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THE NORTHERN DAIRYFARMER August/September 2012

The Northern

DairyfarmerAUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2012

■ NorthernSituation andOutlook released

PAGE 4

■ Trainers for neweducation coursestrained

PAGE 9

■ Summer FeedConversionEfficiency results

PAGE 16

■ Project looks atmilking irrigationprofits

PAGE 19

CONFERENCE

The date for the QDOState conference hasbeen set for September25 and 26 at Gatton.Full details are providedin the Conferenceinsert. For moreinformation phoneQDO on (07) 32362955 and QDO looksforward to catching upwith you there.

INSIDE

THE Queensland Dairyfarmers’Organisation (QDO) recentlyjoined with Australian DairyFarmers (ADF) to give FederalParliamentary Secretary forAgriculture Sid Sidebottom afirst-hand look at the Queenslanddairy industry. Mr Sidebottomsaw two dairy farms near

Beaudesert and the Parmalat fac-tory in Brisbane.

Mr Sidebottom has responsi-bility for dairy issues in the gov-ernment and QDO feels that it isimportant for elected leaders tovisit dairy farms and hear direct-ly from farmers on the issue thatface them.

The key purpose of the visitwas to help Mr Sidebottom, andhis staff, understand the issuesfacing the dairy industry due tothe pricing of milk at $1 per litreby the major retailers.

QDO explained the financialsituation for dairyfarmers and

made the point to Mr Sidebottomthat milk priced at $1 per litre isdevaluing milk as a product itselfand taking a substantial amountof money out of the dairy valuechain right across Australia.

QDO and ADF will continueto lobby politicians from acrossthe political spectrum and putdairyfarmers’ issues forcefullywith the backing of strong evi-dence.

Mr Sidebottom had also beento Western Australia recently andunderstood the situation fordairyfarmers there was not gooddue to milk priced at $1 per litre.

Milk war on the agenda for politiciansKEY POINTS■ Fed Ag Secretary

visits farms■ Impact of $1/litre

milk explained

QDO president Brian Tessmann, ADF president ChrisGriffin, adviser Dr Shane Broad, Federal ParliamentarySecretary for Agriculture Sid Sidebottom and roboticdairy owner Matthew Cahill.

Federal ParliamentarySecretary for Agriculture,Sid Sidebottom, catches upwith QDO vice-presidentRoss McInnes and ADFpresident Chris Griffin.

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AS THE new financial year starts, all of us are faced with increased costs and the reality ofreduced milk income, and we need to look for new and innovative tactics to tackle the yearahead. There will be many hard decisions taken by most dairyfarmers during the comingmonths and years, but this is where your business management skills and planning must cometo the fore. The long-term effects of these decisions must be taken into account when lookingat all aspects of your business from a number of angles, whether it is financial or personal.

Coming together with other dairyfarmers in similar circumstances to discuss a range ofoptions, supported by some experienced professionals, is often useful in “clearing the air”around the way forward. We, together with Dairy Australia and other industry partners,including both Queensland and NSW departments as well as farmer organisations, are keento support such groups in suitable and practical ways, during these tough times. We arehopeful of accessing some additional funding to support this concept, as well as a one-on-one referral system, or in fact, any other ideas that may be generated through our regionalgroup network to assist dairyfarmers in making the best decision possible for each of them,given their individual circumstance.

The board and management of Subtropical Dairy welcomes any thoughtsand ideas as to how, from a development or extension perspective, we canassist and support you, our levy-paying dairyfarmers, to forge a profitableand sustainable future for you and your family in the northern dairy industry.

If you are interested in participating in these groups or have any thoughts orideas or alternatives as to how we can invest

funds to meet your needs during thesetough times please contact either me orour executive officer, Neale Price.

MEDIA reports that supermarket giant Woolworths was pressuring suppliers to cut their prices tohelp Woolworths in its battle with its gigantic competitor Coles are most concerning.

The reports said some suppliers had been given just two weeks to deliver cost savings of 10%or more, or if they were unable to deliver such cost saving then they would face the prospect ofhaving their products removed from Woolworths’s stores.

These actions would seem to ignore the fact that currently most product supply chains, includ-ing the dairy supply chain, are already facing impacts from the Federal Government’s carbon taxand any more downward pressure on price could be devastating to many industries.

The situation for the domestic dairy industry is even more troubling, as it has already beenimpacted by the ongoing supermarket milk price war, and contracts are currently being negotiat-ed for the supply of store brand milk in a number of regions, including Queensland.

As anybody who is interested would know, the Queensland dairy industry has suffered severe-ly from both natural and man-made disasters both in the past decade and particularly the past 18months.

Since January 2011 we have seen more than 40 dairyfarming families leave the Queenslanddairy industry during a period when the State has often been short of milk, with it having to beshipped considerable distances from interstate at considerably increased cost to locally sourcedmilk.

Is this what Coles and Woolworths as well as the Federal Government want to see happen?Is this how they believe a market should work? Is this giving a fair go to all Australians? Is this

building and securing a local food supply for Queenslanders and Australians well into the future?During the recent State election the Liberal National Party (LNP) promised an aim of doubling

Queensland’s food supply by 2040 and stated agriculture was one of four major pillars on whichthe Queensland economy stood.

This downward pressure on local food and dairy prices should also then be a major concern tothe State Government as these actions seem to be shattering the pillars on whichthe State’s economy stands.

It will cost the State Government little if Australia introduced a supermarketcode of conduct with an ombudsman overseeing it but the whole State andcountry would benefit from a fairer and more transparent market and valuechain. These recent media reports when added to the dairy industry damageobvious to everyone from the supermarket $1 milk campaign will only add to

the pressure that has alreadyseen so many good, young andefficient dairyfarmers leave theQueensland dairy industry.


WELCOME 3

EditorialEditors: Carlene and Alastair DowiePO Box 59, Carisbrook,Vic, 3464Email: <[email protected]>Phone/fax: (03) 5464 1542Mobile: 0418 553 282

AdvertisingAdvertising manager: Peter RoachPO Box 2544, Gladstone Park,Vic, 3043Email: <[email protected]>Phone: (03) 9344 9906Fax: (03) 9338 1044Mobile: 0417 371 364

Queensland Dairyfarmers’Organisation LtdAdrian Peake, Executive OfficerPO Box 13061, George Street Post Shop,Brisbane, Qld, 4003Phone: (07) 3236 2955Fax: (07) 3236 2956Email: <[email protected]>

Subtropical DairyNeale Price, Executive OfficerPhone: (07) 3396 6229Mobile: 0400 022 843Fax: (07) 3396 6628Email: <[email protected]>

Mailing and distributionThe Northern Dairyfarmer is distributed todairyfarmers throughout Queensland andnorthern NSW. If you are a dairyfarmer andare not receiving a copy, contact:Queensland Dairyfarmers’ OrganisationPO Box 13061, George Street Post Shop,Brisbane, Qld, 4003Phone: (07) 3236 2955Fax: (07) 3236 2956Email: <[email protected]>

CopyrightAll material in The Northern Dairyfarmer iscopyright. Reproduction in whole or part isnot permitted without written permissionof the publisher.

Editorial contributionsEditorial contributions are welcome, but noresponsibility can be taken for their loss.Copy is preferred by email in Word or text-only format with pictures and graphics as300dpi JPGs. Deadline is two months beforepublication.

PrintingHarris Print

Published by:Agricultural Publishers Pty LtdABN 55 000 560 430

ISSN 1833-8887

The Northern Dairyfarmer magazine is ajoint industry owned and operatedpublication targeted at delivering the latestresearch and development information andindustry news to dairyfarmers and industrystakeholders of the northern dairyindustry.The Northern Dairyfarmer ispublished on about the 13th of everysecond month in February,April, June,August, October and December.

The Northern

Dairyfarmer

Brian TessmannPresidentQueensland Dairyfarmers’Organisation

Supermarkets out of touch

Coping with tough times

Ross McInnesChairSubtropical Dairy


4 SITUATION AND OUTLOOK

MORE than 100 dairyfarmersand industry representativesgathered in Brisbane in June tohear the key issues that willimpact Queensland’s milk indus-try in the years ahead.

Meeting at the annual north-ern industry Situation andOutlook breakfast, the crowdheard that farm confidence hadtaken a severe hit as a result ofcuts to farm-gate prices and theongoing impacts of the milkprice war.

Queensland Dairyfarmers’Organisation (QDO) presidentBrian Tessmann told the audi-ence that with recent price cutsmany Queensland farmers would

make a loss this year. “Since thesupermarket price war started,Queensland has lost over 40

dairyfarmers. This needs tostop,” Mr Tessmann said.

QDO has called on the

Federal Government to act,which would include the intro-duction of an ombudsman totackle unfair practices in thevalue chain, and a code of con-duct. The Northern Dairyfarmerwas there to photograph some ofthe crowd.

Dairy industry hears key challenges

Chris Devine, Department of Agriculture,Fisheries and Forestry Queensland, withAmanda Tooth, Parmalat.

Federal president of the Dairy IndustryAssociation of Australia, Chris Rolls, withimmediate past president Chris Oxenford,Gold Coast.

Chris Phillips, Dairy Australia, Melbourne, with QDO State councillor WesJudd, Millmerran, Qld, and QDO president Brian Tessmann, Kingaroy, Qld.

FAR LEFT: QDO presidentBrian Tessmann presentingat the industry breakfast.

LEFT: QDO chief executiveofficer Adrian Peakeanswers questions duringthe panel sessions.

Mal Maroske, Dairy Farmers Milk Cooperative, with Daniel Dickenson,Lion, and Darling Downs dairyfarmer Jeff Ballon.


SITUATION AND OUTLOOK 5

THE Dairy Australia Situationand Outlook (S&O) report andnorthern dairy industry surveyresults offer informative andconcerning reading for every-one who has an interest orinvestment in the Queenslanddairy industry.

The reports were delivered ata service provider breakfast atthe Brisbane Convention andExhibition Centre and paint apicture of an industry lackingconfidence after being batteredby natural and man-made disas-ters.

This is despite the northernindustry having several posi-tives in its favour, including agrowing local consumer base.

Nation-wide there is signifi-cant regional variation in oper-ating conditions between pro-ducers supplying the domesticmarket in States such asQueensland and southern pro-ducers, who predominantly sup-ply the export market.

Currently, though, thisexport market is starting toshow signs of some weaknessand producers in southern

Australia may be looking atsome reduction on their recentgood prices.

For suppliers to the domesticmilk market, this by rightsshould have no impact asdomestic prices have beenweakening for more than 18months now even though exportprices were rising and someregions were short of milk in2011 and autumn this year.

It would seem illogical ifdomestic prices were adverselyaffected but there seems to be acurrent mentality in the domes-tic milk market of droppingdomestic farm-gate prices nomatter the market signals. Aswe all know, the excuse givenfor some of the recent pricereductions that Queenslanddairyfarmers have endured wasthat feed costs have reduced andso milk was cheaper to produce.

If this is so, why did thefarm-gate milk price notincrease in 2002 or 2006 whenfeed prices skyrocketed?

Overall, though, the worldmarket is still strong with soliddemand internationally fordairy products.

Domestically, the picture isdifferent with continuing vigor-

ous retail competition and pres-sure on retail prices. There gen-erally has been low growth involumes while there has alsobeen downward pressure on theretail value of milk, as themajor supermarkets continue touse fresh milk as a discountadvertising agent to competefor customers, while also grow-ing the market share of theirown store-branded products.Processors have seen their mar-gins cut and now we are seeingfarm prices cut further.

The dairy industry surveyresults also make for sombrereading as the number of farm-ers who are looking to exit inthe next three years hasincreased considerably sincethe last survey. The majority offarmers do not have anyone toleave the business operation toif they personally had to ceasedairying.

Of greater concern is thefinding that the outcome in thepast few years has been consid-erably worse than the previous-ly announced surveys and S&Oforecasts. If this trend contin-ues, then these predictions ineventual reality may be overlyoptimistic.

Lay this outlook against theneed to grow milk productionby more than 110 million litresin the next decade to meet theneeds of a growing Queenslandpopulation. For this to occuradditional investment on-farmwill be required and to see thishappen, farmers need a com-mercial return on that invest-ment, which the current envi-ronment is not providing.

These findings show thenorthern industry is in need ofsome decisive pricing stimulusas well as continuing good sea-son if we are to see any lastingrestoration of production levels.

The QueenslandDairyfarmers’ Organisation hasfor some time pointed out thatthe domestic market does notrespond satisfactorily to supplyand demand pressure and so inthe face of this market failurethe whole milk supply chainneeds to be encompassed by amandatory code of conduct toensure fairness in the valuechain right down to farm gate.

If nothing else, this S&Oreport needs to be taken seri-ously by all sectors whetherfarmers, processors, retailers orgovernment.

Survey and reports highlightchallenges for Qld dairyBy Brian Tessmann,QDO president

South-east Queensland dairyfarmers Duncan and MaryMcInnes catch up with Member for Wright, ScottBuchholz.

Jeff Collingwood, Norco, with QDO State councillors ElkeWatson and Bill Gulbransen.


6 SITUATION AND OUTLOOK

THE recently released DairyAustralia National Dairy FarmerSurvey (NDFS) clearly showsthat while Queensland’s dairy-farmers are trying hard to recov-er from the devastating weatherof recent years, including lastyear’s floods and Cyclone Yasi,they are being hammered by thecontinuing impacts of the super-market milk price war.

To gather information forthis year’s NDFS, DairyAustralia examined the attitudesand intentions of 1002 dairy-farmers Australia-wide duringFebruary and broke that datadown into the dairying regionsto give information directlyrelating to the nation’s northerndairying regions.

In this year’s survey 69% of

respondents in this State saidthey were in a steady phase, with24% saying they were unable toexpand their business at present.

About half of the surveyedfarmers said that their herd’sproduction in 2011-12 washigher than in 2010-11 with anaverage of 1.1 million litresbeing produced per herd, whichis a reflection of their attemptsto recover from the aforemen-tioned natural disasters.

This industry consolidationis also reflected in the surveyfindings that only 30% of thefarmers were planning any capi-tal investment this year com-pared with 51% in last year’ssurvey.

This may in part also berelated to the flood-relatedrepairs that required additionalspending last year and lowerfarm-gate prices this year.

The results of the survey fur-ther showed that while only11% of dairyfarmers wereexpanding there were another11% that were winding downand a further 6% expected toleave the industry in the nextthree years.

The report also showed only43% of the State’s dairyfarmerswere positive about the futuredown from 48% last year andmuch lower than the national

figure that showed 66% ofAustralia’s dairyfarmers werepositive about the future.

“As a result we are seeing acontinued loss of farmers inQueensland even though theoutlook for fresh milk supplyand demand is finely balanced,”the report said.

“Aggressive retail competi-tion and its subsequent impactson returns to processors and tofarm-gate prices continued to bea key reason behind the region’snegative outlook.”

This report clearly shows theimpacts of the Coles-led milkprice discounting is having areal and severe impact on farm-ers in the regions that supply thedomestic market, contrary toclaims by supermarkets and for-mer officials of the AustralianCompetition and ConsumerCommission (ACCC).

Further it shows governmentat both State and Federal levelsshould be increasingly con-cerned about the issue damagingthe ability for consumers livingin many parts of Australia tohave a choice of products andeven to be able to access freshmilk in the future.

While Queensland’s farmershave been struggling with thismarket imbalance in recentyears, the export market has

been booming with good returnsbeing received for exportedproduct.

Even so during the past cou-ple of weeks we have seen jobcuts announced by large export-ing companies in southernAustralia.

The main reason for thesecuts has been the reduced vol-umes of milk being produced inthe south to then go throughthese manufacturing plants.

Surely the last thing theAustralian economy needs iseven more of this milk beingdiverted away from theseexport plants toward a long andcostly road journey to supplydomestic production shortfallsin regions such as Queenslandand which we have alreadyseen with milk being truckedacross the Nullarbor to WesternAustralia.

Surely Australia can governitself better than that.

The current scenario makeslittle sense when we need toproduce much more fresh milkin the next 10 years to meet theneeds of a growing population,but to do that dairyfarmers needa farm-gate price that is sus-tainable and gives them theability to invest in their farmsto increase that fresh milk pro-duction.

By Brian Tessmann,QDO president

KEY POINTS■ National survey

reveals impact ofmilk price war

■ Only 30% offarmers planningcapital investment

■ Only 43% Qldfarmers positiveabout future

National survey highlightsthe toll of milk war

Central Queensland State councillorBen Fredrickson, Eungella, Qld, chatswith Iain Hannah, Parmalat.

Carlo Abbate and Geoff Evans, Ecolab.Dayboro, Qld, district dairyfarmersGreg and Jenny Easlea, QDO districtcouncillor.


NEWS 7

PARMALAT and Lion’s deci-sion to label a range of theirbranded milks ‘permeate free’ isa clear indication of the intentionof milk processors inQueensland to give consumersgreat quality milk.

On June 24 the Brisbane-based milk and dairy processorParmalat announced it would sella range of its branded milks aspermeate-free and this was fol-lowed the next day by the nation-wide milk processor Lion, whichsaid in response to consumerfeedback it too would be sellingits Queensland-produced brand-ed milks labelled as permeate-free.

Permeate has come under thespotlight in recent times includ-ing investigations into its use insome fresh milk by currentaffairs TV programs.

A number of medium andsmaller processors, includingNorco, have previously publiclystated that they do not use per-meate.

As many people know, thecollective term permeate is usedfor the substance that is made upof the milk-sugar (lactose), waterand vitamins and minerals that isderived from a number of ultra-filtration processes in dairy pro-cessing, and it is a valuable partof fresh milk.

The addition of permeate to

fresh milk is one way of standar-dising the protein and fat contentof milk to a constant composi-tional value throughout the year.

As milk is a natural fresh foodthat comes straight from the cow,the composition of milk can varybecause of differences in farmsand breeds, as well as differencescaused by regional and seasonalvariations.

Processors review the compo-sition of milk when it is deliv-ered to them and may standard-ise the components in the milk toensure consumers know they willget the same quality milk everytime they buy the product.

While it is great to see themajor milk processors reactingpositively to consumer needs anddemands by eliminating perme-ate from their brands, we realisethere may be some changes toprocessor margins as permeatehas been externally sourced bysome at a cheaper price thanwhole milk. It would now needto be replaced in the total milkvolume by full-priced fresh milk.

At the same time, the totalfresh milk requirement at farmgate should increase, and as suchfarm tier one allocations shouldincrease in the near future, par-ticularly when the loss of dairy-farmers during the past year andthe increasing sale of next year’smilk production through the saleof heifers to the export marketare taken into account.

The real gain here is that con-

sumers who are regularly seek-ing fresh foods with less process-ing are getting the fresh brandedmilk they desire and the qualitythey expect.

The question now is how willthe consumer respond to these

moves by the dairy processingindustry. Will they buy milk onquality? Or will they continue tobe mesmerised by the mightydollar and gimmick advertisingtricks, that is the one dollargeneric milk.

Permeate move a positive step

The question regarding the removal of Permeate is: howwill the consumer respond? Will they buy milk on quality?Or will they continue to be mesmerised by the mightydollar and gimmick advertising tricks, that is the onedollar generic milk.


COLES has passed on anincrease in milk prices toHarvey Fresh in WesternAustralia. By doing so, industrystrongly views this as yet anoth-er indication Coles is acknowl-edging that its pricing of freshmilk is unsustainable. Theincrease of 3.3 cents per litre toprocessor Harvey Fresh is thesecond in WA since Colesdropped the price of milk to $1per litre on Australia Day lastyear.

Australian Dairy Farmers(ADF) and the Queensland

Dairyfarmers’ Organisation(QDO) have now called forColes to pass on similar priceincreases to other processors sothese can flow through to farm-ing families. Clearly dairyfarmersin WA are doing it tough butthey are certainly not alone. Milkpriced at the unsustainable levelof $1 per litre is also hurtingfarmers in Queensland,Northern NSW and to a lesserextent South Australia.

The key point is that Colesprices for milk are unsustainableand Coles has proven this by

giving Harvey Fresh a 3.3 centsper litre increase.

It is an admission by Colesthat their ‘down, down’ cam-paign is having an impact on sup-pliers in the Australian domesticmarket.Coles also needs to pub-licly acknowledge that by reduc-ing the price of milk to $1 perlitre on their home-brand milkthey made a mistake and setprices that are unsustainable.

QDO has been continuing tolobby on this issue inQueensland and nationally,including to politicians across

governments and parties, andthe rest of the milk value chain.The WA example is anotherindication of the need for urgentaction in Queensland, whereprices have deteriorated tounsustainable levels since themilk war began.

QDO is continuing to lobbygovernment on this issue for itto implement its recommenda-tions for a resolution, includingan ombudsman and mandatorycode of conduct covering thewhole value chain from dairy-farmers through to retailers.

Coles acts on milk prices in WA


8 SUBTROPICAL DAIRY NEWS

SUBTROPICAL Dairy, manag-ing the education and trainingportfolio on behalf of the north-ern dairy industry, has investedfunds in industry people under-taking a Certificate IV inTraining and Assessment.There are 24 people undertak-ing this training in both FarNorth Queensland (FNQ) andSouth East Queensland (SEQ).These funds have been madeavailable through SkillsQueensland and SubtropicalDairy, as well as each partici-pant.

All attendees have commit-ted their time to the eight daysof training as well as making afinancial contribution to theproject. This is an investment inthe future of the dairy industry

as with this qualification theyare able to support the NationalCentre for Dairy EducationAustralia partners to delivermuch-needed training, on theground, through the Vocationaland Education Training sector.

FNQ trainer Kasey Rudd,from NQ Powertrain, said: “Iam really honoured I was ableto train a fantastic group of peo-ple step up their skills andexpertise to a new level.”

An indication of the commit-ment of students to their assess-

ments is shown in the photo ofColin Lawson “training” hisother students on pivot points ofquad bikes, with a practicaldemonstration, as part of theassessment for the CertificateIV in Training and Assessmentqualification.

The group in SEQ selected4UPskilling as the trainingorganisation with the initialfour days of training beingjointly delivered by BarbBishop and Robyn Richards atRiverglenn Conference Centre

at Indooroopilly, Qld. The sec-ond four-day session will beheld during the first week ofAugust with a webinar sessionto cover the intricacies of e-learning to be held in mid-July.

There has been interest in apotential third course to be heldlater this year. Anyone who isinterested should contactSubtropical Dairy executiveofficer Neale Price, phone (07)3396 6229, mobile 0400 022843 or email <[email protected]>.

New dairy trainers being trainedKEY POINTS■■ New trainers for

dairy industrybeing trained

■■ Part of establishingNational Centrefor DairyEducationAustralia in Qld

■■ Further course maybe offered

Workshops provide IR updateAN industrial relations lawyerfrom South Australia, JenniferCorkhill, conducted four work-shops across the SubtropicalDairy (SD) region in early Junerelating to the employment andmanagement of staff on a dairyproperty.

She provided a full-day pres-entation of information relatingto the dairy industry and employ-er obligations regarding the man-agement of staff on farms withan extensive PowerPoint presen-tation, which was provided to allparticipants as a reference docu-ment. The handout also includedcopies of the Small BusinessDismissal Code and a templatecopy of an Individual FlexibilityAgreement.

Ms Corkhill made constantreference to Dairy Australia’s

The People in Dairy (TPiD)website <www.thepeopleindairy.org.au> and the extensiveresources that exist as a result ofthis project. An internet connec-tion allowed her to demonstratewhere to go when looking forparticular topics.

Ms Corkhill also providedone-on-one individual session tofarmers at the conclusion of thepresentation. These had beenarranged before the workshop.

She was very open to ques-tions throughout the presentationand maintained a high level ofinteractivity with the audience,answering concerns and adjust-ing the presentation based on theneeds of the farmers.

The evaluations reflected theimportance of this topic to allthose attending these workshops

with comments such as “the pre-senter was easily understandableand gave very good valid exam-ples of each scenario” and“Jennifer talked at our level andgreat dairy examples, and obvi-ously a fantastic professionalwoman”.

The workshops were partiallyfunded by Subtropical Dairy andthe Young Dairy Network utilis-ing funds from the Departmentof Families, Housing,Community Services andIndigenous Affair’s CommunityInvestment Program.

Participants in one of four industrial relations workshopsheld in Queensland in June.

RIGHT: Colin Lawson "training" his otherstudents on pivot points of quad bikes aspart of the assessment of his training skills.

ABOVE: New dairy trainers at theworkshops.


SUBTROPICAL DAIRY NEWS 9

SINCE August 2011 the board ofSubtropical Dairy (SD) has beenworking on the northern industrystrategic plan for the next fiveyears. Initially this process, facili-tated by Mark Butz, was a collab-oration with a group of industryrepresentatives and organisationsincluding Dairy Australia, NSW

and Queensland state departments,processors and dairyfarmers.

This strategic plan alignswith both the Dairy AustraliaStrategic Plan and the NorthernDairy Industry Strategic Plan.

The subsequent versions anditerations of the content of thestrategic plan have beenreviewed and ratified by theattendees at SD’s annual generalmeeting on the Gold Coast lastOctober, dairyfarmers at a rangeof industry events in the past 12months and the QueenslandDairyfarmers’ Organisation(QDO) State Council.

There are six strategic priori-ties: natural resource manage-ment, human resources, animal

health and welfare, businessmanagement, feed systems man-agement and communications.Tactically these are broken downinto two separate but linkedfocus areas of technical andmanagement and communica-tion. From an operational per-spective the key areas in whichSD will operate are improvedprofitability, education andextension, learning culture,engaged and effective regionalgroups and enhanced communi-cation.

This strategic plan is a livingand breathing document, whichwill be reviewed at each boardmeeting with all funding applica-tions considered in light of the

priority activities identified inthe document. Copies of the doc-ument on a single coloured A3page should be available shortly.

Anyone who would like acopy should contact SD executiveofficer, Neale Price, phone (07)3396 6229, mobile 0400 022 843or email <[email protected]>.

Subtropical industrystrategic plan developedKEY POINTS■■ Strategic plan

developed forsubtropical dairyregion

■■ Six prioritiesidentified

■■ Funding to bebased on these

DAIRYFARMERS and theindustry across far north andsouth-east Queensland andnorthern NSW are set to benefitfrom extra Dairy Australia fund-ing for research, developmentand extension activities targetinglocal needs.

Regional DevelopmentProgram (RDP) SubtropicalDairy (SD) will receive a shareof Dairy Australia’s 10%increase in funding for its eightRDPs across Australia’s dairy

regions. The extra funding willgive the RDPs more room to runprojects and initiatives thataddress specific local issues.

While the funding is yet to beearmarked for particular proj-ects, Subtropical Dairy chairRoss McInnes said the fundingincrease would give SD the abil-ity to be more responsive to theneeds of the region’s farmers.“This will mean we can go thatlittle bit further to maximise themoney we have to provide our

farmers with what they need andwant in a timely and relevantmanner,” Mr McInnes said.

“Price is a big issue for ourfarmers so we will deliver pro-grams to help them be moreeffective and efficient in a lowprice economy. There’s also anissue with mastitis and high cellcounts so we will introduce theCups On-Cups Off workshops,which have been successful insouthern States because it issomething we can do on-farm to

help put more money in farmers’pockets.”

Dairy Australia managingdirector Ian Halliday said theRDPs were integral to DairyAustralia’s success in ensuringthe needs of farmers in each ofthe regions are met effectively.

The funding increase willtake effect on July 1.

Dairy Australia’s level ofinvestment in each RDP is deter-mined by the region’s annualmilk production.

Research dollar boost for Subtropical Dairy

SUBTROPICAL DairyProgramme Ltd (SDP) is a com-pany limited by guarantee and isgoverned by an elected skills-based board. SDP is DairyAustralia’s contracted RegionalDevelopment Program (RDP)body for the northern dairyindustry.

SDP delivers research, devel-opment, extension and educa-tion (RDE&E) outcomes fornorthern dairyfarmers by lever-aging funds from externalsources by at least 3:1 againstthe core funding provided byDairy Australia.

The board consists of six tonine members, the majority of

whom must be dairyfarmers.At SDP’s annual general

meeting (AGM), to be held fromOctober 16 to 18 in CoffsHarbour, NSW, three boardmembers must stand down, inaccordance with the SDP con-stitution. These three boardmembers are eligible to seek re-election through the same selec-tion process as new candidates,if they so desire.

The remaining board mem-bers are Ross McInnes (dairy-farmer, Harrisville, Qld), IanHollindale (Parmalat), LynO’Connor (dairyfarmer,Ravenshoe, Qld), Paul Judge(dairyfarmer, Casino, NSW) and

Dr Phil Chamberlain (vet andconsultant).

Leading up to the AGM, SDPis seeking nominations fromfarmers and/or industry peoplefor up to four board positions.The board positions are forthree years and SDP is seekingexpressions of interest frompotential candidates to submitapplications for board positionsthrough its selection panelprocess.

The key skills being soughtare experience, expertise andinterest in the areas of naturalresource management, educa-tion and training, financial gover-nance and business manage-

ment. Applicants should alsohave a keen interest in dairyresearch and development,especially as it relates to smallprojects within the SDP regionand be able to commit time andeffort in guiding the future direc-tion of RDE&E in the northerndairy region.

Contact: Executive officer,Neale Price, email <[email protected]>, mobile 0400 022843 or phone (07) 3396 6229 torequest the application formtemplate and information pack.

Applications must be lodgedwith the executive officer byclose of business Friday, August17.

Nominations sought for SD board


10 NEWS

MORE than 1300 students,teachers from 25 schools, parentsand rural industry representativesturned out at Expo Place at theRNA Showgrounds, Brisbane,recently as part of the 2012 RuralDiscovery Day.

Some 34 presentations wereheld, demonstrating to primaryschool students, years Prep to 4,what their industry is all about andprovided students with the uniquechance to learn aboutQueensland’s agricultural industry.

The Nambour State HighSchool Dairy Program with ateam of cows and calves informedthe kids with live displays of cowsmilking and a chance to try handmilking themselves.

The children were providedwith educational informationhandouts provided by DairyAustralia and as in previousyears Lion, Parmalat and Norcoonce again generously supportedthe day and the dairy display.This was combined with presen-tations from dairyfarmers JennyEaslea and Rowena Crouch.

The day gave the children ahands-on experience and infor-mation on the role of farmers andthe source of their food and fibre.

Even though the students areyoung, they will start to thinkabout their careers shortly andthis will be an avenue to encour-age them to consider agricultureas a career choice for the future.

The Queensland Dairy-farmers’ Organisation (QDO)thanks Lion, Parmalat, Norco,Dairy Australia, Sam, Greg and

the Nambour State High Schooldairy team, Jenny Easlea andRowena Crouch for their supportfor the day.

Teaching kids about dairy

Dayboro, Qld, dairyfarmer and QDO councillor JennyEaslea teaches dairy industry 101 to school students atRural Discovery Day.

JULY 1 saw the changeover ofQueensland Dairyfarmers’Organisation (QDO) councilpositions following the nomina-tion process earlier this year.The full list of District and StateCouncillors is as follows:

Northern District Council:Glen Drury, James Geraghty,Tom Hamilton, Robert Kelsoand Des Trevor. WideBay/Burnett and CentralDistrict Council: Burnett Zone– Bevin Black and BrianTessmann, Central Zone –Aaron Clews, Ben Fredricksonand Graham McInnes,Wide BayZone – Elke Watson.

Darling Downs DistrictCouncil: Jeff Ballon, ScottChristensen, Wes Judd, ChrisKunde, John Saville and GrantWieck.

South East District Council:Joe Bradley, Jenny Easlea, BillGulbransen, Ross McInnes, PaulRoderick, Craig Sellars, CraigTeese and Paul Teese.

QDO State Council:Northern District Council –James Geraghty, WideBay/Burnett and CentralDistrict Council – BenFredrickson, Brian Tessmann andElke Watson, Darling DownsDistrict Council – Wes Judd andJohn Saville, South East DistrictCouncil – Bill Gulbransen andRoss McInnes.

The QDO congratulate thenew and returning councillorsand wish them well for the nextthree years and offer thanks tothe following councillors whoare stepping down for theiruntiring service to the organisa-

tion and the Queensland dairyindustry: Lyn O’Connor, GavinDoull, Peter Cavanagh, RonRosenberger, Donna Fitch, RayClews and to Jenny Easlea who

has stepped down from herState Council and executiveroles but remains a districtcouncillor for the South Eastdistrict.

New state and district councillors take their seats

The QDO State Council at the Situation and Outlookbreakfast in June: (back row) Ben Fredrickson, John Saville,Ross McInnes, James Geraghty,Wes Judd, (front row) BillGulbransen, Elke Watson and Brian Tessmann.

Have you heard about Dairypol?WFI, proud alliance partner of QDO, knows what youpre looking forwhen it comes to specialised insurance. Thatps why we developedDairypol. Designed in consultation with dairy farmers across thenation, itps an insurance plan you can tailor to suit your needs.

manager today.

To see if our Dairypol insurance is right for you, always read the PDS from the productissuer, WFI (ABN 24 000 036 279 AFSL 241461).

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NEWS 11

Wage casedecisionannouncedFAIR Work Australia hasannounced the results of its deter-mination of the National WageCase review. The decisionannounced will see the minimumwage increase by an amount of2.9% effective from July 1.Thisalso applies to minimum wagesfor juniors, trainees and appren-tices, employees with a disabilityand to piece rates. The newnational minimum wage will be$606.40 per week or $15.96 perhour.

For further information on theimpacts of the awards or the newrates of pay, QueenslandDairyfarmers’ Organisaton(QDO) financial members areable to access the EmployerAssistance Hotline operated inconjunction with the Chamber ofCommerce and IndustryQueensland by calling 1300 135822 and quoting their QDOmembership number.

Wet tropics waterresource planprogressQDO and Queensland FarmersFederation (QFF) met with repre-sentatives from the Department ofNatural Resources and Mines atCairns recently to discussprogress with the preparation of

the Wet Tropics Water ResourcePlan.

The meeting focused particu-larly on how the plan is likely toaffect entitlements to water in theupper Herbert and JohnstoneRiver catchments. There was alsodiscussion of the water supplyneeds of dairy farms taking intoaccount the needs for stock aswell as irrigation requirements.

Officers fight ticks,weeds, wild dogsTHE State Government hasannounced 15 new officers willstart working to help producers intheir fight against ticks, weedsand feral pests, particularly wilddogs.

The Minister for Agriculture,Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF)John McVeigh said it was part of apromise to revitalise frontline serv-ices in the stand-alone department.

QDO welcomes thisannouncement of new biosecuri-ty officers. QDO also notes thatall government departments,including DAFF, are in a phase ofconsiderable cost-cutting, includ-ing staff reductions.

QDO will be watching closelyto ensure that this does notimpact upon services on offer toall aspects of the dairy industry,and that DAFF remains fullyresourced and equipped to tacklechallenges facing the industry.

Meanwhile, Mr McVeigh alsoannounced that University ofQueensland AgribusinessProfessor Dr Beth Woods is thenew deputy director-general.Together with Director-GeneralJack Noye, Dr Woods will helpdrive research and developmentalong with extension and educa-tion in the department.

Carbon farmingfundingTHE Australian dairy industryhas received more than $5 mil-lion from the AustralianGovernment Carbon Farmingfutures fund to investigate waysto reduce greenhouse gas emis-sions and increase productionefficiencies on dairy farms.

Six dairy-focused researchprojects have been funded as partof the first round of theAustralian Government’s Fillingthe Research Gap and Action onthe Ground grants.

The approved dairy projectswill run for three years and focuson reducing greenhouse gasemissions including nitrous oxideproduced by nitrogen fertilisersused on farms and methane pro-duced from livestock.

Report highlightsreef managementUNESCO and the InternationalUnion for the Conservation ofNature have released a report into

the state of conservation of theGreat Barrier Reef. The reportsummarises the findings and rec-ommendations from a combinedreactive monitoring mission tothe Reef, from March 6 to 14, andmakes recommendations for theWorld Heritage Committee.

The State of Conservationreport also made some recom-mendations for the strategicassessment of the Great BarrierReef being undertaken by theAustralian and Queensland gov-ernments.

UNESCO said the “in dan-ger’’ status could be applied ifthe Federal Government did notgive the World HeritageCommittee evidence of substan-tial progress before February 1next year.

QDO along with other peakindustry groups in the region con-tinues to work with the AustralianGovernment on the rollout of theReef Rescue program, currentlyfunded until 2013.

The current five-year agree-ment between State andCommonwealth Governments onthe management of the GreatBarrier Reef, known as ReefPlan, comes to an end next year.

The findings of this reportwill no doubt focus the efforts ondetermining what new arrange-ments will be put in place, partic-ularly with respect to financialresources.

TEN emerging senior dairyleaders graduated from theinaugural Daring to Changeleadership development pro-gram in Melbourne, at a functionattended by the VictorianMinister for Agriculture PeterWalsh, and dairy industryguests.

The participants made adynamic presentation on theirvision for ‘An Australian DairyIndustry that is Connected,Trusted and Valued’. They chal-lenged guests with a call toaction on key strategic issuesfor the dairy industry includingreconnecting with consumersthrough technology, cultivatinggreater skills development andoptimising dairy’s systems,structures and processes.

Daring to Change broughttogether 10 people with a pas-sion for dairy, from across threestates and diverse parts of thedairy value chain. Responding toa need identified in the AustralianDairy Industry Council’s blue-print for leadership, the programsupports these state and region-al leaders to step up to moresenior leadership roles on thenational stage. Funded by theGardiner Foundation, the pro-gram design was driven by indus-try stakeholder consultation, andwas delivered in three sessionsby Rob Patrick of Farming Mindsand Leith Boully of @TheCrossroads, with support fromColin Hendrie of OutbackInitiatives and consultant LisaWilson.

Leadership graduates the next driving force for dairy industry

QDO State Councillor James Geraghty (FNQ) (centre)receives his certificate from chairman of the GardinerFoundation Mike Taylor,AO, (left) and Victoria's Ministerfor Agriculture, Peter Walsh (right).


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FARM SAFETY 13

ANY injury on a farm comes at adirect cost to the person involvedand the business, while the finesare additional costs.

Dairy Australia’s Dr PaulineBrightling, who manages ThePeople in Dairy program, saidworkplace fatalities and seriousinjuries associated with machin-ery use received a lot of mediacoverage, but manual handlinginjury was the biggest source ofclaims associated with farmworkplace health and safety.

Manual handling claims tendto be associated with repetitivework resulting in muscle or backinjury.

“These injuries often involveextended time off work,” DrBrightling said. “In addition tothe personal injury, it is incon-venient and costly to the employ-er. Prevention is a far betterapproach.

“There is an emerging trendtowards increases in manual han-dling injuries on dairy farms, par-ticularly at large operationswhere workers may spend longerperiods on repetitive tasks in themilking shed; for example cupattachment.”

Under new, nationally uni-form legislation being introducedfrom this year, workers and oth-ers at the workplace have a dutyto take care of their own safetyand to ensure their activities donot affect the health and safety ofothers. The duty of care alsoapplies to contractors and volun-teers such as landcare groupsworking on the farm.

Dr Brightling said the duty ofcare involved providing and

maintaining a safe work environ-ment, safe systems of work, safeplant and structures and the pro-vision of health and safety infor-mation and instruction.

In practice this means dutyholders must identify potentialhazards at the workplace and takepositive steps to eliminate themor, if this is not possible, to min-imise risk.

Dairyfarmers need not feeldaunted by their work health andsafety obligations, Dr Brightlingsaid.

“Most dairyfarmers want toprovide a safe workplace,” shesaid.

“Sometimes the challenge canbe working out where to start. It’sactually easier for dairyfarmers

than many other workplacesbecause there are a range ofchecklists and tools available onthe web that have been custom-developed for dairy farms.”

Checklists, tools and moreinformation are available from<www.thepeopleindairy.com.au>– click on live library; farm poli-cies and systems; health and safe-ty risk. Or for good resources onpreventing injuries in the dairyvisit <www.cowtimecom.au> –-click on shed shake-ups; thenclick on Pits n People.

The People in Dairy is one ofthe many examples of the dairyservice levy at work. For moreinformation on this and otherlevy investments visit<www.dairyaustralia.com.au>.

Work injury can pose many costs for dairy farms

EIGHT Australians have beenkilled so far this year due toquad bike accidents, with anoth-er 14 critically injured.

Victorian FarmersFederation (VFF) FarmsafeAlliance manager Tim McKenziesaid since 2000, there had been158 quad bike fatalities inAustralia.

Quad bikes have now over-taken tractors as the leadingcause of fatal farm accidents.Nearly a third (31%) of farmdeaths in 2011 were caused by

quad bikes, while 17% weretractor-related.

“And too many of thesefatalities involve children under16 years of age,” Mr McKenziesaid.

“Quad bikes can be very use-ful farm vehicles, but I cannotstress enough that they need tobe used with appropriate safetymeasures in place.

“It’s not just farmers gettingkilled by these vehicles, but chil-dren and workers. These acci-dents reverberate through

entire rural communities.”The most recent death was a

nine-year-old boy, who wascrushed to death by a quad bikeon a property near Holbrook,NSW.

Mr McKenzie said farmershad legal responsibilities toensure safe quad-bike use.

“Riders must wear helmetsand other protective clothing,and farmers must make sure allquad-bike riders are properlytrained to use the vehicle andthat the quad bikes are in safe

operating condition,” he said.“They must not allow chil-

dren on these machines, whichcan weigh up to 500kg.

“It’s up to the farmer todecide to install a crush protec-tion device. It’s not a legalrequirement but evidence sug-gests their use should be seri-ously considered.”

The safety warning comesafter quad bike sales jumped by18% in 2011, making up morethan one in every five motorcy-cles sold in Australia last year.

Quad bikes - farms' biggest killer

KEY POINTS■ New laws require

farmers to providea safe workplace

■ Applies tocontractors andvolunteers workingon farm

■ People in Dairywebsite has toolsand checklists tohelp

Providing asafe workenvironmentis essential ondairy farms.


14 PRIMEX FIELD DAYS REPORT

THE Primex Field days atCasino, NSW, were the venue forthe final Soils Forum of the MidNorth Coast regional YoungDairy Network Caring for OurCountry, Department ofAgriculture, Fisheries andForestry funded project.

Open sessions were held onThursday and Friday of thePrimex Field Days with anIncitec Pivot sponsored dinneron the Thursday night atLismore, NSW.

Dr Maarten Stapper, a farm-ing systems agronomist, whoassists farmers improve the prof-itability of their operations byharnessing the power of naturalhealthy soil processes, told theforum he believed that byimproving the use of inputs andunderstanding those practicesthat negatively impact on soilhealth, farmers could have a pos-itive impact on their land andproduction.

Fourth-generation Wauchope,NSW, dairy and chicken farmer

Chris Eggert told the forumabout his journey from dairy studto organic farm, since he tookover the family business. MrEggert has read and studied con-siderably on a range of organicand biological options in agricul-ture and has now applied oradapted some of these to his ownbusiness, supplying organic milkto Norco.

The second day began withTamborine, Queensland, dairy-farmers, Ged and RobynPlunkett, together with the SouthEast Queensland Soils in Actionfacilitator Adam Willson leadingthe forum through the changes

that have been made to their farmthrough some biological options,including composting.

The final speaker was soilcarbon researcher, Susan Orgill,from the NSW Department ofPrimary Industries who gaveeight key messages:• increasing soil organic matterimproves soil structure, increasesnutrient cycling and encouragessoil organisms;• there are different types oforganic matter in soil; somedecompose more quickly thanothers;• farm productivity is closelylinked to soil functions that

depend on decomposition oforganic matter;• carbon in soil depends on soiltype, climate, vegetation andland management;• both above and below groundcrops need nutrients;• increasing the amount of car-bon in soil is about “stock” man-agement;• soils vary in their capacity tosequester and ‘protect’ carbon; • there are land managementoptions to increase the mass ofcarbon in soil.

Copies of some of these pre-sentations are available on web-site <www.dairyinfo.biz>.

Soil forums held at PrimexKEY POINTS■ Improve practices

that impactnegatively on soilhealth

■ Soils containdifferent types oforganic matter

■ Above and belowground crops andorganisms neednutrients

Participants at the Soils Forum list to Susan Orgill from the NSW Department ofPrimary Industries.

Dr Maarten Stapper said farmers need to understandbiological processes to improve environment andproduction.

Chris Eggert outlines his journey to organic milkproduction.


PRIMEX FIELD DAYS REPORT 15

Pictures by Peter Roach

Guest speaker at the SoilForum was MaartenStapper, who spoke aboutsoil biology for profit, howto harness the power ofecosystems and soil healththrough land management.

ABOVE: Attending the Primex Field Days from DMSAfimilk were Clint Brereton and Dave Adams fromVictoria.They were on hand to help dairyfarmers withtheir herd management systems.Their Afifarm Systemincludes the Ideal Weight feeding system, whichconcentrates on production, weight and stage of lactationof individual cows to improve their production and healthand maximise feed efficiency.

Any dairyfarmers with waste management issues coulddiscuss it at Primex with Fred Lamped from Australian WasteEngineering and Ray Steain from BR Reeve Engineering.

Subtropical Dairy executive officer Neale Price,dairyfarmers Robyn and Ayleen Dawes, Piggabeen, NSW,and Young Dairy Network co-cordinator for the MidNorth Coast NSW Traci Gordon at the Dairy Soil Forumat the Primex Field Days.

Dairying Without Urea was the presentation given byAdam Willson from Soil Systems Australia anddairyfarmers Robyn and Ged Plunkett from TamborinePastoral Co, South East Queensland.

LEFT: Dairyfarmer Chris Eggerts from Wauchope, NSW,gave a passionate and lively talk on his and his parents’certified organic dairy farm.The Eggerts run a 170 mixedbreed milking herd producing one million litres on apasture-based diet.They also produce their own compostwhich is added to by their 2000 laying hens, which theyalso manage. Going organic was triggered by high inputcosts, high stress, stock health problems and high vet bills.

Primex field days highlights


16 DAIRY IN ACTION UPDATE

THE summer component of theFeed Conversion Efficiency(FCE) trial has come to an endwith the months of January andFebruary a flurry of activity toget out and survey 69 farmsacross Queensland. The farmersand their families have beenmost accommodating allowingthe Department of Agriculture,Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF)dairy team to come onto theirproperties and once again ask thehard questions about herd num-bers, diets and forage manage-ment practices as well as takingfeed samples for quality testing.

As a new member of theDAFF team, it has been a greatexperience to see first-hand thechanges to management and ani-mal nutrition farmers have made

between the winter and summersurveys to assist in improvingFCE. No longer were paddocks ashining mass of ryegrass as theywere in winter 2011, they werenow filled with kikuyu, foragesorghum, setaria and other tropi-cal grass mixes. The aim of thissurvey was to determine the cur-rent FCE levels achieved duringthe summer period. FCE is cal-culated as litres of milk pro-duced per kilogram of feed drymatter fed. The data has nowbeen collated, with the range inFCE between feeding systemsand herd size proving quite inter-esting.

Preliminary results show thatthe partial mixed ration two feed-ing system (with more that 30%conserved forage fed) averagedthe highest FCE with 1.16 (seeTable 1) while the grazing sys-tem had the lowest average FCEof 1.05. Management practices,herd genetics and environmentalimpacts would have played a sig-nificant role in the outcome ofthese results.

The feed quality results of the428 samples taken during thesummer FCE survey showedsimilar levels of variation inquality compared with the winter

feed samples. Large differencesin dry matter (DM), starch, sug-ars, non-fibrous carbohydrates(NFC) and crude protein (CP)were found within feed types(see Table 2).

This really highlights theneed to analyse feeds at differenttimes throughout the year toensure diets can be correctly for-mulated.

The DAFF dairy team canhelp guide farmers in this areaincluding sampling techniqueand preparing samples to be sentoff to labs for testing.

With the information that hasbeen collected across the differ-ent regions and farming systems,many farmers are asking ‘how doI stack up against the rest?’

The answer to this question aswell as comparisons betweenregions and farming systemsplus many more variables will be

presented as part of the FCERoadshow that will be up andrunning throughout September-October this year. Farmers thatparticipated in the survey havereceived some preliminary dataanalysis. The roadshow willextend on these findings and alldairyfarmers are welcome tocome along to the roadshowdays.

The DAFF team is lookingforward to seeing you at theroadshow or one of our manyextension days that will be onthroughout the year.

Summer feed conversion efficiencyproject update

By Melissa Matthews

KEY POINTS■ Partial mixed

ration system hadhighest FCE

■ Grazing systemhad lowest system

■ Large variations infeed quality

Feeding system Feed ConversionEfficiency

Grazing + concentrates <5% conserved 1.05Mixed ration 1: 5-30%% conserved 1.08Partial mixed ration 2: >30% conserved forage 1.16Total mixed ration <1 % grazing 1.12

Table 1:Average FCE values for each feedingsystem during the summer 2012 survey

ABOVE: Researcherscollect feed samples.RIGHT: Melissa Matthewshas enjoyed her role in theFeed Conversion Efficiencyproject.

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DAIRY IN ACTION UPDATE 17

Hopefully those who have rye-grass planted are relishing therain showers, not so much enjoy-ing the fertiliser bills – but seeingthe returns in the vat.

It’s been a slow start aroundGatton – as a few frosts and cool-er temperatures have seen cropsand pastures struggle to tick intothird or fourth gear. However, aslow start to forage growth hasn’tmeant a slow down of farmer’senthusiasm for extension anddevelopmental work that Dairyin Action has been delivering.

The Dairy in Action team hasannounced the start of a new dis-cussion group in the Brisbaneand Lockyer Valleys. The grouphad drawn a lot of interest fromaround the area, and those thathad been involved in previousDairy In action activities wereinvited to join the group, which isnow meeting monthly.

The Dairy in Action discus-sion groups aim to complementthe Forage Plu$, Nutrition Plu$and Business Plu$ extensionactivities as part of the widerDairy In Action extension proj-ect across Queensland.

By providing opportunities

for farmers to meet outside ofthese activities, farmers have thechance to identify and, whereverpractical, implement manage-ment changes on-farm with peersupport. Congratulations to thosegetting involved.

The Moreton Bay, Gympieand North Queensland discus-sion groups also continue strong-ly – with special guest speakerAdam Willson delivering a pres-entation for the Moreton Baygroup on ‘Adding Value to yourManure Stockpile’.

Another success story hasbeen the positive feedback fromall of those involved in the min-eral nutrition workshops thathave been run in the Burnett andGympie regions. The workshopslooked specifically at the differ-ent minerals and feed additivesused in the dairy industry and therecommended inclusion rateswithin diets based on subtropicalfeeding systems.

One farmer, among many,said: “It was great to try andunderstand mineral nutrition – asopposed to just believing whatsomeone else tells you.”

The ‘Dry Cow and SpringerNutrition’ workshops held atOakey and Beaudesert attracted

many similar positive commentswith the interactive on-farmworkshop drawing good num-bers.

Farmers who are keen to seethe continuation of these types ofdays should ensure that theycomplete a needs analysis surveyat the next Dairy in Action eventor by contacting the office.

Waiting at the ready are cen-tral Queensland farmers whoanticipate price negotiations withParmalat in next few months. Astrong and passionate vibe wasfelt around the tables when deliv-ering the ‘Weighing up YourBusiness Futures’ workshops inJune, with all participants com-menting on their eagerness to beprofitable in an industry theylove.

Not mining jobs nor milkprice would see farmers deterred,as participants all agreed it was amatter of riding out the flattenedprices until more stable pricingwould see them reinvest andexpand their operations. This is apositive sign for the future ofdairy businessess ahead.

Dairy in Action and C4Milkhas announced a new member ofthe team – a new video camera.As part of Dairy In Action’s

online and media component ofits extension framework, thecamera has been purchased tostart capturing work done in thefield which can be used as part offield days, workshops, uploadedonto the department’s website,YouTube and the like. Content tobe captured and made availableto farmers will range from how-to tips and advice from technicalstaff and farmers to grazing man-agement strategies to tours of theUniversity of Queensland dairyfacilities.

The camera and video clipswill give the team greater flexi-bility in being able to delivermore contextualised ideas,reaching larger audiences in amore efficient manner and alsoallowing farmers to access theextension material in their owntime.

Contact: Jo Gorman, phone(07) 5460 1192.

Dairy In Action update and overview

Team building exercise atthe Brisbane/Lockyer Valleydiscussion group day.

By Jo Gorman

Date Activity Location Time ContactAugust 1 Dry cow and springer nutrition Popp’s Dairy, 10.30am-2pm Dave Barber,

workshop Monto phone 0427 603 243August 2 Dry cow and springer nutrition Jepson’s Dairy, 10.30am-2pm Dave Barber,

workshop Barmoya phone 0427 603 243

Dairy In Action Calendar of Events

Sample DM CP % NDF % Starch % NFC % Sugar % Fat %DescriptionCom silage Min 22 .8 7.3 35 .6 3.7 14.3 1.2 1.9(19 samples) Max 43.8 12.2 64.0 38.6 48.1 3.8 8.1

Av 33.0 8.9 44.9 27.0 38.0 2.2 3.5Soybean meal Min 90.4 51.7 9.9 0.3 24.5 10.9 1.4(16 samples) Max 95.5 53.8 17.6 1.8 38.6 19.8 2.4

Av 91.7 53.1 13.1 1.1 31.0 13.0 1.8Kikuyu pastures Min 11.8 13.3 42.4 0.2 10.5 6.6 2.2(28 samples) Max 23.2 30.9 65.6 5.6 27.9 17.5 4.6

Av 17.5 21.9 53.1 2.3 17.9 11.1 3.6Setaria pasture Min 13.4 8.7 47.8 0.2 10.1 7.5 2.1(16 samples) Max 23.8 26.8 62.3 5.0 25.5 12.8 4.5

Av 17.5 20.6 54.4 2.6 18.1 9.7 3.6Molasses Min 73.3 3.7 0.1 0.1 78.4 22.4 1.3(10 samples) Max 84.7 5.3 0.4 2.5 83.9 57.1 2.9

Av 82.4 4.1 0.2 0.6 82.2 36.0 1.9

Table 2: Feed quality values of feed types sampled during the FCE summer 2012survey.


18 RESEARCH UPDATE

THE Australian dairy industryhas entered a new genomic erain which dairyfarmers are nowable to make breeding decisionswith confidence on genomicdata alone. After two years ofintensive research work at theDairy Futures CooperativeResearch Centre (CRC), genom-ic profiling of 10,000 dairy cat-tle has achieved levels of relia-bility that make much moreaccurate predictions of howgood a bull’s or a heifer’s genet-ics are for milk production, fer-tility and other traits that affectprofitability.

On average the reliability ofgenomic breeding values foryoung bulls (with no daughters)is now equivalent to a bull proofwith 30 milking daughters. Thepotential economic value of thisnew technology is estimated at$100 million in the next 12years.

“This new level of genomicreliability for key traits confirmsthe creation of a viable, newmarket sector – genomicallytested bulls with high levels ofreliability under Australiandairyfarming conditions,” DairyFutures CRC chief executiveDavid Nation said.

In this new era, makingbreeding decisions with confi-dence on genomic informationalone is set to become standardpractice among dairyfarmers,who stand to double the geneticgain in their herds, bringing for-ward the introduction of elitegenetics by several generationsand producing higher performingdairy cows earlier.

Based on overseas experience

with genomics, the speed andscale of the uptake of this newtechnology is expected to berapid. (In Ireland, less than twoyears after achieving similar lev-els of genomic reliability, 50% ofbulls used in dairy breeding pro-grams are now young genomicbulls.)

Professional breeders whomarket bulls here and overseaswill be able to test a range ofhigh performing bulls at a youngage; potentially making thesebulls more marketable andadding diversity to the siresavailable for breeding.

Dairyfarmers buying naturalsires will have access to a broad-er market of bulls that have beengenomically tested.

Environmental factors andfarming practices, which varyfrom country to country, have acritical impact on the perform-ance of imported sires. Bull com-panies, the majority of whichimport semen from sires provenunder United States, Canadian,United Kingdom or European

conditions, can now have theirbulls genomically tested for per-formance under Australian con-ditions. The results can be pro-vided quickly to assist them indeciding which bulls to market inAustralia and give them an edgein their marketing programs.

The technology will giveAustralian dairyfarmers, whoalready look globally for suitableinternational sires, greater confi-dence in selecting bulls that havebeen genomically tested forAustralian conditions.

Genomics also present theindustry with an opportunity totest for ‘outliers’; those animalsthat may have been overlookedpreviously but whose superiortraits can now be identifiedthrough a simple DNA test.

For young dairyfarmersentering the industry, genomicspresents an opportunity to builda quality herd rapidly, makingdramatic improvements in per-formance by choosing eliteyoung bulls on their genomictest alone.

New era dawns in dairy animal genomicsKEY POINTS■ Genomics uses

DNA markers toidentify potentialtop bulls

■ Reliability nowsame as bull with30 daughters

■ Will fast trackgenetic gain

Victorian Minister for Agriculture and Food Security Peter Walsh, Dairy Futures CRC chief executive officer DavidNation and farm host and 10,000 Cow project participants Iain and Louise Stewart celebrate the major milestone ingenomic reliabilities at Maffra,Vic.


WATER USE EFFICIENCY 19

A NEW project at the GattonDairy Research Centre aims totake some of the guesswork outof calculating irrigation needsfor producers growing dairy for-age crops.

New irrigation infrastructurewill be used in tandem withnewly-updated ICalc irrigationmanagement software (at<www.dairyinfo.biz>) devel-oped by the Department ofAgriculture, Fisheries andForestry (DAFF).

University of QueenslandGatton campus farm managerMark Bauer said the ICalc pro-gram calculated irrigationrequirements for the Gattondairy research herd, with the aimof boosting forage production byapplying irrigation water moreuniformly and supplying suffi-cient water to meet forage evapo-transpiration requirements.

“Maximising irrigation effi-ciency will help to improve pro-ductivity and profitability, byworking out how much water isneeded per crop and allocatingwater wisely across different cam-pus programs,” Mr Bauer said.

“ICalc looks specifically atthe uniform distribution of waterand how that affects water useefficiency in our irrigated crops,including barley, maize, lucerneand wheat.”

ICalc is an easy-to-use soft-ware-driven calculator that deter-mines seasonal irrigation waterrequirements for a range of pas-tures and crops across Australia.

The program has the potentialto bolster forage water use effi-ciencies across the 400Queensland dairy farms that usesome form of irrigation, as wellas in other industries, such ashorticulture.

The software was written byDAFF dairy systems modellerGordon Simpson and dairyagronomist Dr Mark Callow.

“ICalc can help farmers to bemore precise in their water usecalculation to enhance their for-age or crop productivity,” DrCallow said.

ICalc helps growers calculatethe volumetric water require-ments of forages in terms ofmegalitres per hectare. It usesdaily rainfall, evapotranspirationdata, crop factors and irrigationmethod efficiency to determinegross crop irrigation requirement.

Irrigation water requirementscan be calculated by selecting theaverage, highest or lowest rain-fall years, thereby simulatingexpected good or poor seasonalgrowth. Up to 50 years of climatedata can be selected to calculatewater requirements.

ICalc was originally releasedin 2011 for the Queensland dairyindustry, and agronomists andconsultants across Far NorthQueensland and South-EastQueensland have been workingwith dairy producers to demon-strate the program’s benefits ofdetermining seasonal waterrequirements to assist in localirrigation water allocations.

Dr Callow said the feedbackfrom growers already usingICalc was positive because of itsversatility and timeliness, asmany had been experiencingchanges in water allocation.

Producers can access the freeICalc software directly, by visiting

<www.dairyinfo.biz> or contact-ing Gordon Simpson, phone (07)4688 1229, email <[email protected]>.

ICalc is an initiative of Dairy& Fodder Water for Profit, a jointproject of QueenslandDairyfarmers’ Organisation andDAFF, and supported by theDepartment of Natural

Resources and Mines throughthe South-East QueenslandIrrigation Futures project.

In the next 12 months, ICalcwill be profiled in a range ofDAFF research and extensionactivities, including theIrrigation Specialist DiscussionGroup and a Gatton-based barleywater use efficiency trial.

Milking profits from irrigationKEY POINTS■ Computer tool

calculates irrigationrequirements fordairy farm

■ Looks at factorsaffecting water useefficiency

■ Potential to bolsterforage production

At UQ Gatton, Qld, are campus farmmanager Mark Bauer, Department ofAgriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF)dairy agronomist Dr Mark Callow, Gatton,and DAFF dairy systems modeller GordonSimpson,Toowoomba, Qld.

Gordon Simpson, Dr Mark Callow andMark Bauer use ICalc to work out theirrigation requirements for forage crops forthe University of Queensland Gattoncampus herd.

Meet the publishers of yourdairy magazine at this year’sDairy Conference.Carlene and Peter look forward to meeting you at the conference at Gatton on the 25th & 26thSeptember.

Drop in at our stand!

The Northern

DairyfarmerEditorial: Alastair and Carlene Dowie - Phone: 03 5464 1382

[email protected]: Peter Roach - Phone: 03 93449906

[email protected]

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DISASTER RECOVERY 21

THE Queensland FarmersFederation (QFF) has created anonline web portal and DVD forfarmers recovering from CycloneYasi, and also to offer some tipsthat could help them prepare forfuture disastrous climatic events.

Minister for AgricultureFisheries and Forestry JohnMcVeigh and QFF presidentJoanne Grainger launched it inFar North Queensland in May.

It gives farmers access to arange of climate and disasterinformation from a single point,at a time that suits them.

QFF chief executive officerDan Galligan said it offeredinformation in a visual formatand was therefore easy for busyfarmers to ingest.

“This DVD brings togetherimportant cyclone, climate, anddisaster information into a visualformat,” Mr Galligan said. “Itwill be available for farmers tocome back and revisit when itsuits them.”

The Taking Stock project,

funded through the State andFederal Governments’ RuralResilience Fund, has gatheredinformation from experts in arange of topics.

It contains specific tips andstories on: building resilient farminfrastructure; insurance andbusiness planning; using socialmedia to aid the recovery; andensuring farmers deal with men-tal health issues.

“Importantly, the videoshave also used the expertise ofindustry recovery officers(IROs),” Mr Galligan said.“These officers were on theground helping farmers in therecovery.

“The IROs were on theground throughout 2011 andearly 2012 helping get farmersand businesses back on track.The program has now concluded,

but it has been one of the successstories of the recovery.”

Mr Galligan said that part ofthe recovery from Yasi wouldinclude preparations for futurenatural disasters and shockevents.

“The release of this DVD andweb portal will trigger that actionand help build a more resilientrural community in Far NorthQueensland.”

Yasi DVD will help long-termrecovery in Far North QueenslandKEY POINTSDISASTER DVD■ DVD provides visual

information forfarmers

■ Tips on range ofissues to helpdisaster recovery

Minister for Agriculture John McVeigh at the launch with Queensland Farmers Federation(QFF) president Joanne Grainger and Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestrydirector-general Jack Noye.

Disaster assistance extension welcomed

THE Queensland Dairyfarmers’Organisation (QDO) has wel-comed the QueenslandGovernment’s announcement toextend the cut-off date on fournatural disaster assistanceschemes to October 31.

The Government has extend-ed the two recovery assistanceschemes for the 2010-2011floods and Cyclone Yasi, as wellas for the floods in WesternQueensland earlier this year.

These assistance measureshave helped farmers and com-munities rebuild and have helpedcommunities avoid a local reces-sion after unprecedented naturaldisaster.

This extension will ensure theremaining farmers, who have yetto access this assistance, have anopportunity to do so.

It is also crucial that farmersdo not self-assess their impactsand disqualify themselves fromthe assistance. Accessing thisassistance is an important boostfor local communities impacted

by natural disaster, and thereforenot something to think twiceabout.

Struggling farmers haveneeded the assistance that theseschemes provide, as almost 99%of Queensland dairyfarmers liewithin Natural Disaster Reliefand Recovery Arrangement(NDRRA) areas.

The disasters have so far costthe Queensland dairy industry atfarm level about $80 million indamage and lost production andthe industry has lost about 54million litres of milk production.

With this level of damage, it willtake the industry some time torecover.

The industry recovery pro-gram team continues its workfrom last year to continue to sup-port dairyfarmers with theirrecovery efforts and is availableto provide ongoing support in thecoming months.

The QDO urges farmers whohave not been able to apply forassistance yet and wish to do soand require assistance with theirapplication to contact the QDOoffice, phone (07) 3236 2955.



22 ENERGY PRICE INCREASES

THE recent release by theQueensland CompetitionAuthority (QCA) of its finaldetermination on electricityprices for 2012-2013 is a blowfor Queensland’s ability to sup-ply itself with milk and for theLiberal National Party (LNP)plan to double food productionby 2040.

Depending on which tariff afarmer uses, electricity costs aretipped to rise between 10% and20%, due to increases in distribu-tion costs and energy generation,primarily via impacts from theFederal Government’s carbontax.

The increases in networkcharges are about 15.7% forErgon customers and 11.3% forEnergex, which is one drivingforce behind the rises.

The impact of the increasedelectricity costs will furtherreduce the small to non-existentprofit margins of the State’sdairy farms, which are alreadystruggling under the flow-onimpacts of the supermarket milkprice war.

In recent years many farmershave made substantial invest-ments into changing their farmoperations to take advantage ofcheaper night rate electricity andthe efficiencies associated withnight-time irrigation.

The QueenslandDairyfarmers’ Organisation(QDO) will be examining theexposure of any dairy farms tothese 20% increases, whichcould put farm enterprises injeopardy in the next 12 monthsof their implementation.

The new State Governmenthas announced an IndependentReview Panel (IRP) into elec-tricity prices for the next 12months, which it hopes willremedy the problems it inherit-ed from the previous adminis-tration.

QDO will work with theQueensland Farmers Federationand the IRP to ensure the needsof rural customers are heard andthe government fully under-

stands the impacts of these pricedeterminations on industry.

This will be a large undertak-ing, but for now, there is unfortu-nately no escaping the impact ofthe forthcoming electricity pricehikes.

This QCA determination alsoshows farmers will wear theimpacts of the carbon tax as theFederal Government seems tohave no concerns about our abil-ity to produce food to feed our-selves and also earn exportincome for the nation.

The Federal Government con-tinues to claim farmers can passthese costs on, which is a state-ment that if it were not so seriouswould be laughable.

Can the Prime Minister, JuliaGillard, intervene and get themajor supermarkets to acceptpaying more for milk and ourinternational clients to paymore?

It is obvious that exporterswho compete internationallyagainst dairy suppliers in othercountries with no carbon tax


KEY POINTS■ Power tariffs to

increase 10-20%■ Network costs to

increase 11.3-15.7%■ Independent review

to look at impactof power increases

Price hikes will shock State'sdairy industry

The impact of the increased electricity costs will furtherreduce the small to non-existent profit margins of theState’s dairy farms.

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ENERGY PRICE INCREASES 23

cannot pass on the extra costs.However, I also suggest it iseven more difficult for adomestic milk supplier in aState such as Queensland topass on the carbon tax costimpacts.

These farmers supply a mar-ket that has shown in the past fewyears it does not respond to costincreases on-farm nor to short-ages in supply.

As we have seen in recentyears, when the domestic milk

suppliers have had rising farmcosts and a huge drop in supply,well below domesticQueensland’s milk needs, wehave seen domestic milk pricesat both farm gate and retail dropsignificantly, as major supermar-kets use fresh milk as a discountmarketing agent.

In addition, this all happenedat a time when we had highworld prices for milk products.

So it would seem obvious toanyone but the government that

dairyfarmers cannot pass thesecosts on as there is a blockage inthe value chain for milk in thiscountry.

There also are no advertise-ments on the television tellingfarmers they will be getting atop-up in their bank accounts forthe cost increases from the gov-ernment, unlike some other sec-tors of the community.

What can farmers do? Theyare between a rock and a hardplace with little ability to adapt

to these increases in electricitycharges and the wide-rangingimpacts of the carbon tax, withmore to come.

Given the Prime Ministerthinks we can simply pass on theextra cost of the carbon tax,maybe we should each send aninvoice to her and she can passthe cost on to the supermarketsand the international buyers.

The trouble is, I don’t thinkany of them intend to pay thebill.

DAIRY Australia (DA) hasreceived $1 million in FederalGovernment funding to roll out900 farm energy assessments ondairy farms across the country.

The grant was one of 28announced as round one of theEnergy Efficiency InformationGrants program. DA will use thefunding for the Smarter EnergyUse on Australian Dairy Farmsproject to provide farmers withinformation and technical supportto improve farm energy efficiency.

DA natural resource manage-ment program managerCatherine Phelps said the fund-ing would help deliver energyassessments to all eight dairyregions across Australia, tailor-ing it to meet local needs.

“There is a high level of inter-est in energy efficiency in thedairy industry and farmers areincreasingly concerned about thecost of energy impacting on theirbusiness, so the conditions areright for a very effective national

project,” she said. “It is expectedthe project will result in supply-ing farmers with real practicalsolutions for significant savingsin carbon emissions and energycosts on-farm.”

Through on-farm assess-ments, Smarter Energy Use onAustralian Dairy Farms willdeliver recommendations fordairyfarmers to use energy in thesmartest, most efficient and cost-effective way.

Recommended options could

include changes to managementpractices, optimisation of currentequipment or capital investmentor both.

The project will develop anddisseminate targeted informationresources including an on-farmassessment tool and train indus-try providers to undertake theenergy assessments. The projectis also being supported by theAustralian Dairy IndustryCouncil, milk processors andstate agencies.

$1m boost to help dairyfarmers save on energy

Getting on top of hoof health

This is one of the many examples of the dairy service levy at work locally. Farmers receive a benefit of $3 for every $1 invested

by Dairy Australia on their behalf. For more information on this and other levy investments visit www.dairyaustralia.com.au

Caring for your herd’s hooves and legs is

part of the daily health check. Keeping an

eye on feet not only saves a cow from

pain, it makes financial sense.

Dairy Australia calculates estimates each

lame cow can cost up to $600 to $700/

year through lost milk production, lower

fertility, an increased risk of culling and

actual treatment costs.

About 80%-90% of lameness occurs in

the feet; most commonly in hind feet.

You can restrain a cow in a crush or

rotary bail or even on the platform in a

herringbone dairy.

If you suspect lameness, examine the

hoof using an examination kit comprising:

a soft rope for tying the leg;

hoof testers;

a sharp hoof knife (double-sided)

protected with a pouch;

sharp hoof trimmers; and

sharpening tools.

Examine the foot, looking for:

sole injuries;

white line disease;

foot rot, or

interdigital cracks.

The more stable and comfortable a cow

feels, the quieter she will stand. Having a

non-slip surface and/or straps to support

the weight of the cow will assist.

Talk to your vet about treatments like

trimming and paring, blocks, antibiotics,

anti-inflammatories/painkillers and rest. If

more than 7% of the herd is affected by

lameness, problems will be identifiable

which should be worked on with advice

from your vet.

Visit www.dairyaustralia.com.au for

suggestions on ways to help restore hoof

health in your herd.

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THE Queensland DairyfarmersOrganisation, on behalf of thepartnership with SubtropicalDairy, has partnered withQueensland University ofTechnology (QUT) and JamesCook University (JCU) to helpanswer some of the unknownquestions about nutrient losspathways off dairy farms. Theproject is entitled Validating thecost/benefits of improved fer-tiliser practices and quantifyingnutrient loads and pathwaysfrom irrigated dairy pastures inthe Wet Tropics and the Burnett-Mary regions.

A great deal of research hasbeen conducted in the efficiencyof urea fertiliser, with some sug-gesting up to 50% of nitrogen(N) is lost before the crop hasany chance of utilising it. Whatis unclear is the amount lostthrough various pathways andthe relative importance of eachpathway on dairy farms in theGreat Barrier Reef catchment.

The Reef Rescue R&D proj-ect was developed to get agreater understanding of this andalso to look at nitrogen inhibitorsor treated urea products and howthey can reduce the risk of nutri-ent loss.

The team on thegroundThe Gympie, Queensland,research site is on Rod and RuveThefs’ dairy farm, with theresearch being conducted by DrDavid Rowlings from QUT. DrRowlings, who grew up on a beefcattle farm, is the main man onthe Gympie site, with a lot ofassistance being received fromMr Thef and his employee.

Dr Rowlings has previouslyworked across a number of agri-cultural industries including hor-ticulture, grains, cotton and nowdairy. His thesis for his PhD wason The affect of land use changeon carbon and nitrogen cycling,with a focus on agricultural sys-tems.

The research site in Far NorthQueensland is being conductedon the Ravenshoe School Dairyfarm, with Jack Koci leading theresearch on the ground at theAtherton Tableland research site.Mr Koci is currently doing hisresearch honours on this projectunder JCU.

He has a history with thetablelands, having grown up atMareeba, with his family havinga number of avocado farms atTolga near Atherton. Mr Kocifinished his Bachelor of Sciencemajoring in hydrology and waterresource in 2011.

He has a passion for soils andagriculture, with this researchproject allowing him get out onfarm and involved in agriculturalindustries again.

How will the projecthelp dairyfarmers in thetropics?It will give the farmers a lot moreinformation in terms of under-standing nutrient loss pathways.With that information, it is envis-aged that a suite of managementpractices will be put together thatwill reduce nutrient loss and there-fore increase nutrient use efficien-cy, which will also mean animprovement in their bottom line.

When will farmers get achance to visit the fieldsites?The team is planning to run twofield days in early September todemonstrate what the projectsentails, what is being monitoredand what the results are showingso far. Measuring has been takingplace since 2011-2012 summer,with the Gympie site experienc-ing a number of runoff events sofar this year.

Interim results will be pre-sented at a Reef Rescue Research& Development workshop in lateAugust in Brisbane. Farmers willhave the chance to see the inter-im results at the upcoming fielddays in September.


24 NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

New project looksat nutrient losspathways

Jack Koci is leading the research on the ground at theAtherton Tableland research site.

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NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT UPDATE 25

FERT$MART is a Dairy Australiainitiative being developed toimprove the efficiency and prof-itability of fertiliser use onAustralian dairy farms. Fert$martaligns with the principles of theInternational Plant NutritionInstitute’s (IPNI) 4R NutrientStewardship program.

The 4R concept is simple andpractical – apply the right sourceof nutrient, at the right rate, atthe right time, and in the rightplace.

How will Fert$martimprove farmprofitability?Fert$mart will bring together thelatest nutrient management sci-ence along with the industry’sbest management practices(BMP) and decision supporttools into one website designedspecifically to help farmers andtheir advisers with more prof-

itable fertiliser managementdecisions.

There will be many ways toaccess information on theFert$mart website includinglinks to best management prac-tices, planning tools, the latestfertiliser management scienceand research, soil testing meth-ods and accredited laboratories,Fertcare advisers, training cours-es and farmer case studies.

To assist farmers in fine-tun-ing fertiliser efficiency, a simplepaddock record-keeping tool isbeing developed to manage pad-dock fertility.

Farmers will be able to keeprecords of soil test results andfertiliser applications for eachpaddock or farm managementzone (a group of paddocks man-aged in a similar way). The toolwill include reporting featuresallowing farmers to track soilfertility trends (nitrogen, phos-phorus, potassium, sulphur andpH) and to compare paddock fer-tility levels with the optimalrange for production.

Who will benefit fromFert$mart?Fert$mart will be specificallydesigned to support dairyfarm-ers and advisers from allregions with more efficient andprofitable fertiliser use, howev-er it will be readily accessibleto the many users who will ben-

efit from the site. For example,the Fert$mart science portalwill be an important onlinelearning resource for staff andstudents of the National Centrefor Dairy Education Australia(NCDEA).

How is Fert$martprogressing, and whenwill it be launched?Development of Fert$mart, andthe guidelines for nutrient man-agement on Australian dairyfarms is well underway. A widesearch and review of existingnutrient management programs,materials and decision supporttools has been completed.Working groups have been estab-lished and are now developingthe various components ofFert$mart, including the follow-ing:• Fert$mart Science – An onlineresource based on an updatedand expanded version of theTarget 10 Soils and Fertilisermanual. Sections of the manualrequiring review have been iden-tified and the update will be car-ried out in the next 12 months,ready for upload to the Fert$martportal before mid-2013.• Best Management Practices –Working groups are currentlyreviewing the nutrient-relatedmanagement practices in thesoils, fertiliser, effluent and irri-gation sections of DairySAT to

ensure these are consistent withthe industry’s current recom-mended practices and theFert$mart principles for prof-itable and responsible fertilisermanagement.• Nutrient Planning Cycle – Adraft nutrient planning cycle hasbeen developed by the workinggroup and will be ready for useby the farmer group extensionpilots starting during August-September this year.• Decision Support Tools – Theworking group has reviewed arange of existing decision sup-port tools and has recommendeda number of practical tools tosupport profitable fertiliser man-agement. A paddock record-keeping tool will be developed tohelp farmers track soil fertilitytrends (N, P, K, S and pH) and tocompare fertility levels with theoptimal range for production. • Farmer Group ExtensionModel – A draft farmer groupextension model incorporatingthe Fert$mart principles has beendeveloped by the working group.Following wider consultation,the model will be ready for usein the farmer group extensionpilots starting during August-September this year.• Fert$mart Website – A draftwireframe has been developedfor the Fert$mart website. Thewireframe sets out what the web-site might look like, and how

KEY POINTS■ National fertiliser

project launched■ Provide range of

tools andinformation tofarmers

■ Will allow farmersto record and keeptrack of paddockfertility

A new project will provide information about fertiliser best management practices.

▼

Fertiliser program to put runs on board


26 NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT UPDATE

THE Queensland Dairyfarmers’Organisation (QDO) will part-ner with Subtropical Dairy (SD)and the Federal Government ona project that will support farm-ers in accessing the latest soilnutrient management knowl-edge and techniques on farmsacross Queensland.

The Federal Government,through the Department ofSustainability, Environment,Water,Population and Communities, hasannounced funding for the projectthrough the successful Caring forour Country program.

QDO president BrianTessmann said the project wastitled ‘Piloting Innovative Soil andNutrient Management Systemswith Queensland DairyFarmers’, and the industry hadreceived $96,000 (plus GST)funding from the FederalGovernment.

“The project will supportfarmers to access the latestknowledge and skills to makenutrient management decisionsthat will improve soil manage-ment, soil health, and nutrientuse efficiency,” Mr Tessmann said.

“The project will seek toengage about 50 dairy farms insouthern Queensland in thisround of the project.”

SD chair Ross McInnes saidthe project would work throughlocal Dairying Better ‘n Betterdiscussions groups, with the sup-port of suitably qualified inde-pendent professional advisers.

“Farmers will have theopportunity to conduct soilsampling across their farm andwill use these samples in discus-sion groups to make better-informed farm soil and nutrient

management decisions and toidentify options to improvepractices,” Mr McInnes said.

“When our farming systemsare under pressure fromdepressed farm-gate prices, newinitiatives that target new effi-ciency gains are very importantand as such we encouragedairyfarmers to engage with theproject and our Dairying Better‘n Better program team.”

The Dairying Better ‘n Betterprogram is an initiative of QDOand SD, and is supported byDairy Australia.

Govt backs dairy soil and nutrient initiative

users might interact with variousfeatures of the website. TheFert$mart website will be devel-oped and tested in the next 12months ready for industry launchin mid-2013.

How can farmers andadvisers improveFert$mart?Feedback from farmers andadvisers throughout the develop-

ment process will be supportedand encouraged, and will help toensure Fert$mart is a practicalresource used widely by theindustry. Farmers and adviserswill have the opportunity to hearmore about Fert$mart and to pro-vide feedback at one of the eightregional meetings held duringJuly-August this year. An evalu-ation of the farmer group exten-sion pilots will also provide use-

ful feedback to improveFert$mart.

How is Fert$martfunded?Fert$mart is jointly funded byDairy Australia and theAustralian Government’s Caringfor Our Country Program througha project titled ‘Dairy Guidelines:Managing soil acidity throughimproved nutrient use efficiency’.

How can I find outmore about Fert$mart?

Regular updates on Fert$mart willbe provided through dairy industrynewsletters, including theDairying for Tomorrow newsletter.

For more information aboutFert$mart contact the projectcoordinator, Rick Kowitz, email<[email protected]>or mobile 0427 669 994.

▲

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Aug Ekka, RNA Showgrounds9-18: Bowen Hills, Brisbane

Contact: RNA.Phone: (07) 3852 183. Fax: (07) 3257 1428Email: <[email protected]> Website: <www.ekka.com.au>

Aug Chainsaw Workshop14-15: TBC

Contact: Kate Yeoman. Phone: 0407 965 791

Sep Chainsaw Workshop3-4: TBC

Contact: Kate Yeoman. Phone: 0407 965 791

Sep Toowoomba Ag Show4-6: Toowoomba, Qld

Contact: Peter ErwinPhone: (07) 4634 1155Email: <[email protected]>Website: <www.agshow.com.au/>

Sep Young Dairy Network Leadup Workshop 212-13: TBC

Contact: Belinda Haddow.Phone: 0423 003 638

Sep Queensland Dairyfarmers’ Organisation annual25-26: conference, Gatton, Qld

Contact: Kylie Dennis.Phone: (07) 3236 2955Email: <[email protected]>

Oct Cows Create Careers Presentation Day16: Toowoomba, Qld

Contact: Neale Price.Phone: 0400 022 843

Oct Subtropical Dairy annual general meeting16-18: New Generation Conference, Coffs Harbour,

NSWContact: Neale Price.Phone: 0400 022 843Contact:Traci Gordon.Phone: (02) 6653 5614Email: <[email protected]>

Oct Picasso Cows Presentation Day18: Coffs Harbour, NSW

Contact: Neale Price. Phone: 0400 022 843

Oct Young Dairy Network Workshop 324-25: TBC

Contact: Belinda Haddow.Phone: 0423 003 638

Nov International Dairy Federation World Dairy4-8: Summit, Cape Town, South Africa

Contact:Website: <www.wds2012.com>

Nov Australasian Dairy Science Symposium13-15: Melbourne

Contact:Website: <www.adssymposium.com.au>Phone: (08) 9525 9222.Email: <[email protected]>

Nov DFMC National Convention20-21: Wollongong, NSW

Phone: (02) 8732 5206Email: <[email protected]>Website: <www.dfmc.org.a>

Nov Dairy Australia annual general meeting30: ADIC Breakfast, Melbourne,Vic

Contact: Dairy Australia.Phone: (03) 9694 3777Website: <www.dairyaustralia.com.au>

2013

Jan National All Breeds Dairy Youth Camp2-6: Melbourne,Vic

Contact: National Centre for Dairy Education AustraliaPhone: 1300 062 332Website: <www.ncdea.edu.au>

Jan International Dairy Week20-25: Tatura,Vic

Contact: Robyn BarberPhone: 0459 324 235Email: <[email protected]>Website: <www.internationaldairyweek.com.au>

Feb Dairy Innovators Forum 201326-27: Sunshine Coast, Qld

Contact: Esther PricePhone: 1800 177 636Email: <[email protected]>

Mar 21 - Sydney Royal Easter ShowApr 3: Homebush, NSW

Contact: Phone (02) 9704 1111, Fax: (02) 9704 1122Email: <[email protected]>Website:<www.eastershow.com.au>

Apr Toowoomba Royal Show 11-13: Toowoomba Showgrounds

Contact: Phone (07) 4634 7400. Fax: (07) 4633 2495Website: <http://www.toowoombashow.com.au/>

May Tocal Field Days3-5: Paterson, NSW

Contact:Wendy Franklin.Phone: (02) 4939 8820, Fax: (02) 4939 8807Email: <[email protected]>Website: <www.tocalfielddays.com>

Jun Farmfest4-6: Toowoomba, Qld

Contact: Rural Press EventsPhone: (02) 6768 5800, Fax: (02) 6768 5811Email: <[email protected]>


NORTHERN DAIRY DIARY 27

DIARY DATESTo have an event included in the diary dates, sendinformation to Carlene and Alastair DowiePhone/fax: (03) 5464 1542 Email: <[email protected]> or submit to website <www.dairyinfo.biz>

Three of the BEST

Freecall 1800 039 047 www.genaust.com.au 20120381

BUDDHA bursts onto the top of the ABVs following the

April 2012 ABV and joins MEDALLION and BULLBAR as

three of the very best Holstein bulls available. At 240 APR and 27kgs of protein his daughters have a strong will to

milk, positive components, top type and excellent SCC ABV.

His reliable 1st ABV is based on 94 daughters with just

14% RIP so can be used with confidence.

MEDALLION remains the Type Leader and one of the most

popular bulls available and BULLBAR at 99% reliable has

confirmed his status as the best 2nd crop bull available

– outcross, calving ease, fertility and low SCC all good

reasons to milk more.

NEWGoldwyn x FABULON

BUDDHABushlea Perfector Bold

APR 240/80%

O/Type 109 | Mammary 105> Best NEW Holstein graduateBUDDHA daughter bred by Max & Barb Jelbart, Leongatha Sth Vic

INFORMER x Knockout

MEDALLIONBundalong Marks Medallion

APR 199/80%

O/Type 112 | Mammary 116> Breed leader for MammaryMEDALLION daughter bred by Daryl & Val Crawford, Dixie, Vic

Laurier x Knockout

BULLBARGlomar Bullbar RB

APR 176/99%

O/Type 105 | Mammary 109> What you see is what you get!BULLBAR daughter bred by Shakira Holsteins - Robert Towner & Sharon Williams, Bookar, Vic

Secure these world class bulls for your 2012 breeding program – Order Now.

Photoghraphs by Ross Easterbrook

ND

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