching like vaccinating is a key preventative medicine strategy on a dairy farm and to realise on many if not most farms there is no strategy nor even any scientific basis to the drenching program is of considerable concern.

The decision whether to vaccinate, and the choice of which type of drench to use, should be part of a herd management plan and based on risk and sound science.

In many cases, there no need to drench adult cattle but a relatively simple fecal worm count test can tell you for sure whether a drench is needed.

Regular worm count monitoring in young stock can also help to target drenching to maximise growth rates and health outcomes and worm count testing can also be used to monitor the response to a drench.

Monitoring the success (or otherwise) of a drench program is a critically important tool in managing and preventing the development of resistance to drench products.

Vaccinating the herd is another critically important tool for managing, preventing or eliminating diseases.

There are some vaccinations like 5in1 and Leptospirosis that should just be a standard treatment every animal in every herd receives.

Having had Leptospirosis, I can vouch how critical vaccinating your herd is to prevent this nasty disease affecting human health and workplace safety without even considering the potential animal health benefits.

Diagnostic testing, performed by your herd’s veterinarian, is an important step in determining which of the dozens of other vaccines could be necessary in your herd.

Botulism vaccination should be considered in any herd that has a heightened risk due to things like silage feeding and preventative vaccination for diseases in calves mostly need to be given to the cow herd prior to calving and managing colostrum transfer is another area where your herd vet can be a most valuable member of your team.

Monitoring antibody levels for diseases like BVD and regularly reviewing mastitis cultures or bulk milk PCR results are yet another way that seeking input from an experienced veterinarian not only improves your herd’s health and milk quality

Choose best drench for your herd and not what’s on special

ANIMAL HEALTHROB BONANNO

but can make extra money.

Drenching and vaccinating, along with most animal health decisions on your farm, are areas where your herd vet is able to offer you unbiased scientifically justifiable a dvice that isn’t just based on what

product is currently on special or comes with a free set of steak knives, but is actually the best fit for your needs. • Rob Bonanno is a director of the Shepparton Veterinary Practice and a former President of the Australian Cattle Veterinarians Association.

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I reckon if they could talk, they’d ask for it by name.

If we could talk we’d be on TV.

And asking for Champagne with breakfast.


26 // ANIMAL HEALTH

AUSTRALIAN DAIRY farmers must watch out for mycoplasma as an emerging cause of untreatable mastitis, says Dairy Australia.

The disease has troubled Australian dairy herds since 2006, and though few farms are affected, the disease caused by Mycoplasma bovis can curb production, push up cull rates and lead to cows and calves dying.

“The good news is a relatively cheap and sensitive test for mycoplasma is available on bulk milk samples,” says Dairy Australia’s Dr Kathryn Davis.

“It is important not to buy in this disease when purchasing cows; with concerted action now we can stop it from spreading.”

Mycoplasma is most likely to enter a herd via an infected carrier animal and cows may carry mycoplasma without signs of infection. Antibiotics do not cure it.

It can readily spread during milking from one quarter to another in the same cow or other cows via milkers’ hands or liners. Cows can also become infected via contact with infected cows’ nasal secretions or uterine fluid. Semen, embryos and contaminated equipment are also potential causes of spread.

Calves can become infected by consuming milk from infected cows, or contact with contaminated surfaces or with other infected calves. “Special tests are required to diagnose mycoplasma infection, so ask your vet about the available options,” Dr Davis said.

A PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test detects the genetic material from the mycoplasma species and is very sensitive. PCR tests also don’t cost much for screening bulk milk samples.

Mycoplasma can be economically monitored at herd level with regular bulk milk samples that include all the cows on the farm.

This means a sample from the vat and from any cows excluded from the vat, e.g. the hospital herd. Good biosecurity is essential to protect a herd from mycoplasma and a variety of other serious diseases such as Strep agalactiae, Bovine pestivirus, Johne’s disease and digital dermatitis.

“Work with your vet to develop a farm biosecurity protocol and make sure it is followed every time you introduce stock,” Dr Davis said.

“Remember, even healthy looking animals can carry mycoplasma and break down with the disease later on, especially when under stress. Ideally source all new animals from herds testing negative for Mycoplasma.”

Dairy Australia is hosting a farmer webinar on mycoplasma biosecurity on December 2. A new fact sheet on mycoplasma is also available on the Countdown News webpage:www.dairyaustralia.com.au/Animal-management/Mastitis/Countdown-News.

Untreatable mastitis warning

Adaptability can help herd fertility

VETERINARIAN DR Richard Shephard asked participants in the Maffra field day “why is fertility impor-tant?” in a discussion about herd health and fertility drivers.

He briefly discussed the current trends toward split calving, making the most of seasonal pasture growth and optimising a milk processing system that rewards out-of-season milk.

“The fertility of the herd compares with the dairy farmers’ adaptability and capacity to change,” Dr Sheph-ard said.

“If in a bad year, the dairy farmer gets rid of cows, how do you recover

fertility in a good year?”Dr Shephard suggested when think-

ing about maintaining fertility in the herd, producers should adopt a tight calving period, ensure body condi-tion of cows and ruthlessly cull empty cows.

Synchrony was also important.“Having more cows in cycle at the

same time means you know which cows are cycling,” Dr Shephard said.

“You need to understand, though, if that program of synchrony will work in your herd.

“But synchronising cows, you get two cycles, so it increases your oppor-tunity for pregnancy.

“Another positive, calves born are born earlier and therefore are ahead all

through their lives.”He also addressed transition pro-

grams. “Good transition programs help cows transition into milk and positively affect calving programs,” Dr Shephard said.

“We need to be concerned about conception rate and submission rate. A good conception rate comes from rising nutrition.Pre calving, we also need to use rising nutrition.

“After calving, cleaning and metri-tis injections are essential for optimis-ing health.

“So, in summary, tight calving pat-tern, transition management and opti-mum health pre calving. And think about next year’s mating season now, start planning now,” he said.

JEANETTE SEVERS

Maffra fi eld day host Alex Macarthur with vet Dr Richard Shephard.

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ANIMAL HEALTH // 27

WHEN FEDERAL Trade Minister Andrew Robb travelled to Lar-pent in western Victoria last month to discuss FTA negotiations, the group of 120 people present were fed and sheltered in a multi-purpose calf rearing facility.

Minister Robb spoke to western Victorian farm-ers and others at Craig-lands, owned and managed by Mark Billing and Sam Simpson.

The couple built the shed in 2005 for a total cost of $30,000 and it had an immediate impact on calf health and perfor-mance, as well as providing a more enjoyable work-place during the busy calv-ing season and removing potential health and safety issues.

The shelter was pur-chased from Redpath but has been modified to suit their needs, closing one end to stop the prevailing south west wind and rain, adding a preparation area, and using corrugated iron as the bottom section of the sides of the shed.

The total cost included a preparation area with kitchen facilities, includ-ing hot water, and a toilet. Milk, power and data lines were installed from the dairy to the calf shed underground. This means that any computers installed in the calf rear-ing facility were directly connected to the main farm computer (although WiFi is sometimes used now), and milk is directly pumped form the calf milk

vat at the dairy reducing the need to carry heavy buckets of milk

Ms Simpson said it took two or three calving sea-sons at most to cover the costs of the structure, in part because it enabled them to expand their calf rearing capabilities and increase the number of replacements.

“It wasn’t designed so we could immediately grow the herd, but it gave us the option if we wanted to,” she said.

“We need at least 100 replacements each year.”

“With this system, it is easier to raise calves and anything above 100 is sur-plus, so we can choose to keep them or sell what is surplus to our needs.”

Craiglands is a closed herd, running 600 cows and heifers and milking about 420. They calve over an 8-week period once a year, starting on May 1.

The shed also gives them the option to easily add automatic calf feeders without the added expense of pouring concrete or building new yards. The 30m by 10m shed can easily be extended by join-ing another structure if

needed.“Everything at the end

of calving is removable, it’s an open shed so we can configure it however we want.”

This flexibility also enables them to add more calf pens at the height of calving season, when they get a run of calves through the system.

The shed has 18 single pens (1.5m to 2m) and four bigger pens (6m by 6m) where groups of 20 larger calves are kept together.

Calves enter the shed either immediately or maximum of eight hours after calving (depending on when they’re born), and are placed in the single pens until they can prop-erly suck on the drinker. The pen gate is opened and they then walk into one of the larger pens with other calves their size.

In the pens they receive 4 litres of milk with an supplement each per day, sharing a drinker with 20 teats, as well as ad lib hay and calf pellets. The group of 20 calves are moved into a calf paddock as soon all calves are displaying simi-lar feeding capabilities (ie no shy feeders or drinkers) and are putting on about 1kg a day. They are kept as a small group until after weaning when the groups are combined. Weaning occurs when the calves reach 120kg.

“Once they’ve started drinking, and moved from the single pen to a big pen, there’s no need for us to physically get in with 20 bigger calves,” Ms Simp-son said.

“They could be 80kg

in here, 20 at that weight rushing at you because you have milk, can be danger-ous and we don’t have that issue anymore.

“We only need to get in the big pens to add hay, grain or check water and we do it when they’re feed-ing or after they’ve been fed.”

The shelter has also taken the dread out of calv-ing season for all Craig-lands employees.

“If you have sick ani-mals, you can bring them in where we have heat lamps, you can coat them, tube them in the light, all that sort of stuff. There is also the capacity to isolate them if needed.

“It’s a nice working environment and you’re out of the elements.

“In our old system, we didn’t have the ability to do things we wanted. Before, if calves were dropped on a rotten night, they had to stay in the paddock before we could get them into the system. We could only feed eight at a time before and had to wait until some were moved out.”

Calves in the new envi-ronment now grow more quickly and leave the calf shed in a shorter time.

“We’ve been here nine years now and I could count on two hands how many times we’ve had sick calves for a reason we could control,” Ms Simp-son said.

WHO: Mark Billing and Sam Simpson WHERE: Larpent WHAT: Calf shelter

Calves blossom under shelter STEPHEN COOKE

Phone: 1300 838 700www.thevetgroup.com.au

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The Vet Group Farm Services• Clinical veterinary services• Calf health and disease prevention • Lameness treatment and prevention• Human resource management and recruitment• Mastitis and milk quality investigations and advice• Consultancy, nutrition and business support• Bovine reproduction services

Sam Simpson and Mark Billing in front of the calf shed, which can also be used for storage.

Happy calves.

Dai ry News aUsTraLia november 2014

28 // effluent & water management

an auStralIan-fIrSt above ground effluent storage tank is fixing problems for a Tas-manian farmer and lead-ing major research into methane gas emissions.

The huge two-mega-litre tank was commis-sioned at Jamie Berne’s farm at Meander in June and has already eased long-term problems with what to do with his waste over the wet winter months.

Over the next three years it will also reveal whether short-term reten-tion of effluent in the tank will reduce methane emis-sions.

While popular in New Zealand, this is the first above ground effluent storage tank built in Aus-tralia. The tank could

become another option for farms with high ground water levels, particularly in Tasmania and southern Victoria.

It’s a practical solu-tion for Mr Berne’s farm which is in a high rain-fall area with porous land and needed a new method for storing effluent over the wet months of winter and spring and to spread it to best effect when and

where it’s needed.“When it gets wet the

land can’t take any more,” Mr Berne said. “When the ground’s already wet you’ve got to try to pro-tect it but we only had a small holding capacity and before this we had to directly applicated on to

the farm.”The 2 ML capacity tank

is designed and manufac-tured by Tasman Tanks and installation in Tasma-nia was managed by Laurie Hooper at AgriTech.

Adrian Gardner, senior project coordinator for Tasman Tanks, said: “We

who: Jamie Berne where: Meander whaT: Effluent storage tank

rICK BaYne

Giant effluent tank eases farm storage problems

were really excited about building the first dairy effluent tank in Tasma-nia. We build a lot of these in New Zealand to store effluent through the winter and we see a lot of scope for this type of set up on farms in Australia where soil types and high ground water tables mean building a pond is diffi-cult.”

As well as trialling the practical issues with new infrastructure, the tank is a demonstration site for an Australian Government ‘Action on the Ground’ project.

The Tasmanian Insti-tute of Agriculture will look at whether short term retention of effluent in the tank will reduce methane emissions from the efflu-ent system.

PhD candidate Louise Murphy said: “We are hoping that by quickly moving effluent from the storage tank through to the irrigation system, we can maximise the amount

of nutrient being recycled onto the pasture, improve pasture production and also reduce greenhouse gas emissions through volatilisation. It is the ultimate ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ concept.”

The overall project is being managed by Scott Birchall from AgSystems Design. Mr Birchall has become a regular visi-tor to Tasmania over the past year, providing train-ing to Tasmanian service providers in designing effluent systems. “Com-mercial scale research like this using expensive infra-structure is hard to do these days so it is a fantas-tic opportunity to do some cutting edge scientific research on effluent man-agement and greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.

Funding for the research is being provided by the Berne family, Dairy Australia, DairyTas, Tas-manian Institute of Agri-culture and the Federal Government’s “Action on the Ground” program.

Mr Berne was prompted to trial the new system after hosting a field day where visitors looked at his old system and the discussed the issues he was facing with the wet ground.

“There were a few sug-gestions about what we could do and after the field day they came to us and asked if we would be will-

ing to be involved,” Mr Berne said.

He was keen to replace the small pond system that was struggling to cope with the wet land and a gradual increase in cow numbers over recent years which has seen the farm grow to milk about 350 cows on 105ha.

“It was mainly a prob-lem in winter,” he said. “Once we stopped irrigat-ing and the ground was wet we still had to get rid of the effluent somewhere and that was the prob-lem.”

The new system basi-cally disregards the old pond set-up. “It connects to where it first runs into a little stone trap but it now comes out the other side and goes into the new system from there. It’s all delivered back to our irri-gation system and we can applicate it onto the whole lot of the land,” Mr Berne said.

“We can decide where it will go and where it’s needed.”

The effluent will be dis-tributed through the irri-gation system to a much larger area than before. Any surplus will be safely stored in the above-ground tank through winter.

A public field day will be held on-property on February 26, 2015. Contact Dr Rachel Brown on 0409 333 381.

The 2 megalitre above ground effluent storage tank at Meander, Tasmania.

For Water & Effluent on Crops & Pastures. Volume Capacity: 1,000-13,000 gal/hr, Spray width up to 50m, Runs up to 400m.

Australian Owned & Manufactured by Quality Assured Companywww.vaughanirrigators.com.au [email protected]: 1800 241 534


EFFLUENT & WATER MANAGEMENT // 29

WHO: Grant and Debbie Jolley WHERE: Hindmarsh Valley WHAT: System re-design

Reducing water load into farm effluent system TO ADAPT to variable seasons and new innova-tions, dairy farm oper-ations are continually changing.

As part of this, efflu-ent management systems require review to ensure they can perform to a high standard throughout the year.

Local Fleurieu farms participated in a DairySA-led effluent planning project to assist them in reviewing their effluent management systems.

The project, funded by the Adelaide Mount Lofty Ranges NRM Board, Dairy Australia, DairySA and participants, supported dairy farmers through a planning process with an accredited dairy effluent system designer.

Grant and Debbie Jolley, Hindmarsh Valley, signed up to the project to assess their current sys-tems and develop a plan for any future changes or works.

The planning pro-cess helped them criti-cally review their systems with specialised technical advice, and it has changed their thinking on the next steps they’ll take in man-aging their on-farm efflu-ent.

“We initially thought our only option was to build a new or larger pond for effluent storage, but this planning process has shown us we can make other less costly changes that will have a positive impact on our effluent management system” Mr Jolley said.

The Jolleys’ plan showed that current dairy water use was high, com-

pared to the average for the herd size and dairy type (based on Victorian data).

The plan highlighted that changes to the milk-ing system could signifi-cantly reduce the volume of water into the pond and subsequently reduces the scale required for the pond. It also provided a number of system upgrade options that would require capital expenditure to increase pond capac-ity and winter storage volume.

A critical factor in the size of dairy effluent man-agement systems is the amount of water coming in through dairy wash-down and rainfall runoff.

Reducing the vol-umes from these sources reduces the volume of storage required.

Some options for reducing water use during the storage period include reducing yard wash fre-quency to once a day during the storage period and installing recycling from the two pond system for yard wash.

Another recommenda-tion from the plan was to increase the area available for effluent application in

the paddock as this pro-vides greater flexibility in management over time.

With a single pond system, it is best to install irrigation equipment designed for effluent.

Open impellor or semi-open impellor pumps and larger nozzle sizes help prevent blockages.

The application system design is best completed by an irrigation specialist.

Following the plan the Jolleys also made the deci-sion to increase from six a side to 10 a side with cup removers.

“We’ve not only achieved water savings from this system but it’s hugely reduced milking time from 41/

2 hours to 11/

2

hours,” Mr Jolley said.Overall the plan helped

the Jolleys to assess the benefits of making changes to their dairy shed to reduce water use volume and hence the amount of effluent pro-duced over winter.

Given time to moni-tor the changes they will then be able to re-evaluate the effluent management requirements and assess whether capital expendi-ture is required for pond expansion.

Completing an efflu-ent plan is valuable as it assists in clarifying the stages to achieving an effi-cient effluent manage-ment system, rather than just focusing on pond or storage construction.

It can provide farm-ers with a number of low cost practical changes in the dairy rather than an expensive capital outlay.

For more information (including contacts for

acc redited effluent system designers), contact• Monique White, DairySA NRM technical specialist at [email protected] or 0400 972 206.This article reprinted with permission from DairySA News.

Cows enter the dairy on Grant and Debbie Jolley’s Hindmarsh Valley farm.

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30 // effluent & water management

ImprovIng soIl drainage has lifted annual pasture growth across Lee and Gary Hibberd’s west-ern Victorian dairy farm by as much as 30%.

The Hibberds run 650 cows on 500 hectares at Simpson but for years have been forced to cope with far less available land during winter.

Their clay soils cannot cope in the winter in a dis-trict with an average rain-fall of 1200mm and would quickly become pugged and useless.

However, they have had drainage installed under almost 100ha over the past decade, which has restored that land to full production throughout the year.

The Hibberds engage the services of TG Drains, which installs sub-sur-face drainage using a laser-controlled purpose-built drainage machine.

Clay soils become waterlogged with high rainfall, reducing the total annual pasture produc-tion and causing pugging, which requires levelling of the land and re-sowing of pasture in the spring.

TG Drains install drain-age systems consisting of surface or subsurface drains in combination

with mole drains. Sub-surface drain-

age removes excess water from the soil profile, through a network of per-forated corrugated poly-drains installed 66cm to 1.3m below the soil sur-face, with a permeable backfill placed around the pipe.

This increases the per-meability in the vicinity of the pipe, and acts as a filter preventing fine sand and silt from entering the drains.

TG Drains installs sub-surface drainage using a laser-controlled purpose-built drainage machine. The machine, a Masten-broek 20/15 imported from England, can cut a trench up to 2.2 metres deep.

The digging chain of the machine cuts a trench

and the drainage pipe is laid with the backfill of gravel in one single oper-ation.

The machine can be altered to lay either 100mm or 160mm poly-drain. The 100mm poly-drain is often used for the lateral drains which feed into a main drain. The main drain is often a 160mm polydrain which discharges the water.

Once the paddocks have been completed,

most only need levelling, power harrowing and re-sowing, according to Mr Hibberd.

“Before we had drain-age installed, you’d get a certain amount of rain and have to write them off,” he said.

“Most years, you might miss 3 to 4 rotations in winter because you just couldn’t get cattle on. Then we’d be back in every year when it was dry enough trying to get them

Soil drainage boosts pasture production

who: Lee and Gary Hibberd where: Simpson whaT: Soil drainage

level again.“In that time you’re

putting a lot of pressure on other paddocks too, or feeding them in the feed-ing pen.”

Mr Hibberd said they have increased winter pro-duction by 25-30% since having drainage installed.

“It’s staggering what you can grow on it. We have increased our stock-ing rate slightly but we feed everything better too, growing better feed,” he said.

“We’ve certainly increased the amount of silage we’ve produced, and we can get it off a lot ear-lier, as we can get onto those drained paddocks earlier.

“It makes a lot of differ-

ence, the quality is much better.”

Effectively, the money the Hibberds have invested in drainage had previously been spent restoring pugged pad-docks and re-sowing pas-ture. There was also a significant amount of lost production.

“There has been a lot of drainage installed around the area now, you see guys that got in years ago and have done the whole farm and they grow a lot of feed. It is certainly worth it in this area.”

Mr Hibberd said the cost depends on the level of work required in each paddock, but it took TG Drains about five days to complete 20 hectares

recently.Drains empty into

existing dams.The Hibberds have

another 100ha of drainage they would like installed when cash flow permits.

“It costs money and you can’t do it all at the one time, but we’re gradu-ally getting it all done,” Mr Hibberd said.

“It depends on how much money we have. We always try and do some each year but our priority is certainly drainage when we have a good season and we prioritise paddocks that are worst and do those first.”

For further informa-tion contact Tim Beets on 0409-115 474 or visit www.tgdrains.com.au

Gary Hibberd in front of paddocks that were a boggy mess before drainage was installed.

TG Drains installing drainage.

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EFFLUENT & WATER MANAGEMENT // 31

Synthetic lined ponds a cost-effective optionEFFLUENT POND liner installation contractor Jim Walsh says synthetic liners are a cost-effective method to line effluent storage ponds.

“With environmen-tal issues also becoming a high priority, synthetic liners offer a guaranteed seal – no permeability,” Mr Walsh said.

“The alternative, clay lined ponds, will still leak and there is no guaran-tee effluent won’t leak out. Added to this, clay tends to crack when dry, erodes with stirrer use and costs almost the same as a lined pond. It becomes a no-brainer.

“In my experience most farmers are pleas-antly surprised at the cost of lining a pond, and so are prepared to do the job right in the first instance – including

cost of earthworks which are about half the cost of tanks above ground.

“They are not cheap, but often cost less than farmers expect to be quoted.”

Mr Walsh has 10 years experience of synthetic liners: he was the first Firestone liner installa-tion contractor in New Zealand. He has worked in Australia and the UK, there involved in the larg-est EPDM lining project in the world - a Firestone lined irrigation canal.

The company’s liners are said to have excellent UV resistance; they have a 20 year warranty and 50 years life expectancy.

Firestone EPDM wide rolls speed installation and reduce the number of joins in a pond, good for performance now and long term. Pond dimensions

can accommodate the roll sizes to reduce wast-age and limit the number of joins.

Mr Walsh said there are many different liner types on the market, most commonly EPDM (usu-ally called rubber) and HDPE (plastic). Both are good products, used inter-nationally for a long time, he says.

“Having seen Fires-tone EPDM used on jobs in Europe looking no dif-

ferent today from when they were installed, I’m confident in the product

I’m installing. Firestone’s oldest lined project is 41 years old and still in per-

fect working order. “We are seeing a few

new entrants into the

lining market and there are little known lining manufacturers offering

liner at prices too good to be true. You get what you pay for.”

Contact John Rourke, Lining Solutions, 0417 426 471 or [email protected]; Vaughan, Cosio Industries, [email protected].

Synthetic liners offer a guaranteed seal and are ideal for effl uent storage ponds.

SEVENTY PERCENT of the 6000 low pressure travelling irrigators sold by Vaughan Irrigators since 1992 have been purchased for effluent distribution.

The company has several models but believes the best in its class is the VCI-Mk2.

The company says with a 14m boom and capable of 400m runs and up

to 50m throw, the VCI-Mk2 outperforms other low pressure irrigators in performance and price.

Vaughan Irrigators has recently released the Quad x 4, which has four arms and is capable of delivering 24 litres/second.

With four speeds it can deliver twice as much water in the same time as the other irrigators or deliver the same amount

in half the time, the company said.

The EPA has approved irrigators sold by Vaughan as a safe and environmentally sound method for distribution of farm effluent.

“With easily changeable nozzles you can adjust the droplet size depending on the conditions, allowing complete control of drift

and application,” the company said.

“In recent years the irrigators have been bought by farmers, who not only want to spread effluent and take advantage of the natural fertilisers from their dairies, but also to water an array of crops and pastures up to 20ha.

“By using a small travelling irrigator many

farmers are realising the benefits of using what little water they have to maximise the growth of their pastures and crops.

“Flood irrigators are turning to Vaughan Irrigators because they have realised that spray irrigation is better for their crops.

“With the irrigator operating under low pressure there are no

fine particles of water being caught in the wind and being transported to other areas, as would happen with high pressure irrigation.

“What is dispensed by the irrigator goes where you want it to go which can result in water savings as well. About 60% of the water they previously used is no longer required with better crop results

achieved and lower financial costs.”

Vaughan irrigators include the low pressure sumpmaster cam, which allows the irrigator to operate at pressures as low as 8psi.

Vaughan irrigators can be operated with a fire fighting pump or even gravity feed, reducing cost.Tel. Vaughan Irrigators on 1800 241534.

Dairy focus with Vaughan irrigators

Vaughan Irrigators travelling irrigators have proven popular with dairy farmers.

INSTALLATION OF SUBSURFACE DRAINAGE:PREVENTS WATERLOGGING

IMPROVES PASTURE

CONTROLS SALINITY

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ALSO INSTALLATION OF OPEN ‘V’ OR SPOON DRAINS AND MOLE DRAINAGEFOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT: WWW.TGDRAINS.COM.AU

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TIM BEETS: 0409 115 474


32 // MACHINERY & PRODUCTS

LLOYD AND Kerin Walpole are farming at Yalca, north of Nathalia in the Murray Goulburn region not far from the Murray River itself. They had been dairying since 1967 and moved here from the Western District in 1981 where they had been milking 110 cows on 85ha.

Now, with their two sons, Adam and Mark, they run about 2000 cows which, says Lloyd, “are about 98% Holsteins”. They are still building up numbers and they keep all their replacement heifers.

The enterprise is spread over three dairies. Including leased land it runs to around 2,630ha. A further 810ha nearby on their daughter’s and son-in-law’s (Jason and Virginia Stone) property is used for cropping.

“That makes us pretty self-sufficient”, said Mr Walpole. “We can grow about 90% of our feed and we buy in some grain.”

They harvest 2400ha of silage each year, predominantly ryegrass and some shaftal, through two cuts and it is all put into pit silage. That equates to 5000

tonnes per year and they grow between 1000 and 1500 tonnes of corn.

This year they will probably have 2500 to 3000 round bales of hay, “That’s a bit more than normal,” explained Mr Walpole. They grow lucerne in paddocks irrigated with a pivot irrigator. Fifty percent of their water is groundwater and 50% from the Goulburn Murray Water system.

The cattle graze for six months of the year and are fed from a feedpad for the rest.

Some time ago they bought a 10m hay rake from Berrima Engineering at Deniliquin, the BR1000 model, which at the time was the biggest they made.

It did about 2200ha each year for three years.

Lloyd was so impressed with its performance that they upgraded to a new 12m version, the BR1200, which is now in its third season, covering 2400ha each year.

“The BR1200 suits us a lot better than the 10m version. I like its flexibility and compact design. The back-up from Berrima is important to us.”

They operate the machine with a Case Maxxum 115, raking at 12km/h and Lloyd said it is a good match-up.

Berrima Engineering has been manufacturing for 20 years and claim that they have the biggest rollerbar rakes on the market.

The range covers six models from 8m to 12m, including machines specially designed for contractors. The rakes have a five function hydraulic control centre giving the operator easy in-cab control of raking width, windrow width, basket angle and lift, all on-the-go with the baskets still revolving. They say that the hydraulic windrow splitters move every bit of the crop to give more even drying. They turn on and off as well as

raise and lower in synchronisation with the baskets.

Pneumatic gauge wheels protect the baskets from uneven terrain, allowing them to float and follow the ground for clean raking. The fingers don’t touch the ground, leaving sticks and rocks behind.

The Walpole enterprise has 15 full-time employees and a couple of ladies look after the bookwork and feeding the calves. The Walpoles employ a casual, Colin Harriage, to do the raking each year from August through to the first

or second week of November. “He was previously retired, but comes back each season to rake,” added Mr Walpole. “Tell him what you want and he’ll just go ahead and do it; between 150 to 200 acres a day.

“We cut some of the irrigated areas three times and everything at least twice. The dryland shaftal and ryegrass is cut and raked once. We get six cuts of lucerne off sixty acres.”

The transport width of the rake is just 8 foot (2.4m) which is very convenient in getting about on this relatively large property.

Mr Walpole said that they have five main tractors, including four New Holland and six ‘hangers-on’. “We only run our tractors for 4000 hours”. The New Holland machinery comes from Chris Stronge and Mick Pettigrew at Cobram Rural.

Other machinery on the farms include a Harris mixer which works 365 days a year, an articulated JCB loader, a Claas telehandler and a Case back-hoe. A Claas Jaguar 850 forager is used in the silage production.

“Out of all of our machines, this rake is probably the best.”

WORKING CLOTHESCHRIS DINGLE

WHO: Lloyd and Kerin Walpole WHERE: Yalcha WHAT: 12-metre hay rake

Berrima hay rake helps keep 2000 cows fed

Yalca dairy farmer Lloyd Walpole with his Berrima BR1200 – a 12 metre hay rake.

Yalca dairy farmer Lloyd Walpole and his family run 2000 dairy cows.

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MACHINERY & PRODUCTS // 33

Turns out you get what you pay forEVERYONE LOVES a bargain, and frankly, in this regard, I am exactly like everyone.

When you measure your acreage in tens, rather than hundreds or thousands of acres, own-ership of farm machinery becomes an increasingly tenuous economic prop-osition.

An investment in equipment based on an expected return of zero does unpleasant things to the analysis.

In the process of acquiring something to match big expectations with a minimal budget, you come across contrap-tions that are the subject of derision by contrac-tors and large scale farm-ers alike – the ’combo machines’.

These are devices that claim to be able to do more than one job, and, stunningly, to do multiple jobs well. Audacious, and naturally begs the ques-tion: why doesn’t everyone have one?

The Fransgard Ti6000 tedder/rake combo is an example of such a machine.

It comes from the small Danish manufacturer that also produces what is (to my knowledge) the world’s only front link-age-mounted hay rake (a concept which somehow hasn’t caught on).

Frankly, it’s a delightful little machine – obviously the product of a great deal of ingenuity and imagina-tion.

Obviously Fransgard think so too, because looking at the current promotional material, I can’t identify too many changes between my 1995 model and the current iteration.

It is a twin rotor hay rake, on which the arms can be inserted into differ-ent mounts and the angle

of attack adjusted to set it up for tedding.

In my quest to make hay on a shoestring budget, a twin rotor rake that doubles as a tedder seemed like a pretty good idea.

When you account for the purchase price being less than the annual ser-vicing cost of the tractor that pulls it, a bargain pre-sented itself.

Now the saying ‘you get what you pay for’ is not a personal favourite, given its use and abuse by unscrupulous up-sell-ers, rip-off merchants and crooks everywhere; but there is an element of truth to the old adage.

The Fransgard is a rubbish tedder, alternat-ing between heaping and windrowing the grass that it’s intended to spread.

And for some reason, it doesn’t like pulling apart the swath left by a 3 metre mower in anything approaching a half decent crop.

Of course, part of the underperformance could be due to the hard life it’s clearly had and the years spent rusting in the sun.

I haven’t exactly pushed it hard; having fully expected it to fly apart, shedding steel and oil across the first pad-dock I was brave enough to power it up in.

As a rake though, ‘so far so good’ – by the time the hay is dry, the old girl can pick it up with little com-plaint.

So while I’m out buying

GRUNTJOHN DROPPERT

a proper tedder this week-end, I can at least console myself with the thought that a twin rotor rake for less than the price of a ride-on mower is probably still a bargain.• John Droppert has no

mechanical qualifications whatsoever, but has been passionate about tractors since before he could talk and has operated many different makes and models in a variety of roles for both profit and fun.





www.dairynewsaustralia.com.au

CHECK OUT THE LATEST NEWS AND INFORMATION AT

READ THE LATEST STORIES FROM ANYWHERE

The Fransgard Ti6000 tedder/rake combo.


34 // MACHINERY & PRODUCTS

Complete redesign for new Polaris Ranger

POLARIS HAS annual sales of $3.8 billion from products such as quads, its Ranger side-by-side vehicles, snowmobiles, motorcycles and on-road electric-hybrid powered vehicles.

The company says that in quads it has grown its year-to-date sales by 37.3% over the same period in 2013, including sales growth of 36.4% in the side-by-side segment.

GOOD SALES PROGRESS

The 2015 Ranger, 570 comes in ‘heavy duty’ specifi cation.

The 2015 Ranger, 570 comes in ‘heavy duty’ specifi cation.

A NEW quad from US manufacturer Polaris rep-resents a “complete rede-sign” of the preceding model.

The 2015 Ranger 570 comes in ‘heavy duty’ specification, chief of which is an engine braking system with four-wheel descent control (4WDC) “to provide optimum con-trol and traction when

descending slopes”. The 4WDC system is already “tried and true” in New Zealand, the maker says; it is used on the Polaris UTE released early this year.

The new model has a heavy duty sway bar, upgraded rear driveshaft and grease fittings as stan-dard – aiding durability and easier for mainte-nance.

Power comes from a 567cc, fuel-injected ProS-tar engine (44hp) driving through the maker’s on-demand AWD including ‘turf mode’.

Further upgrades for 2015 over the previous Ranger 570 model include standard electronic power steering (EPS), 10% more engine power, improved styling, increased lock-and-ride accessory storage, and greater sus-pension travel and cab comfort, including tilt steering as standard.

Macpherson strut front and independent rear sus-pension have 22.9cm and 25.4cm travel respectively, and 25.4cm ground clear-ance.

The new model has a seatbelt interlock that

limits top speed to 24km/h when the seatbelt is not worn. And an optional ‘speed key’ separate from the starter key can be used to limit top speed to 40km/h.

Polaris says the new machine, reflecting its mantra ‘Hardest work-

ing, smoothest riding”, is a class leader in its 680kg towing capacity, 227kg rear dump box capacity and 34.1L fuel capacity.

Price is $17,995 incl. GST plus dealer charges where applicable.www.polarisindustries.com.au

Separating wheat from the cha� WE ALL know China makes some crap. But we also know China makes quality items – Apple i-Phones, supertankers, Red Bands and Swandris, to name a few.

The trick is knowing which is which.

Cue CF Moto’s invi-tation to go on a dealer trip to its factory in Hang-zhou, 170km southwest of Shanghai, China. “Don’t listen to us, come and see for yourself,” the company said. So we did.

At the 150,000m2 facil-ity, complete with dor-mitories for workers and their families, we get the company history from Charles Ni, chief sales offi-cer. CF Moto was started by Lai Guogui in 1989, making engine parts in a garage; in 1996 the com-pany started making engines, then motorcy-cles in 2000 and quads in 2004. It has carved out a unique position in China in that it makes larger capacity motorcycles, not scooters, and focuses on export markets rather than the domestic market, which apparently buys 14 million motorcycles each year.

Its growth has been rapid and exports hit 30,000 units in 2012 then 40,000 this year. It has

1500 dealers worldwide and big market share in Russia, Sweden and Ger-many. Of interest to us, many of those units are quads and in Australia they are now ranked fifth in ATV sales.

The focus on export rather than domestic mar-kets seems to be a key to their success.

Exports are critical to CF Moto, in part because of the size of recreational markets in developed countries, and because there are restraints on their domestic growth: the scooter market is huge but the larger-capacity motor-bike market is relatively small and two wheel vehi-cles are banned from free-ways. Also, Charles Ni tells us owning a quad or side-by-side is illegal in China.

With global expansion firmly in its sights, he says quality is a major focus for CF Moto with techni-cal feedback from export markets fed quickly back into product develop-ment. “Engine develop-ment is continuous. R&D investment equals 9% of our sales revenue, high by most standards but impor-tant for a fast growing company like ours.”

Mojo Motorcycles Aus-tralia imports CF Moto motorcycles for the Aus-tralian market. Michael Poynton, one of two

founding directors of Mojo, has worked with a number of Chinese com-panies since setting up in 2003 and says the cul-ture of CF Moto sets them apart. This includes their focus on overseas markets, their professionalism, strong communication and long-term approach.

“They understand the importance of consistently building equity in their own brand in export mar-kets, which many Chinese companies don’t get.”

Mojo is the fastest growing motorcycle com-pany in Australia, selling some 5000 units per year through a network of 80 dealers. CF Moto is its big-gest brand, selling 2500 units in 2014, mostly four-wheeled. CF Moto is now the fifth best-selling quad brand in Australia with 10% market share and

Poynter expects to achieve 15% market share in quad/side-by-side sales – about 2000 units – in 2015.

Breaking the Austra-lian quad/side-by-side market into segments, Poynter says CF Moto has 17% of the 450-550cc quad market, 11% of the over-550cc quad market, 39% of the sports side-by-side market, 18% of the under-650cc utility side-by-side market and 18% of the over-650cc utility side-by-side market.

They are eagerly await-ing a 400cc quad in 2015 to give them an offering in the segment that many farmers shop in – the sub-450cc segment. The new 550 side-by-side will also be important for Austra-lia and New Zealand where there is a growing trend toward side-by-side sales.

Poynter understands

that the quad/side-by-side market downunder is all about agriculture and has impressed this on CF Moto who initially focused on large capacity, long-wheel base quads for the huge Russian recreational market.

Charles Ni says they have learned plenty from Mojo, through regular technical reports from Mojo and bi-annual meetings with engineers, about the specific demands placed on their machines by farmers. And about the models and specifications that will best suit our markets.

“We don’t do much testing specifically in farm conditions but extensive testing is done in a range of harsh conditions unique to all our markets and all engines are bench-tested for 400 hours.”

ADAM FRICKER

CF Moto quads roll off the production line. The Chinese brand is now the fi fth largest ATV brand in Australia.

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Dairy News Australia November 2014

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Transcript of Dairy News Australia November 2014