Dairy News Australia October 2013

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Tasmanian farmers Grant and Melanie Rogers milk three times every two days. pg.20-21

Jamie Forster keeps returning to Boomerang hay feeders for consistency and reliability. pg.28

Shepparton vet Rob Bonanno says written protocols for young staff will save potential heartache. pg.22 prIMe MINIsTer Tony Abbott

wants Australia’s stalled free trade agreement with China finalised within 12 months.

However, he has warned he could accept a compromised deal to meet the timeline.

Negotiations on the Australia-China FTA have been taking place since April 2005 but the process has stalled after 19 rounds, mostly on issues related to agricultural trade and Foreign Investment Review Board scrutiny of Chinese invest-ments.

Any compromise on a deal would likely be at the expense of what mat-ters most to farmers.

The Nationals have asked Mr Abbott to lower the FIRB threshold for examining purchases of agricul-tural land to $15m, and to $53m for agribusiness.

The threshold now for single

investment is $248, and there is no foreign investment registry.

Mr Abbott met with Chinese President Xi Jinping early this month and said he wanted the FTA “to be as comprehensive as possible”.

“I have always taken the view that you should take what you can get today and pitch for the rest tomor-row, when you have a strong founda-tion to build upon”.

Negotiations with Japan, started in 2007, and South Korea, started in 2009, have also stalled. The Govern-ment has said it wants all three FTAs concluded within its first three-year term.

National Farmers Federation president Duncan Fraser welcomed the Government’s commitment to finalising the China free trade agree-ment within one year, but cautioned against signing a deal at any cost.

“Critically, any free trade

agreement with China – like those in negotiations with Japan and Korea – must take a holistic view of Australian agriculture and not leave key agricultural commodities out,” Mr Fraser said.

“China is already a major trading partner for Australia – our second biggest agricultural market - and there are major opportunities for our farmers in finalising a deal, provided it provides positive outcomes for our dairy, red meat, pork, rice, grains and sugar industries.

“We have been waiting eight long years for the finalisation of the agree-ment – and while we can understand the Government’s interest in getting the deal done, it is important that in doing so, we agree on the best possi-ble outcome for Australian farmers.”

Mr Fraser said it was inevitable that discussions around an Austra-lian-China free trade agreement

would touch on the issue of foreign investment.

“Foreign investment is likely to become a bargaining chip in the finalisation of the free trade agree-ment,” Mr Fraser said.

“Foreign investment has been, and will continue to be, very posi-tive for Australian agriculture – pro-vided it is in the national interest, is done in a way that is open and trans-parent, and creates opportunities for our domestic sector.

“If this can be achieved, and a mutually beneficially agreement reached on the free trade agreement with China, then Australian farmers stand to gain.”

China overtook Japan as the greatest destination for Austra-lian dairy exports last financial year and this is projected to grow further as the Chinese domestic supply decreases.

Black clouds roll in after a hot and windy October day on James Stacey’s farm at Langhorne Creek, south east of Adelaide. These barley crops are being baled for dry cows. PhOTO: JAmeS STACey

China FTA must notexclude agriculture

WarrNaMbool CHeese and Butter has supported a $390 million takeover offer from Canadian processor Saputo just weeks after it rejected a bid worth $320 million from Bega Cheese.

In a shock revelation, the two par-ties made a joint announcement on October 8.

WCB managing director, David Lord, said the company recommended all shareholders accept Saputo’s offer of $7 a share, in the absence of a superior proposal.

“Saputo’s offer underscores the stra-tegic value of WCB’s assets and vindi-cates the board’s decision to reject

Bega’s inadequate, highly conditional offer,” Mr Lord said.

“Saputo’s all cash offer provides greater certainty for WCB sharehold-ers and a substantial premium for their WCB shares.”

Saputo is one of the top 10 dairy pro-cessors in the world.

It is the largest dairy company in Canada, the third largest in Argentina and one of the three biggest cheese manufacturers in the US.

It exports products to 40 countries around the world and has sales of C$8.6 billion.

Saputo’s offer is subject to approval

by the Foreign Investment Review Board and condi-tional on Saputo gaining at least 50.1% of WCB shares.

An application was lodged with the investment review board about Septem-ber 10 but Saputo had not received any feedback.

Mr Lord said foreign investment in the Australian dairy industry in the past 50 years had provided the foundations for today’s industry.

“Kraft, Nestle, Fonterra – they’re three big international investors who

came to this country and invested heavily in the dairy industry and grew it for the benefit of all the current participants,” Mr Lord said.

“I think suppliers should be excited about this transaction and its potential.

“Saputo are planning to invest in this business. If we increase capacity and capability we need milk supply to support that.

“Saputo has longstanding relation-ships with its suppliers in the markets

in which it operates.“It understands the importance of

relationships with suppliers and they understand raw milk is the lifeblood of the organisation.”

Saputo has made a commitment to retain the corporate identity of WCB and its management.

Investors reacted quickly to the Saputo offer, with WCB shares lifting to a high of $7.29 before closing at $7.18, up from Monday’s close at $6.46.

The Saputo bid will remain on the table until early December. Bega’s offer is slated to close on November 28, but it could be extended.


4 // NeWs: WCb TaKeoVer

WCB endorses Canadian takeover

David Lord

The Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory is now officially for sale, with Canadian firm Saputo in the box seat.

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Saputo CEO outlines WCB visionsapuTo CHIef executive and vice-chairman, Lino Saputo Jnr, said his com-pany’s decision to invest in the Australian market through Warrnambool has been more than 10 years in the making.

“We have been looking at the Australian market since 2002/03. Our first interaction with Warrnambool was 10 years ago,” Mr Saputo told a press confer-ence following the shock move.

“We are not hostile type people – we can only be buyers if there is a seller.

“We’ve always been extremely patient, we’ve never lost hope, and I think it’s starting to pay off now.”

Saputo plans to grow WCB’s domestic presence as well as using it to expand its operations into Asia.

Saputo has a sales office in China, sell-ing product out of Argentina into Asian markets including China, Japan, Taiwan, and Korea.

The WCB name and brands will be retained.

“Saputo’s approach to acquisitions is to make the necessary capital investments and devote the necessary resources to increase manufacturing capacity, grow the milk intake, drive ongoing improvements in operating efficiencies and support inno-vation and new product development,” Mr Saputo said.

“We do not intend to rationalise or rede-ploy any of Warrnambool’s fixed assets. In fact, Saputo would be looking to invest fur-ther to expand Warrnambool’s operations by increasing existing capacity or building additional capacity.”

Mr Saputo said the company would

continue to foster mutually beneficial rela-tionships with farmers.

“I believe dairy farmers will benefit from our commitment to them and our preparedness to invest for growth and increase the demand for milk.

“We have committed to paying lead-ing, competitive prices. We want to ensure

Warrnambool remains the buyer of choice and contin-ues to grow milk intake.”

Mr Saputo said inno-vative, value-added prod-ucts were among the keys to Saputo’s success in its exist-ing global markets.

“There are two ways you can fight the battle – one is on price, the other one is on innovation. We prefer to

choose the innovation side,” he said.Saputo started as a family-run business

with one facility in the Canadian province of Quebec.

“We quickly expanded our presence across the Canadian market and into the US through other acquisitions, and then of course eventually into Argentina in 2003.

“We went from Canadian $485 million in sales to current run rate of about C$8.6 billion.

“The way we look at the world is that there are those markets that are dairy pro-ducing markets and those markets that are dairy consuming markets.

“Not every country in the world is a dairy producing country so we need to look for those platforms where we’re able to acquire milk, process that milk into value-added products and sell into the market.

“We believe Australia has the ideal platform for us getting product into those emerging markets.”

bega CHeese executive chair-man Barry Irvin has not conceded defeat in his pursuit of Warrnam-bool Cheese and Butter.

Bega announced on September 12 that it intended to make an unso-licited and conditional takeover bid for all WCB shares at the price of 1.2 Bega shares plus $2 cash for every WCB share.

The WCB Board advised share-holders not to accept the offer, saying it did not reflect fair value for its shares. Canadian dairy company Saputo announced its offer on Octo-ber 8, which WCB advised its share-holders to accept.

The Saputo offer, of $7 cash for each WCB share, is contingent on 50.1% of shareholder acceptance.

Bega currently owns 18% of WCB shares. Murray Goulburn, which revealed in 2010 an unsuccessful takeover bid of WCB, holds 16%.

Mr Irvin told ABC radio that his company’s original offer would remain the same.

“We have an offer on the table that we still think is very compel-ling,” Mr Irvin said.

Mr Irvin said it represents good value to WCB shareholders, but would also see a very strong Austra-lian-owned dairy company, created through the combination of WCB, Bega and Tatura Milk Industries, of which Bega fully merged with in 2011.

“We think the best thing for the Australian dairy industry is consoli-dation,” Mr Irvin said.

“The core of the pitch is we think bringing businesses together in our view will extract greater value out of the market place, have the size and scale to allow investment in efficien-cies and process improvement, and result in better value created in the supply chain, which will find itself in the hands of dairy farmers as suppli-ers and shareholders.”

Mr Irvin said he was disappointed with the reaction from the WCB board. “We continue to believe our offer is meritorious. We’re inter-ested in the WCB comments, but at the end of the day we also recognise and respect the fact this is a decision for WCB shareholders.”

Mr Irvin said he did not know of Saputo’s interest.

“When you do anything publicly and there are assets available, you should expect you won’t get it all your own way,” he said.

“We didn’t expect it wold be an easy or smooth path but on the other hand, things that are worth-while often aren’t.

“Our offer represents a very good thing for the Australian dairy indus-try and we will continue to pursue that argument.”

Mr Irvin said information on the Bega bid was sent to all WCB share-

holders at the start of the month.“There’s a little water to flow

under the bridge yet, as is always the case in these types of processes,” he said.

Murray Goulburn released a state-ment shortly after the announce-ment saying it would take time to consider its options.

Fonterra chairman John Wilson said Fonterra will be watching with interest Saputo’s entry into the Aus-tralian market.

Mr Wilson says Fonterra remains committed to the Australian market but hinted that it may have missed a beat in its Australian strategy.

He says Fonterra has performed well in Australia but was a bit slow to respond to a changing market.

“We have made changes in the last 12 months but one could say we should have made those changes 24-36 months ago,” he said.

Bega won’t admit defeat

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6 // NeWs

afTer aN exceptionally wet start to the year there has only been one worthwhile rain event since July on Paul Weir’s northern NSW farm.

Mr Weir farms at Tuncester, near Lismore, and supplies milk to Lion through DFMC.

“There is very little spring forage and summer crops are now at risk,” Mr Weir said.

“Unfortunately the weather fore-casts don’t look good so production prospects going into next year are pretty bleak.”

Mr Weir said grain and hay prices were “sky high” while the energy costs of irrigation were “crippling”.

Mr Weir, who is involved with the NSW lobby group, Dairy Connect, said the past 12 months have been the toughest experienced in 20 years of dairying.

“There is no prospect of an improvement in prices despite a building shortage of milk.

“In the past we had some room to negotiate, but now sadly there is a real disconnect between supply and demand.

“The supermarkets rule the liquid

milk price and there is no political will to do anything about it.

“We’ve been very vocal in canvassing support for a mandatory code of conduct for supermarkets, but political will seems to have evaporated.

“It’s very hard to get any action

through the Trade Practices Act and the ACCC when there is no govern-ment support.

“Our politicians are all aware of the gravity of the situation, but are sitting on their hands. It looks like it is going to take a massive shortage of milk before we get any action.”

gorDoN CollIe

Nth NSW drying out

a surVey of NSW dairy farmers found that 60% of respondents want to grow their herd by at least 5% in the next five years.

The survey, run by NSW dairy lobby, Dairy Connect, revealed of those that want to grow, 15% want to grow their herd by 25% or more over the

next five years. About 25% indicated they would stay the same size, while 13% of respondents said they would look to exit the industry.

The main issues con-cerning farmers were milk price and cost of produc-tion.

Dairy Connect CEO,

Mike Logan, said respon-dents wanted the new representative body to concentrate on supermar-ket power and the ACCC, cost of production and manufacturing capacity.

“We are certainly con-cluding that since dereg-ulation, the reduction in manufacturing capacity in

NSW farmers want to expandNSW has become a major issue,” Mr Logan said.

“Our production capac-ity is limited by the retail market for fresh milk. As (Dairy Connect member) Paul Weir says, ‘we have gone from regulation by government to regulation by the supermarkets’.”

Mr Logan said the cur-rent situation was difficult for farmers, as there are few places to sell seasonal milk – especially the fur-ther north you go – while it costs more to produce daily fresh milk than sea-

sonal milk.“We don’t have a strong

market for seasonal milk without shipping it to Vic-toria,” he said.

Mr Logan said NSW farmers needed to develop new markets for fresh and manufactured NSW milk.

“We have been hoping to use and develop the Milk Marketing (NSW) funds to do that profes-sionally,” he said.

He said NSW farmers needed to adapt farming systems to supply both the fresh and manufactured

milk markets, and Dairy Connect is working with Dairy Australia on a North-ern Industry Plan to con-sider this.

Dairy Connect has also been active in China recently, as part of its focus to export fresh dairy prod-ucts into Asian markets to achieve higher returns.

Dairy Connect’s Adrian Drury recently told ABC radio that an increase in processing companies seeking milk from Hunter farmers and a higher demand for Australian

milk in the dairy export market have led to farm-ers expecting a rise in gate prices.

“Farmers should be expecting a lot higher returns for the coming 12 months, basically because there’s more demand for milk at the moment,” he said.

“So they should be seeing returns certainly over the 60 cent a litre mark, but certainly it’d be higher than what they’ve received in the last couple of years.”

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NeWs // 7

geNeTICs ausTralIa says a merger with the Herd Improvement Cooperative (HICO) has not been ruled out, despite the sale of assets between the two parties.

GA has contracted to sell its Gippsland retail and services business operating from the Warragul, Leon-gatha and Maffra locations, to HICO.

It has also agreed to sell its Western Victoria retail and services business operating from the Warrnam-bool, Terang and Timboon premises to National Herd Development.

Both sales will be completed by the end of this month.

Both businesses have been sold as going concerns for an undisclosed amount. All present employees will be offered continued employment by the respective purchasers – HICO and NHD.

GA first announced it would explore a merger with HICO in December, saying a merger would strengthen and consolidate the herd improvement industry into the future and was vital to the successful future of GA.

A Heads of Agreement document was signed by the two chairmen on behalf of the respective boards, and a merger working group was formed to continue to work through the consolidation process.

A new management team was installed by the GA board in June, with Chris Jones replaced as CEO by Eti-enne Veldhuis, who had previously acted as an interim chief executive between 2010-2011.

Mr Veldhuis said merger discussions between GA and HICO had not concluded and a Memorandum of Understanding was in place between the two parties.

When asked if there could still be a merger, Mr Veld-huis said the “directors of both companies involved will need to review and discuss the current MOU in due course”.

He said a recent strategy and business review showed GA’s exit from the retail and services busi-nesses will enable the co-op to focus on its core busi-ness of the production, importation and the marketing of semen and related merchandise products.

HICO chairman, Stewart McRae, said HICO’s acqui-sition of the Genetics Australia retail and services business in Gippsland is part of the necessary ratio-nalisation of the herd improvement sector which will allow better use of the resources of the cooperatives in this region.

It will enhance HICO’s strengths and capabilities towards delivering a sustainable and comprehensive product and service offering to all farmers in the future, he said.

National Herd Development chairman, Gary Wight, said by acquiring these assets NHD will reduce freight costs and allow all herd recording being conducted in Western Victoria to be analysed in Western Victoria, a better use of farmers’ assets.

NHD is planning to introduce a range of new ser-vices to the Western Victoria region in due course.

Genetics Australia sells retail arm

sorTINg THe size of Fonterra’s Aus-tralian business is coming to an end and “we are finding out feet”, says Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings.

“We are taking $49m costs out – we took a lot of pain,” he said.

“You have to make sure your value chain is efficient or you don’t get a ticket

to the game. What we did last year was earn our ticket to the game.”

Fonterra now focuses on four brands instead of 21 and is committed to nutri-tional and food service, in which they reduced costs and took out the com-plexity.

“I come from the European environ-ment where the pressure in this retail scene we are used to seeing for the last 20 years and I am telling our people it is

not going to get easier. “This pressure will remain.”Fonterra is recruiting at least 100

people a month in China to keep up with growth, Mr Spierings said.

The need for sales and marketing people in China and South East Asia is growing fast, he said at the release of Fonterra’s annual results.

Fonterra is very busy there: launch-ing Anchor UHT milk, expanding its

food service and Anlene product into 70 cities, launching its Anmum infant formula and starting its second hub of China farms.

“We are building the organisation. We talk about 100 people a month; that’s what we need to do right now.

“We need to make sure we are well connected with the government, gov-ernment to government and business to government.”

This is part of an overall strategy to “shift the wheel” from commodities into higher value propositions.

After years of 2-3% growth in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, volume growth reached 11% in the 2012/13 finan-cial year. And Latin America had gone from annual 2-3% volume growth to 6%.

“We are growing faster than market in those geographies and that means gaining market share.”

Fonterra ‘took a lot of pain’paM TIpa


8 // NeWs

in brief

Dairy shows alignInternational Dairy Week (IDW) and the royal Agricultural Society of Victoria (rASV) have formed an alliance to provide reciprocal support and promote each other’s events.

Since its inception in 1990, IDW has been held in tatura, Victoria, becoming Australia’s largest dairy event, while the rASV’s royal Melbourne Dairy Show is the state’s traditional premier springtime competition.

IDW and rASV said they will explore further event opportunities to advance the interests of the dairy industry.

fonterra invests in stanhope siteFonterra will invest $6 million at its Stanhope site in northern Victoria to transition the manu-facture of ricotta cheese to the site.

the investment includes new cheese making, processing and packaging equipment.

the expansion of Stanhope to produce ricotta cheese is part of the transfer of produc-tion from the cororooke site, which is slated for closure this month.

the ricotta line at cororooke will remain open until April 2014, with the rest of the site closing as projected.

farmers line Japanese pocketsDairy farmers paid $204m in import tariffs to overseas governments last year.

Dairy Australia analysis shows more than $116m in tariff payments was paid to the Japa-nese Government, $27m to South Korea and $17.7m to china.

the United Dairyfarmers of Victoria said former Prime Minister Kevin rudd repeatedly promised a free trade agreement with china but never delivered.

Prime Minister Abbott must prioritise FtAs, it said.

Milk Quality group vacancyAustralian Dairy Farmers is calling for dairy farmer nominations to the Australian Milk Qual-ity Steering Group (AMQSG).

the AMQSG incorporates a broad cross-section of milk quality experts from across the dairy industry.

there is a vacancy for one dairy farmer member of the AMQSG which holds face to face meetings two or three times a year.

Interested applicants should forward their resumes with a brief covering letter or email to ADF by october 21.

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NeWs // 9

ausTralIaN DaIry Farmers has condemned views contained in a Coles branded communications document that featured on television station SBS late last month.

The “Reputation Management Case Study” came to light during a broad-ranging interview with Coles’ chief executive, Ian McLeod.

“To say this document is dripping with cynicism would be a major under-statement,” ADF president, Noel Camp-bell, said.

Sentiments expressed in the case study included ‘we use every PR tactic possible to neutralise the noise’, ‘there

was the inevitable farmer protest’, ‘grandstanding agri-politicians’ and ‘rural and regional noise was loudest’.

Mr Campbell said he was particu-larly disappointed Coles would allow its brand name to be asso-ciated with such views at a time when dairy farmers, supplying from regions influenced by domestic price issues, are severely affected by current farmgate milk prices.

Queensland Dairyfarmers’ Organisa-tion president, Brian Tessmann, said for Coles to describe dairy farmers raising concerns about the impacts to them and

their families and the dairy industry as ‘noise’ was “a massive and unconscio-nable insult”.

“That ‘noise’ is the sound of genera-tions of dairy farming experience being

forced off the land due to Coles’ market-ing tactics,” Mr Tessmann said.

“Here’s an idea for Coles. Instead of mounting massive PR and advertising campaigns worth millions of dollars and talking about ‘noise’, Coles could price

its milk sustainably and work positively toward seeing farmers receive a fair and sustainable price for their milk at farm gate.”

Mr Tessmann said it was a credit to small organisation like the QDO and others that Coles felt it necessary to combat the industry with huge PR campaigns, as QDO continues to raise awareness for farmers to the media, consumers and politicians.

Mr Campbell said consumers, farm-ers and processers are all paying for Coles’ significant increase in profit, from $470 million in 2008 to over $1.5 billion in 2013.

“Only last week, a supplier of home brand yoghurt to Coles, Tamar Valley Dairy in Tasmania, collapsed with media reports citing pressure on margins as well as a slowdown in sales as key rea-sons for the business’s failure,” he said.

“And then along comes a document like this, with Coles’ name stamped all over it, which only adds insult to injury for many dairy farmers.”

Both the QDO and ADF will con-tinue to press the case for a Mandatory Supermarket Code of Conduct as well as changes to the Competition and Con-sumer Act with the new Federal Gov-ernment.

Coles marketing campaign dripping with cynicism

“To say this document is dripping with cynicism would be a major understatement.”

Murray goulburN increased its milk intake by 2% to 2.99 billion litres and paid a final weighted-average farmgate milk price of $4.97 per kilogram of milk solids in 2012/13.

The co-op released the figures last month and announced a net profit after tax of $34.9 million and full year dividend of 8% on ordinary shares for 2012/13.

A dividend of 8% has been declared, representing payments of $21 million. On average, this equates to 9ckg/MS, the co-op said.

MG managing director, Gary Helou, said the rise of 2% in milk intake was in contrast to total Austra-lian milk production which fell by 3%.

The final weighted-average farmgate milk price of $4.97kg/MS was 9% lower than the previous year.

Mr Helou said this reflected a challenging year characterised by low average export commodity prices and a high Australian dollar for most of the financial year.

Despite lower ingredients prices and a high Austra-lian dollar, MG sales revenue grew by 1%, demonstrat-ing improved sales in value-added products, he said.

“MG delivered a solid performance in 2012/13 despite tough seasonal conditions, lower dairy ingre-dients prices and a high Australian dollar – all factors which were beyond our control.”

MG milk intake up, farmgate prices down

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10 // NeWs

More farmers on DA board: ReviewTHe reCeNTly completed independent review of Dairy Australia’s constitution received 45 submissions from across the dairy industry.

Some of these submissions were from industry stakeholder organisations which had sought and obtained input from their members.

The Review Panel, chaired by former Australian Dairy Farmers president Allan Burgess, made recommendations in relation to the constitution and a range of suggestions regarding operational changes.

Key suggestions recommended by the panel include:

■ The Dairy Australia (DA) board should have a minimum of four dairy farmer members.

■ An introduction of maximum terms for directors.

■ Better communication between DA and its farmer and farm organisation members.

■ More feedback and input from

farmers and farm organisation members in developing DA’s strategic and operational plans.

■ The removal of the ability of any industry organisation to seek Group B membership (such as the South Australian Farmers Federation attempted to at the last AGM).

■ A separate review be conducted on the levy poll process.DA members will have the

opportunity to vote on proposed changes to the constitution at the annual general meeting on November 29.

Any amendments would need to be approved by a 75% majority vote and then be approved by the Federal Minister for Agriculture.

In the report, Mr Burgess said it was clear from the review that dairy farmers wanted the governance of DA to be more transparent, and want more information regarding corporate governance processes so they can play a more informed role.

Dairy farmers want to engage more with DA, feel closer to their service organisation and feel like they are making a contribution to outcomes.

“I think they feel they can make it even better if they are more engaged,” Mr Burgess said.

A common theme overall from submissions was the important role DA plays, and while some may appear to be less supportive, they all felt the industry was better for having the support and assistance provided by DA.

Outgoing Dairy Australia chairman, Max Roberts, said the report identified some issues that require further discussion with industry, including the levy poll.

There will be an announcement regarding this process at the forthcoming Dairy Australia annual general meeting.

Mr Roberts said “any constitutional change involves complexity”.

Government must act on foreign investment register THe NaTIoNal Farmers Federation has called for a foreign investment regis-ter as well as policy solutions to ensure Australian agriculture can continue to benefit from foreign investment.

The Coalition proposed the develop-ment of a register in August 2012.

NFF president, Duncan Fraser, said now the Coalition is in Government, the NFF hoped to see this created as a matter of urgency.

Mr Fraser said the issue of foreign investment was very complex but such investment had traditionally been very positive for Australian agriculture and should continue to play an important role.

“We have been very pleased to hear the Minister for Agriculture, Barnaby Joyce’s, comments over recent days supporting foreign investment – par-ticularly the sale of two properties in the top end to an Indonesian company, after speaking to the Northern Territory cattle industry,” Mr Fraser said.

“This shows that the Minister is lis-

tening and taking the views of farmers on board.

“It is imperative that foreign invest-ment is not deterred, but at the same time, greater transparency is needed to ensure the motivations behind it are clear.

“This is not new; we have been saying this for as long as this debate has raged, which is now well over two years.

“That is why the NFF continues to call for the introduction of a for-eign investment register that makes it compulsory for all foreign persons or organisations that acquire or transfer an interest in agricultural land, water or agribusinesses to report the sale.”

Mr Duncan said a register would provide clarity on the level of foreign investment in agricultural land and pro-vide the ability to monitor trends.

“This register is crucial in under-standing the current levels of foreign investment in agriculture, and having a full understanding is critical in getting the policy decision right.”

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WorlD NeWs // 11

NZ dairy price boomA SENIOR New Zealand market strategist at West-pac predicts the Fonterra payout could go higher than the forecast NZ$8.62 (Aus$7.58).

Imre Speizer told a farmers’ seminar in Taranaki he also expects the kiwi dollar to go as high as 86 cents against the US and 92 cents against the Australian cur-rencies, and that interest rates will rise in the next six months.

He said that Chi-nese consumers’ demand for milk products could

prompt a higher payout. People there are buying milk products and that trend will firm up milk prices.

The high payout will have a trickle-down effect on the New Zealand econ-omy, prompting more spending, he predicts. But he also notes dairy farmers are increasingly cautious.

“Farmer borrowers have become a lot more conservative in the years from 2008 onward and are… paying debts rather than spending.

“I think we will see a continuation of that, but maybe some spending as well.”

sKyroCKeTINg WHoleMIlK powder prices con-tributing to Fonterra’s forecast record payout this season will eventually drop, says chief executive Theo Spierings. “But the question is when,” he said.

Since Mr Spierings made his comments wholemilk powder (WMP) prices climbed 2.3% higher to an average of US$5208 (NZ$6298) in the first Global Dairy Trade auc-tion of the month.

The forecast farmgate milk price of NZ$8.30/kgMS (plus a 32 dividend) is fantastic for farmers and New Zea-land, with billions flowing into the economy, Mr Spierings said at the release of Fonterra’s annual results. But it puts pressure on Fonterra’s profit and loss in the meantime.

It is a matter of time before WMP prices come down. “We don’t know how long this will take,” he said. He has never seen such volatility nor such a big gap between WMP and other milk products.

“But that’s happening right now; we have to deal with volatility,” he says. The long-term strategy is to increase earnings and decrease volatility by driving more milk volume into higher value uses. Fonterra has to move into long-term supply agreements, paediatrics, food service and all the way up to consumers brands. That’s the name of the game, he says. “I am very much focused not on dairy but on nutrition.”

However the wholemilk powder prices are driving up the costs of its food service and consumer brands. In emerging markets Fonterra had overall 11% volume growth last year after years of 2-3% growth. They did not want to stop that momentum. If they passed on the escalating cost of WMP to those markets it would mean a 50-60% price increase for some products. Competition is rising: “Aus-tralia is turning the wheel. If you go into emerging mar-kets with a massive price increase way above inflation you are going to see negative volume growth.”

But the prices would not stay there. “I have had 30 years in dairy; I have been a customer for a long time of Fonterra. If all WMP is the price it is now I would consider, as a cus-tomer, going to skimmilk powder – if I were recombining in, say, Saudi Arabia or South East Asia.

“So people have choices – in the end milk is water, lactose, protein, fat – and you can make choices. People will start using different combinations, different specifi-cations for their products. So the high WMP price is not here to stay, but we are quite surprised it is staying here for so long.”

A question of when; not if

peTer burKe

paM TIpa

Imre Speizer

Mr Speizer says any rise in the kiwi dollar against the US dollar is unlikely to affect the dairy indus-try because the milk price and exchange rate move in harmony up and down, a phenomenon unique to the dairy industry.

“In other words they are both moving with

global cycles. We are in a global upturn now, seeing commodity prices – par-ticularly dairy – rising and the kiwi dollar rising with it. In other words, dairy exporters are insulated.”

But not so with, say, seafood and flowers: they don’t have a global cycle, Mr Speizer said. Sheep and

beef prices do, but not to the same extent as dairy.

“Dairy farmers should be happy long-term with the present system. If we had a fixed exchange rate they’d be better off now, but would have been badly hurt when the milk price dropped.”

Rising interest rates

will chiefly affect residential prop-erties, Mr Speizer said. The high dairy payout will have some buffering effect, but the high inter-est rates could affect farm prices.

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12 // WorlD NeWs

THe globalIsaTIoN of the dairy industry is epitomised by Argentinian farmer and industrialist Federico Boglione.

Since taking a moth-balled milk powder plant off Nestle’s hands in 2002, the family enterprise La Sibila has transformed itself into a significant international dairy player.

Mr Boglione travels the

world seeking the latest processing and packag-ing technology and has opened markets for a wide range of specialist powder products in more than 50 countries from Angola to Zambia.

The family had been big players in soybean pro-cessing for generations, and when that business was sold in the late 1990s, Mr Boglione turned his focus to milk processing to complement their expand-

ing dairy farming interests.The Nestle plant at

Nogoya, in the central Argentine dairying heart-land, was processing 500,000 litres of milk a day when it closed in 1998.

It has since been completely rebuilt and is now the most modern factory in Argentina with four processing lines using 1.2 million litres of milk a day. A new $10 million powder packaging extension is about to be

From Argentina to the world gorDoN CollIe

commissioned.Another small Nestle

plant 375km away at Villa Neuva was acquired in 2009, giving the com-pany a total milk intake approaching 1.5 million litres daily.

Mr Boglione said it quickly became apparent that there was no future competing in world com-modity powder markets dominated by big players such as New Zealand.

“We had to build direct marketing relationships with customers and supply them with the finished products they wanted,” he said.

“To guarantee our high quality we have embraced the latest technology from all over the world from Spain, Denmark, France, Australia and New Zea-land.”

The company manufactures a range of specialty milk powders for food, industrial and pharmaceutical end users including products which are vitamin enhanced, and fat filled with vegetable oils.

A move into baby for-mulas has taken qual-ity control standards to a demanding new level.

Milk powder products are packaged in everything

from one tonne bulk bags for industrial cus-tomers down to 5gram sachets of coffee whit-ener.

In a diversi-fication move, La Sibila has struck a licenc-ing agreement with New Zea-

land company Frucor Bev-erages to manufacture the popular V energy drink for the South American market.

Mr Boglione said his family had a long tradition in dairy farming and he suspects Nestle may have underestimated his business acumen and ability to transform disused processing facilities, making La Sibila a formidable competitor.

La Sibila has expanded its dairy herds on two properties the in the cen-tral region. With 5500 cows now producing 180,000 litres of milk a day, the family is the second biggest dairy farmer in Argentina.

The company also draws supply from a net-work of 220 farmers milk-ing around 60,000 cows in the surrounding region up to 350km from the Nogoya factory.

Because much of their business is in direct consumer products, Mr Boglione said the company had a year-round milk intake and encouraged a flat production with no more than 20% variation between seasonal peaks and troughs.

Exports now account for about 60% of La Sibila production with Purisima the flagship brand.

The family also have extensive beef and cropping interests with another two properties near Buenos Aires giving them a total landholding of 40,000ha. They carry almost 20,000 beef cattle and pioneered the growing of canola in Argentina.

Mr Boglione said the company was constantly looking to develop its milk powder-based range as it sought to build exports to 70% of production.

He said the company had learned to be adaptive and to move quickly to take advantage of market opportunities and also to cope with Argentina’s interventionist political regime.

Argentinian farmer Federico Boglione’s La Sibila is now a significant international dairy player.

La Sibila chairman Federico Boglione.

BOOKING DEADLINE: October 30 MATERIAL DEADLINE: November 5PUBLISHED: November 12CONTACT: CHRIS DINGLE T: 0417 735 001 E: [email protected]

EFFLUENT & WATER MANAGEMENTIn the face of tighter environmental controls and rising fertiliser costs, it pays dividends to manage effluent and water flows more tightly. The next issue of Dairy News Australia will cover best practice in this area and will profile new developments and equipment designed to turn a problem into potential profit.

NEXT ISSUE: NOVEMBER 2013

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14 // opINIoN

eDITorIal

MIlKINg IT...

ruMINaTINg

Joyce wins thumbs upNot a lot of support out there for John Cobb, the opposition spokesman for agriculture, who was not granted the portfolio when the Coalition was elected to office�

The position went to Barnaby Joyce but senior members of dairy and other agricultural lobby groups have said they were not impressed with Mr Cobb in opposition�

One was scathing of his performance at a Farmer Power meeting in Warrnambool in March (to be fair, he did seem badly advised and inadequately prepared), while others said he was a less than inspiring face of the agri-cultural movement�

Well, if it’s an animated approach they want, they have that in Mr Joyce� We know many journalists that are thrilled with the ap-pointment�

Disregard those commentsIt seems Mr Joyce forgot to read Prime Minister Abbott’s handbook on conducting about-turns once in power�

The PM’s first interna-tional visits have included grovelling apologies to Indonesia and Malaysia for what was said in Op-position regarding asylum seekers in his bid to get elected�

Less than a week after the election, Mr Joyce called on Australians “to make a big noise” to help him convince the new Ab-bott government to reject a plan by the Indonesian government to buy 1m hectares of Australian farmland to breed beef for the Indonesian market�

However, Mr Joyce had a change of mind early this month, saying he was happy to discuss any proposals that would take pressure off farming families in the north�

“We’ve talked about joint venture arrangements with the Indonesians, which are a good idea,” he said�

Welcome to Govern-ment, Barnaby�

pigs might flyFarmers have long opined about the growing rural/urban gap and concerns about how this has set country against town�

Seems it’s a universal problem, with a survey in the UK by the RSPCA’s Freedom Food scheme, has revealed the startling ignorance of the basics of food and farming – includ-ing which farm animals fly and which ones walk�

Many respondents believed you could obtain pigs wings�

Although 72% of the 1000 people questioned said they visited a real working farm with animals, one in 10 had no idea where their food comes from�

Watching youWhile in the UK, a farm in Essex has started connect-ing its cows to the internet to monitor changes in behaviour that could signal disease�

The team behind the Cow Tracking Project at-tach a GPS device to each cow, and place sensors around their shed to moni-tor their movements and sleeping habits�

That information is then sent to the farmer’s computer�

Disruptions in a cow’s regular pattern – whether sleeping more or moving around less than usual – could signal illness, so daily updates can help the farmer quickly catch these changes�

What’s more, the project can save farmers from hav-ing to put in extra labour and spending money on antibiotics after infections have fully developed�

We are just waiting for an animal rights group to protest, as this probably impinges on the cows’ civil liberties�

Advertising�Chris Dingle 0417.735.001

[email protected]

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

� Publisher� Brian Hight

� Production� �Dave Ferguson Becky Williams

Sub�Editor Pamela Tipa

� Published�by RNG Publishing Ltd

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There are two views on Canadian dairy company Saputo’s bid to buy Warrnambool Cheese and Butter (WCB).

The first, backed by the WCB board, is that the foreign capital will improve processing capability, export markets and create fur-ther demand for local milk.

The second is that Australia is selling its assets to international raiders – again.

The decision on whether Saputo will be allowed to proceed with its takeover will come down, in large part, to the decision of the Foreign Investment Review Board.

National papers were quick to flag the decision as “a test” for the new Abbott Government.

We hope the decision is made on its merits and not rhetoric and political point-scoring. It is too important to be used as a political football and the fodder of pollsters.

Bega Cheese chairman Barry Irvin, with its own bid to buy WCB, used that language when asked to respond to the Saputo news. Irvin said his company’s original offer to WCB shareholders will remain the same in hope of keeping the dairy company in Austra-lian hands.

Irvin said Bega Cheese’s offer, now valued at $350 million dol-lars, still has the potential to consolidate an internationally com-petitive Australian dairy company, despite falling $40 million short of the Canadian bid.

Irvin may well be a champion for Australian made industry, but he’s also an astute businessman and a champion of Bega Cheese.

His financial incentive to WCB shareholders is a clear second to Saputo’s, so he made the tactic to appeal to the “national” interest.

Will our politicians do the same?There must be sensible policy outcomes in the debate on for-

eign investment. The current debate should be focused on finding policy solutions that ensure Australian agriculture can continue to benefit from foreign investment, while also ensuring the concerns of Australian farmers, and the community, are addressed.

Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce railed against Indonesia investment in northern beef farms less than a week after the new Government won the election.

He has since toned down his approach – saying foreign compa-nies can aid beef producers wanting to exit the industry. We have held the same view in Australian dairy, where farmers want to exit the industry but cannot find willing buyers for their farms.

Foreign investment should not be deterred, but it should be monitored. Good deals, that benefit Australia through the injec-tion of capital, should be approved.

It shouldn’t be subjected to scare campaigns and the need for political approval.

Make foreign investment decisions on facts

Dai ry NewS aUSTraLia october 2013

opINIoN // 15

Long-term focus is crucialINDusTry leaDersHIp must start thinking beyond the current paradigm of issues management and short term distractions. The big questions around the future of the Victorian dairy industry aren’t going to be solved by debating $1 per litre retail milk or any form of reregulation.

Our Legendairy campaign by Dairy Australia tells us:

■ Australian dairy is worth $13 billion, a major farm, manufacturing and export industry.

■ Nationally, about 6,700 farms produce a bit over 9 billion litres.

■ We employ 43,000 people on farms and in factories.

■ We support tens of thousands of other small businesses and provide the life blood for many rural communities.

■ With the right policy settings and initiatives, potential for industry profitability and subsequent growth is significant. The dairy industry

in Victoria is alive, prosperous and has a bright future. If we want the community to invest in our industry in preference to some other industries, we need to stop exaggerating the negative stories and start telling the truth about the real long term viability.

Dairy farmers will make profits regardless of seasonal and market variability. Dairy farmers will continue to invest heavily in their future.

Despite challenging times over the last few years, I know farmers who have collectively invested millions of dollars securing their place in the future of the Victorian dairy industry. They are not lucky - they are smart and continually invest in their own

farming skills and business management capability.

They make good strategic and operational decisions most of the time, and can always point to things they could have done better. They look to themselves to fix things or do things better when plans go awry.

The Federal government currently spends $1.6 billion per annum on primary industries R&D.

Our competitors are focused, have favourable trade agreements, have a lower cost of production and provide us with real competition in the global market. They value the R&D&E investment and have research farms which are pushing the biophysical limits of dairy production.

If the Victorian dairy industry is to step up

to the plate and meet the rhetoric of the politicians and our own industry promotion in terms of increased production, there are a number of things which must happen:

1. We need to start focusing

on the real issues of meaning and protect and increase our R&D resources.

2. Politicians must be educated about the realities of what is required if we are to achieve increased food production - they must work with us to increase the R&D spend in the right areas (both pre and post farm gate).

3. We must hold

oPiNioNTyrAN joNES

our export dairy manufacturers to account to increase the value of our manufactured products. Increased farm-gate production will come from one thing and one thing alone: Increased farm profitability.

4. More farmers must get involved and support all our industry structures including:

■ Dairy Australia’s broad range of programs and research activities; from RDP boards to research project steering groups to the

DA Board. ■ United Dairyfarmers

of Victoria; from branches to policy council; feeding people in to ADF and DA groups.

■ Australian Dairy Farmers; from policy advisory groups to

project groups to board level.

■ Gardiner Foundation; from project steering groups to board level.

■ Dairy Company supplier groups and boards. The more people who

get involved and who

understand the industry structure and contribute to important debates, the stronger our voice can be on behalf of the entire industry. • Tyran Jones is vice-president of the UDV and a dairy farmer from Gruyere.

“We need to stop exaggerating the negative stories and start telling the truth about the real long term viability.”

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16 // agrIbusINess

Farmers turnyou CoulD be forgiven for thinking the former Heinz factory in Girgarre lays idle if you were driv-ing past, but inside a quiet revolution is taking place.

Tatura dairy farmer Ian Bertram has expanded a recycling process that began on-farm seven years ago and has grown to such an extent that he has pur-chased the old Heinz fac-

sTepHeN CooKetory. The company takes out-of-specification food products from manufac-turers that previously would have been sent to landfill and the product is used as stock feed. The packaging is recycled, with potentially greater plans afoot.

The seed of the busi-ness was sown in 2006 during the drought that gripped northern Victoria. Mr Bertram was offered some out-of-specification products from a local can-ning company containing apricots and with straw selling for $300 a tonne, the decision to trial the products was not a hard one. A contract between the farm and the canning factory was the next step in the development of this ever-growing business.

Mr Bertram and busi-ness partner Dale Cole, who was managing the farm at the time, used the products in conjunction with a feed-out wagon to feed cattle during the drought.

Initially, all cans were opened by hand and the contents were emptied into a 44 gallon drum, to be mixed with a bale of hay and a bale of straw in a feed out wagon until machinery was devel-oped to reduce the labour component and better feeding techniques devel-oped. Mr Bertram and Ms Cole researched equip-ment that would empty the cans in the most effi-cient manner. This not only enabled them to uti-lise most of the feed, but prepare the packaging for recycling. “We needed to establish a very clean by-product at the end of the process to be able to on-sell the tin plate,” Ms Cole said. “We spent a lot of time working that out.

“In the early days we feed tested it to get a basis of what protein and fibre we had. We don’t feed test now because the mix of products isn’t consistent and we don’t know what we’re going to get.”

The food is still fed to Mr Bertram’s herd of cows, including 300 milk-ers, year-round. “We’ve tried a lot of things over the years so we know what works, we have the ability now to look at cows and know if something’s not quite right and deal with it

then.” Ms Cole said. “We used to put a bit of

lime and bi-carb in to bal-ance it out – depending on what animals we were feeding,”

Mr Bertram said his cows get 5000 litres of product a day. “We feed it as liquid in the trough and they drink it like soup.

“You can’t fatten dairy cows on it, but you can fatten young stock and dry cows.”

Ms Cole said the prod-ucts are complementary and can only be used as a small percentage of their diet.

“Because we feed a liquid and the liquid is high in energy and low in non-digestible fibre you must offer a fibre, if you don’t constantly provide a source of fibre, then it has an adverse affect on the rumen.

“If we give them too much, they gorge them-selves, and they won’t eat their fibre or grain and you can make them sick if you’re not careful.”

Ms Cole said the liquid product is ideal for feed-out wagons to add mois-ture to feed, providing an alternative to molasses, which can be expensive, or water, which has no nutri-tional value.

When Heinz closed its Girgarre site, moving its operation to New Zea-land, Ms Cole and Mr Ber-tram made contact in a bid to purchase the site. They leased a corner of the warehouse to store their food items while negotia-tions took place and finally signed off on it 12 months later, by which time they had filled the factory with out-of-specification prod-ucts. “If the sale didn’t go through there would have been some issues,” Mr Bertram said.

Having a secure site means Resource Resolu-tion receives enquiries

who: Resource Resolution whErE: Girgarre whAT: Unconventional stockfeed

The former heinz factory at Girgarre, near Shepparton, was bought by Resource Resolution, which turns out-of-specification consumer items into stockfeed.

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from food manufactur-ing companies across Australia. Currently they only take food from within Victoria to min-imise transport costs. The products vary from dairy and fruit products through to drinks, bis-cuits and lollies.

“The manufactur-ers are trying to take a responsible approach with what they do with this product,” Mr Ber-tram said.

With the increase in the volumes being received it has allowed the on-selling of prod-uct to local farmers for use on their livestock. With a plan to divert around 100,000t of prod-uct within five years, the potential for other farm-ers to come onboard and utilise the products is creating a growing inter-est.

The company has not received any govern-ment funding in the last

eight years despite sev-eral applications. They plan to continue develop-ing and growing at the rate

cash flow allows. Heinz employed 146 people when it closed the factory and today the company

employs 11 local people to assist in the processing of the products. The poten-tial increase in volume will

see an increase in employ-ment numbers further helping the community and the environment.


agrIbusINess // 17

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18 // agribusiness

nearly four months in, most would agree that the 2013/14 season is shap-ing up as an improve-ment on 2012/13. This year, winter cropping programs in the Northern Hemi-sphere have produced sig-nificantly better yields and lower prices than the same time last year, and although further rainfall remains critical, the out-look for Australia’s grain crops is also promising.

For those in export-ori-ented regions particularly, perhaps the most dramatic improvement has been in farmgate prices. Cur-rent indications suggest an increase of 15-25% on last year, and the longer the current strength in com-modity prices lasts, the greater the potential for further upside.

Although many farmers are still experiencing tight cash flow and are yet to see the full benefits of the higher announced prices,

it is worthwhile consid-ering the implications of current commodity pricing and looking fur-ther ahead to assess what might transpire ahead of the 2014/15 season given the business decisions that farmers will face over the next eight months.

Continued strength in pricing is good for farm-gate prices in the short term; however demand destruction in more price sensitive markets such as the Middle East, Africa and parts of south-east Asia is of concern. Substi-tution strategies including buying lower specifica-tion or different origin (eg Indian) WMP, use of fat-filled or ‘analogue’ vegetable-based prod-ucts, or in some cases the import of raw milk for pro-cessing from tradition-ally high cost sources (eg Saudi Arabia) can some-times lead to a perma-nent change in sourcing

arrangements to the detriment of dairy suppliers even after prices have eased. On a more posi-tive note, price falls can be cushioned to some extent as many of these customers do return to the market.

The cyclical nature of dairy markets is largely driven by supply responses to prevail-ing farmgate prices. As higher commodity returns reach the farmgate, farm-ers in trade-exposed dairy regions across the world are incentivised to increase production – including Australia’s key competitors in New Zealand, Europe and the United States.

The current situation is no different, and if favour-able weather and lower feed costs continue, the increase in supply will eventually bring prices back from their current

levels. This will provide welcome relief to buyers, but likely at a cost to farm-gate prices.

The timing of any decrease remains uncer-tain, but for Australian farmers the effects of rebounding global supply are likely be felt in 2014/15 season pricing, although it is reassuring to remember that some of the more dra-matic price falls in recent years have been the result of more than simply a commodity price correc-tion. For example, while the GFC-induced freeze in trade credit, and the high Australian dollar ampli-fied the financial pain of previous price correc-

tions, the likelihood of another financial crisis would appear to be low (assuming the US Government succeeds in rais-ing its debt ceiling) and the Australian dollar is trading in

a more favourable range. Assuming the absence of such exacerbating factors and given the continuing demand strength charac-terising dairy markets, a less than dramatic price decrease seems likely.

To date, expectations of a broad-based cor-rection have been con-founded despite the rapidly strengthening global supply outlook, as firm demand supports for-ward pricing of some com-modities – particularly WMP – at high levels well into Q1 of 2014.

Most markets are very difficult to sell into at prices over US$5,000/t however the Chinese are

still actively buying, due to a local production short-fall claimed variously to be between 6% and 20% rel-ative to last year. Sources suggest high beef prices are currently encouraging an increased rate of indus-try exits amongst smaller farms, while confirmation of a foot-and-mouth dis-ease (FMD) outbreak this week highlights further challenges in sustaining local production growth. Such challenges are likely to soften the effects of increasing global output.

On the other hand, SMP prices have already been under pressure in recent weeks, largely due to competition from Northern Hemisphere exporters, while in the case of other commodities, pricing is broadly steady as long as supplies remain tight. Buyers are reluctant to commit to deliveries too far into the future

however, fearing that they may be caught with high cost product when the market turns. US butter offerings, many subsidised by the Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) export assistance program, are providing cheaper options for customers who are flexible with their requirements, and remain a downside influence on the market.

On the whole, commodity pricing remains favourable, and with a large proportion of the season’s milk production already sold, 2013/14 will be a good year for farmgate returns. While the long term outlook for dairy is bright, the economics of the current global production response are worth some attention when budgeting for 2014/15.• John Droppert is indus-try analyst with Dairy Aus-tralia.

gLobaL impacTJohN DropperT

Dairy NewS aUSTraLia june, 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

agribusiness // 17

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pactum makes UHT products for private label and proprietary customers.

Freedom Foods planttargets Asia

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

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

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

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

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

The FTA will fill a number of gaps within the

ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand FTA (AANZFTA).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Export demand remains strong

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

gLobaL impacTJohN DropperT

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

Markets react to price lift

www.gallagher.com.au

75 years ago Bill Gallagher Senior installed his first electric fencing system on his dairy farm in New Zealand – today Gallagher still offer the latest in innovation for managing grass and production, to ultimately increase the yield from your herd.

Gallagher systems available from your local

rural resellers.

Paddock Performance Boosters

Dairy farmers are so short on time, the last thing you want to do is muck around trying to find faults — particularly if it’s right on milking time. Of course, you can’t leave a fence not working properly, but neither can you put off milking! With the i Series – cut down fault finding The beauty about the i Series is that it’s a monitored energizer, that will basically tell you where the fault is.

Here’s how to do itSet up your controller somewhere you walk past often — I’ve commonly seen them in milking sheds or at the back door. Then put the monitors out on the fence, spread over the farm — it’s very handy to have one at the furthest point of your property.

If there’s a short, it will light up on the controller, pinpointed by the monitor closest to the short. You can go straight to the fault. No mucking around and when you get there, just turn off the fence with the remote. Hot Tip! Keeping the bulls under controlIf you’re breeding your own heifers, it’s especially important to control when the bull is in with the cows. The last thing you want to see is that he’s found them himself.

Because the fence is monitored, you will know the moment there’s a problem with the bull paddock fencing. And you can fix it immediately. End of problem. Darren can be contacted on 0427 316 252 or phone 1800 425 524 or visit www.gallagher.com.au to find your local territory manager.

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75 years ago Bill Gallagher Senior installed his first electric fencing system on his dairy farm

in New Zealand – today Gallagher still offer the latest in innovation for managing grass and production, to ultimately increase the yield from your herd. Check out the unique products only available from your Gallagher dealer – and boost the performance of your paddocks!


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1938 1982 2012


management // 19

you should already be thinking about what summer crops (if any) you plan to sow this year. As a first step ask yourself why you are considering summer crops. It could be because you need to renovate particular paddock/s or you are trying to fill a summer feed gap.

Summer crops can provide your herd with high quality feed over the summer period and an opportunity to use more home grown feed rather than potentially expensive purchased feed. Although summer crops are generally high in energy and protein, they are low in fibre, so careful consideration needs to be taken to balance the diet.

Consider whether you would like just one grazing from the crop or multiple grazings.

This will determine what type of crops you should be considering. Also if you are concerned about insect damage to brassica crops, crops such as millet or forage sorghum may be an option. Again assessing whether these will fit into your feed plan is extremely important.

Work out when your herd will

require the feed and work back from there to determine when to sow. With many hay sheds bare and silage reserves depleted, it is also important to consider your spring harvest. Most of the time, you won’t be able to have your cake and eat it too. Therefore you need to think carefully about what is most important to your farm.

We can’t control the weather, but if you do everything in your power to produce a good summer crop you are more likely to succeed and fill the summer gaps.

Points to consider include: ■ Soil test early - it is important to

know the fertility of the paddock/s you intend to sow, so a soil test prior to sowing is recommended. This will show any deficiencies that require attention.

■ Spray out paddocks about three weeks before sowing.

■ Following spraying, graze to reduce trash that the crop will be sown into, ensuring you follow the recommendations of the herbicide you used.

■ If sowing a millet/forage sorghum crop, the soil temperature needs to be 16-18°C and rising.

■ Brassica seeds are small, so should only be sown to a depth of about 1.5 cm.

■ Soil to seed contact is extremely important, so make sure you roll your paddocks following sowing to ensure good contact.

■ Monitor crop for insects. Be on the lookout for diamond back moth, red legged earth mite and lucerne flea. Once plants have emerged, check for signs of insects every five to seven days.

■ Consult your agronomist for specific advice for your situation.

Boosting growth with effluent Rainfall over summer can be

unpredictable, resulting in varying summer crop yields. Applying effluent can boost yields. You will also be emptying your effluent pond in preparation for next winter.

The boost in yield is due to both the nutrient content of the effluent as well as the water content. You can expect consistent increases of around 2 tDM/ha for every inch (25 mm) of effluent applied. This is consistent across a range of different summer crops including turnips, chicory, forage rape and millet. It is well worth the extra

work of applying the effluent.

Some important tips when applying effluent:

■ Test before application, as nutrient levels vary from pond to pond and year to year.

■ Using effluent to germinate summer crops is not recommended as it often has high salt levels, which can burn emerging seedlings.

■ Ideally, the effluent application rate should be based on its nitrogen content and the crop requirements.

■ If you have sown a single graze crop (such as turnips) then apply the entire effluent application in one go. If you planted a regrowth crop then split the application.

■ For turnips, effluent application is recommended about 6-8 weeks after sowing when the plants are in their rapid growth phase.

■ For regrowth crops, apply half the effluent about 3-4 weeks before the first grazing and the remaining immediately following this grazing.

■ Effluent contains nitrogen, so care should be taken to avoid nitrate

poisoning. Crops shouldn’t be grazed for at least three weeks following effluent application. This will also reduce the risk from any pathogens that could be in the effluent.

■ Young cattle (under 12 months of age) shouldn’t have access to effluent treated areas.

■ If using a travelling irrigator wait until turnips are established to ensure there is limited bulb damage.

■ Adjust your fertiliser program as appropriate to compensate for nutrients in the effluent applied.Summer crops can be extremely

useful for filling summer feed gaps and at the start of paddock renovations. Applying effluent to your summer crops will help ensure good crop yields. It has been a tough year and strategic use of effluent to grow extra feed will go a long way to offset the cost of the contractors or irrigation equipment required to apply the effluent.• Rachael Campbell is a dairy extension officer with the Department of Environment and Primary Industries, based in Ballarat, Victoria. This article was first published in the October edition of How Now Gippy Cow.

Preparing for summer cropsrachael campbell


75 years ago Bill Gallagher Senior installed his first electric fencing system on his dairy farm in New Zealand – today Gallagher still offer the latest in innovation for managing grass and production, to ultimately increase the yield from your herd.

Gallagher systems available from your local

rural resellers.

Paddock Performance Boosters

Dairy farmers are so short on time, the last thing you want to do is muck around trying to find faults — particularly if it’s right on milking time. Of course, you can’t leave a fence not working properly, but neither can you put off milking! With the i Series – cut down fault finding The beauty about the i Series is that it’s a monitored energizer, that will basically tell you where the fault is.

Here’s how to do itSet up your controller somewhere you walk past often — I’ve commonly seen them in milking sheds or at the back door. Then put the monitors out on the fence, spread over the farm — it’s very handy to have one at the furthest point of your property.

If there’s a short, it will light up on the controller, pinpointed by the monitor closest to the short. You can go straight to the fault. No mucking around and when you get there, just turn off the fence with the remote. Hot Tip! Keeping the bulls under controlIf you’re breeding your own heifers, it’s especially important to control when the bull is in with the cows. The last thing you want to see is that he’s found them himself.

Because the fence is monitored, you will know the moment there’s a problem with the bull paddock fencing. And you can fix it immediately. End of problem. Darren can be contacted on 0427 316 252 or phone 1800 425 524 or visit www.gallagher.com.au to find your local territory manager.

G30610

M2800i Fence EnergizerPowers Up to 80km of multi wire fencing

Powers up to 65km of multi wire fencing

G51100 Live Fence Indicator Fence Performance in a FlashFor instant reassurance that enough power is on your electric fence, install the new Live Fence Indicator. This permanently attached unit requires no batteries, flashes with fence pulses to show you at a glance from a distance any time of the day or night that your fence is working properly.

NEW PRODUCT

Don’t have time to waste? Get the i Series!Darren Pallant, Territory Manager for Gippsland & Mornington Peninsula talks about his experience with the i Series.

75 years ago Bill Gallagher Senior installed his first electric fencing system on his dairy farm

in New Zealand – today Gallagher still offer the latest in innovation for managing grass and production, to ultimately increase the yield from your herd. Check out the unique products only available from your Gallagher dealer – and boost the performance of your paddocks!


YOU CAN CHECK 12KM OF FENCE IN THE TIME IT TAKES TO READ THIS SENTENCE.

G30410

M1800i Fence Energizer

$29.90RRP

G30610 M2800i Supplied with energizer, Fence Controller, 1 x Fence Monitor and Remote Control. G30410 M1800i Supplied with energizer and Fence Controller only.

M2800i

$1336.95RRPBONUS FENCE MONITOR WITH M2800i OR M1800i ENERGIZER

M1800i $2058.00RRP

Features: The Gallagher i Series Fence Energizer systems allows for quickand easy monitoring of fence performance, informing of any problems immediately. Robust, adaptive energizers are supported

with a separate Fence Controller that can be placed into a convenient location for regular viewing. Build the system with optional Fence Monitors that allow for the fence to be zoned up to 6 ways, ensuring easy fault finding.

Relentless Innovators for Dairy Farmers since 1938... and will be

until the cows come home.

Dairy Catalogue OUT NOWDownload from


1938 1982 2012

tasmanian dairy farmer Grant Rogers admits having a crack at milking three times in two days through peak lacta-tion was one of his crazier ideas.

While it threw up plenty of challenges, he is still sold on the overall benefits of reduced milk-ings for much of the year.

The 3 in 2 system will be re-introduced again in December – once the herd has passed its production peak.

The innovative former New Zealander and his wife Melanie moved to the Derwent Valley 10 years ago after identifying the environment as similar to their native Canterbury.

“We have been using 3 in 2 milking to varying degrees for the last six seasons, modifying our approach as we have learnt since starting in late Janu-ary 2007.

“We were very mind-ful of losing production as the cost of doing so under Australian payment sys-tems would have made the whole system worthless.”

The couple have a crossbred herd which Mr Rogers said was more suited to 3 in 2 milking.

“High producing Frie-sians on a high input system would probably struggle under this system in my opinion,” he said.

“The main reason we adopted the system was lifestyle. At the time we were milking through an ancient 20 aside shed and milking was hard work and in summer the heat could be unbearable.”

With only one employee, the benefits were significant when it came to rostering for one less milking.

Other benefits included reduced stress on

the cattle with less walk-ing to milking. The con-dition of the cattle and their reproductive perfor-mance also improved.

There were a number of financial benefits as well with less milkings and hidden savings in cow wastage and laneway maintenance.

In 2010 they made the decision to build a new dairy and replace remain-ing flood irrigation with another centre pivot.

“This allowed us to increase our cow numbers by 45 and reduce both milking time and stress in a modern 25 aside shed, still using a one milker system,” Mr Rogers said.

“The 2011 -12 season was our best year. We milked 325 cows on 91ha, calving in mid August and drying off in late June. We managed to produce 1538kg MS per ha and 430kg MS per cow using our 3 in 2 milking system.”

At the end of 2011 the opportunity came up to purchase an adjoin-ing property and they set about what was essentially a full conversion in prep-aration for calving in the spring of 2012.

“We gained a large amount of extra land and will eventually have over 200ha fully irrigated plus some dryland,” Mr Rogers said.

Fortunately they had allowed for expansion in their new dairy which was extended to 32 units. They installed automatic cup removers on the last 12 units to maintain the single milker system.

In what turned out to be one of his “madder ideas” they decided to alternate two milkings of two herds in a 3 in 2

Twice a day at peak 24 litres

Time Interval Litres Litres per hour

6am 15 hours 15 1

3pm 9 hours 9 1

3 in 2 dropped back to 22 litres

Time Interval Litres Litres per hour

5am 17 hours 15.6 0.91

7pm 14 hours 12.8 0.91

12 noon 17 hours 15.6 0.91


20 // management

The challenges of 3 in 2 milking gordon collie

who: Grant and Melanie Rogers where: Ouse whaT: 3 in 2 milking

Milking times and the theory behind 3 in 2

Grant and Melanie Rogers with their children on their Tasmanian dairy farm.

The Rogers invested in a new dairy.

Much Smaller, Shorter and Less Expensive Than You Think!

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management // 21

The challenges of 3 in 2 milking

system year-round, total-ling three milkings a day at 5am, 12.30pm and 8pm.

“I thought if we got our milking intervals down to 16.5 hour gaps and one 15 hour gap it wasn’t asking too much more of the udder than a traditional 15 hour gap on twice daily milking.

“In short, it was a disas-ter. Production dropped, mastitis broke out and the cows got very fat.

“The practicalities of it were that the shed was always going, I was always working as we now had two employees and they needed time off.

“We were still trying to get development done and little else was being achieved. Management went out the window as there was no time.”

The herds were split between older, bigger cows and younger, smaller cows.

“The older herd only dropped from 1.85 to 1.8kg/MS. The younger herd that was being run on the new

farm fell to bits. The main reason for this, in our opinion, was that manage-ment of the new farm was a disaster.

“We decided at Christ-mas it had to change or we would end up in real trou-ble so at the beginning of January we dried off 50 cows and dropped to one herd of 448. Things picked up quickly as we increased production from less cows and had more time for property management.”

The experience has prompted Grant and Mel-anie to again introduce a 3 in 2 system this season from early December with a single herd of 450 cows.

By that stage, produc-tion will have come back from its peak around 1.9kg/MS a day to about 1.7kg/MS.

“We will know what to expect this year and we have the new property next door under better management now,” Mr Rogers said.

“I think year round 3 in 2 milking could work

under different circum-stances. If we had the abil-ity to milk say 800 cows in two herds, we could more than justify the extra labour required to make it work and still allow enough time for good management.

“Our advice to anyone contemplating 3 in 2 milk-ing would be to give it a go. After all it is an incredibly efficient use of capital,” Mr Rogers said.

“The 2011 -12 season was our best year. We milked 325 cows on 91ha, calving in mid August and drying off in late June. We managed to produce 1538kg MS per ha and 430kg MS per cow using our 3 in 2 milking system.”

The Rogers say their crossbred herd is more suited to 3 in 2 milking.

The Rogers have been using 3 in 2 milking to varying degrees for the last six seasons on their Tasmanian farm.

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22 // animal health

Written protocols save time and potential headaches

aNimaL heaLThrob boNaNNo

spring time is always a busy time on a dairy farm. In northern Vic-toria we are now start-ing to irrigate, cutting and making silage, still calv-ing in the last of the spring calvers and thinking seri-ously about the upcoming joining by starting presyn-chrony programs, not to mention planning summer forage options.

With so many things competing for your time it is hard to stay on top of the critical animal health issues that need attention on a day to day and month to month basis.

I have written before about the importance of protocols when manag-ing the health and welfare of our herds. Basically, a

protocol is a recipe book, a playbook we follow and know that, as we tick all the boxes, we are covering all the important aspects of that part of the produc-tion system.

My mum was always a big list writer, writing down what she hoped to do that day and scratch-ing jobs off as they were done. The things not done today were transferred to tomorrow. She never once forgot me and left me at school to do the 4.15pm walk of shame my children have done many times as I have become absorbed in my own busy day until that phone call from the school.

To address this prob-lem, I have put in place

a two-alarm protocol. The first warns me of the upcoming school pickup time, allowing me to make alternative plans with my very patient nursing staff to ensure a timely pick up if I am in the middle of something that I can’t stop. A second failsafe alarm tells me I must absolutely leave by now in order to avoid the scorn-

ful looks from the princi-pal or the dreaded phone call from the school recep-tionist.

This is an example of a protocol to ensure a better outcome where I had failed previously.

Most of us have what I call “head protocols” - the ones that we carry around in our head. They are the little failsafe rules and checklists we have made over our lives as we have learned from our own pre-vious mistakes. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard a dairy farmer lament how they went away for a weekend and the relief milker stuffed this up or allowed this cow to get sick beyond repair or whatever. And how they can’t get good staff and that their kids just don’t do things right.

You can’t put an old head on young shoul-ders but writing protocols for pretty much every-thing will ensure the less experienced employees and family members can benefit from your years of experience. By work-ing with your dairy veter-inarian wherever animal health or welfare is con-cerned, the protocols will also reflect the specific knowledge that a veteri-narian can provide.

Less experienced staff and family members tend to overlook problems that the more experienced can clearly see because they do

not have the benefit of our learning. It is actually the failure of the experienced person for not provid-ing adequate supervision, written instructions or checklists to ensure the best outcome.

A good protocol can also address the errors that can become very costly as new employ-ees and young family farm helpers progress from the stage of unconscious incompetence (where they actually know they don’t possess the skills required and actively seek help) to a stage of conscious incom-petence (where they are conscious of the skills required, think they have them but actually don’t, and don’t ask for help). This stage, where employ-ees have a bit of knowl-edge and thus feel able to tackle bigger projects, is where having good pro-tocols and checklists can

really allow them to per-form at a level above their actual experience. They are benefiting from the combined experience of those who have writ-ten the protocols. Leav-ing a worker at this stage of their development in charge without the bene-fit of supervision or proto-cols causes the lamentable outcomes.

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all protocol. Every farm is subtly dif-ferent in its aims, physical resources and person-nel. A good protocol has to take into account the limiting factors while aiming for a consistently good outcome. It may be as simple as a protocol where a newborn calf gets one paint mark on its fore-head after its first colos-trum feed, then another crossing at the second, so that everyone can clearly

see which calves have (and have not) received their two feeds within 24hrs. Or it may be as complex as a fresh cow protocol that includes examination and monitoring of the many components known to influence the success or failure of transition.

A written protocol allows all workers, no matter how experienced, to benefit from the exper-tise of the farm owner and his or her advisors.

This spring, don’t forget to include your dairy veterinarian in your team when thinking about any issues involv-ing animal health, welfare, reproduction and pro-duction as they are your unbiased source of profes-sional advice.• Rob Bonanno is a former president of the Australian Cattle Veterinarians Asso-ciation and a director the Shepparton Vet Clinic.

Protocols can be as simple as a newborn calf getting one paint mark on its forehead after the first colostrum feed, then another crossing at the second.

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management // 23

research from New Zealand’s Lincoln University has found a wide variation in the number of viable and living micro-organisms in probiotic products used on dairy farms.

Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences scien-tists assessed the numbers and viability of micro-organisms found in four locally-sourced probiotic feed supplements.

In the dairy industry it is believed that the addi-tion of microbial prep-arations to a cow’s diet will help in maintaining healthy microbial popula-tions in their gastrointesti-nal (GI) tracts.

Dr Malik Hussain, proj-ect team leader and micro-biologist, says their results reveal there is a wide vari-ation in the numbers of viable/living micro-organ-isms able to be recovered

from the four probiotic products they tested.

“Probiotics products should contain live micro-organisms (bacteria and yeasts) when they enter the animal’s digestive system.” said Hussain.

“The variation in num-bers of viable cells in the products we tested is con-cerning for dairy farmers who rely on probiotics to improve the gut health of their cows.

“Also, compounding the issue is that unlike a drug, a probiotic’s effec-tiveness is largely deter-mined by the farming system they are used in since if an animal is not depleted of native probi-otic microbes or under disease pressure, a probi-otic may not work.

“Our results suggest that the probiotic prod-ucts we tested are highly variable so farmers using a

Big variation in probioticsprobiotic must select and monitor how well it per-forms in their particular farming systems.”

Dr Grant Bennett the microbiologist on the team says most common products marketed for ruminants (including dairy cows) contained the common live yeast (Sac-

charomyces cerevisiae).“Live yeasts can

improve performance by increasing the dry matter intake and thereby the milk production in dairy ruminants. The benefi-cial impact is attributed to greater total live bac-terial populations in the rumen, stimulated growth

and fibre-degrading activi-ties of cellulolytic micro-organisms leading to better fibre digestibility, stability of rumen pH and a decreased risk of acido-sis,” he says.

Dr Craig Bunt, team member and formulation scientist, says as a result of this work, farmers will

need to make decisions about what product best meets the needs of their production system.

Despite the opportuni-ties that probiotics indus-try presents to agriculture they are not straightfor-ward to use since it can be difficult to deliver a regular high dose of live

microbes to animals eco-nomically and practically within a farming system. In undertaking this research the team used a combination of culturing techniques and detection methods to determine the live and dead cells pres-ence in these commercial products.

silage and hay is too valuable a resource to waste, particularly now with stocks so low.

The Waste-Not Feeding system is designed to reduce waste and increase feed conversion efficiency.

Its inventor, Terry Allen, won the Inventors Award at the Royal Melbourne Show in 1988. It is still produced in Maryborough, Victoria.

The arches of the feeder act as a voluntary head bale and ensures that each cow has unmolested access to what-ever you choose to feed. The skirt ensures that hay and valuable leaf stays in the feeder.

“Contrast this to most other feeders where the cow is allowed, or even forced, to eat outside the feeder,” Mr Allen said. “You can see the wasted feed that falls on the ground, but not the leaf that blows away.

“It turns out the bossy cows are always defending their territory when they eat outside the feeder. It is this animal behaviour that the Waste-Not Feeder helps to prevent, and we believe it leads to the increases in growth rates and pro-duction which we find in trials and on farms.

“We lift the tail out of the mob, as tailenders and shy cows now have a fair go at the feeder.”

Mr Allen said this also assists each animal to get the fibre needed to better balance the ration, when it consists of lush pastures and/or grain-based rations.

“We have found increases in growth rate of up to 27% in trials conducted with Dookie Ag College, better produc-tion and better feed conversion ratios in trials.

“This has enabled our customers to finish and sell their cattle sooner and turn them off at a profit.

“So you can see a feeder is not just a tub with uprights; it is a carefully-sized system to more accurately allocate feed to a herd of cattle.”

Mr Allen said on a recent trip to Dorrigo, NSW, he met a dairy farmer who had installed a Waste-Not Fair Go Dairy Feed Pad in May 2013, set up on gravel. It had already saved 30% of his silage, totalling 90 rolls.

“This meant the Feed Pad had already recovered its cost, just in silage saved. Add in labour savings, reduced pasture damage and increases in production, especially in the butterfat test, and his investment turned out to be a highly profitable one.”Tel. Waste-Not on 1800 808 685.

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24 // animal health

New tool for ’appy farmersWestern Victo-rian farmer and veteri-narian Zoe Vogels was part of the team that created a new smart phone app designed to tackle mastitis.

The Countdown Mas-titis Toolkit app has been designed in consultation

with dairy farmers, advi-sors and vets and is based on the Countdown 2020 mastitis control program and associated resources.

The app is divided into four sections offering a range of the latest informa-tion and resources farmers

need to manage mastitis in their herds including:

■ Tools ■ Topics specific to

common to mastitis control scenarios

■ Countdown Farm Guidelines

■ A library featuring

related articles, tips and trapsAlongside her husband,

brother-in-law and two farm staff, Dr Vogels runs a 600-cow dairy farm at Scotts Creek. She said the app was easy to use and an invaluable resource, par-

ticularly for newcomers. “It’s pretty much every-

thing you need to know from calving to drying off,” Dr Vogels said.

“The app doesn’t need reception once you have downloaded it which is very useful for people like me who have patchy-to-no mobile reception.

“I’m looking forward to seeing it used by many different types of people.

“I see it being invaluable for anybody new to the dairy industry and also for milkers in the dairy, advisors, milk

factory field officers, vet students and vets.”

The app was road tested by dairy advisors at a series of Countdown 2020 meet-ings in 2012 and fine-tuned at further trials by farmers

and advisors this year. Dr John Penry has been

a member of the Dairy Australia-led team that helped create the app. He said farmers would find it useful to access the infor-mation anywhere at any

time, from the dairy to the paddock.

“Whether you want to know a liner change date, the health of cows’ teats or information on teat dis-infectant, this app is com-

prehensive, up-to-date and easy to use,” Dr Penry said.

The Count-down Mastitis Toolkit is avail-

able for both iPhone and Android phones and can also be used on tablets.

To download the app visit www.dairyaustralia.com.au/countdown-app for a direct link or visit the Google Play for Android

or iTunes Apps store for Apple.

Western Victorian vet and dairy farmer, Zoe Vogels, with the new mastitis app.

“The app doesn’t need reception once you have downloaded it.”

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26 // animal health

a Veterinary researcher has examined the effect of phantom cows on a herd’s repro-ductive performance.

A ‘phantom’ cow is one not detected in oes-trus (heat) by 25 days after insemination, but then determined to not be preg-nant at pregnancy testing.

NZ-based vet, Dr Scott McDougall, said farmers are left with this concern:

“What is it about these cows that cause them to be this way, and how can we better avoid them?”

Typically a vet may find at pregnancy testing time 5-15% more empty cows than the farmer may have expected as a result of the phantom cows not being discovered earlier.

Dr McDougall described a complex mix of physiological, patholog-

ical and managerial fac-tors that make detecting and reducing phantom cow incidence a challeng-ing one.

“Short returns”, that is cows that ovulate (and show heat) 10-14 days after a first mating, occur in perhaps 75% of cows bred at the first ovulation after calving.

Such cows have a very low chance of getting

pregnant. However, a farmer has no way of knowing whether or not the heat he observes is a cow having a first ovulation and heat after calving.

Add in risks of embry-onic mortality and poor heat detection, and it was understandable farm-ers were getting higher than expected incidences of phantom cows, Dr

McDougall said.“UK research shows us

that about a third of cows didn’t follow the textbook when it came to having normal ovulation cycles.”

He said using tech-niques like fixed time AI introduced an even higher risk of phantom cows occurring: about 43% of treated non-cyclers that did not conceive to the first breeding did not

Phantom cows haunt herd reproductive performance

return to heat at 18-24 days after mating in one New Zealand study.

“But for farmers using that technique, in their eyes those cows have been bred, and haven’t returned to heat and are assumed to be in-calf, but in real-ity they have not conceived.”

Dr McDou-gall’s advice to vets and farmers was to look hard at a herd’s non-return rate at week five of mating. If the non-return rate was more than 70% - particularly where that group included cows treated for non-cycling – “alarm bells should be ringing.”

“Realistically the first service conception after a non-cycler treatment rate is about 40% and only about 50% in cycling cows, so if you get 70% not returning in week five, it can’t be correct, there must be cows in trouble there.”

Minimising the risk of phantom cows occur-ring involved the familiar messages of feeding prior to calving, having cor-rect body condition score

(BCS) at calving, and ade-quate feed levels post calv-ing.

The use of re-syn-chrony programmes with-out pregnancy testing was an option, but Mr McDou-

gall cau-tioned that using pro-gesterone alone had a negative effect on first preg-nancies.

Confirm-ing preg-nancies using early pregnancy detection before initi-ating treat-ment was an option. But as these

treatments may affect existing pregnancies, accu-rate early pregnancy test-ing is critical.

A trial in New Zealand’s South Island with 1800 cows found re-synchronis-ing had the best effect in low body condition score phantom cows, whether or not they had been treated as non-cyclers earlier in the breeding season.

When resynchronised the thinner phantom cows experienced a significant increase in their 10-week in calf rate, which lifted from 25% on average without treatment, to 60% following re-synchronising.

“Typically a vet may find at pregnancy testing time 5-15% more empty cows than the farmer may have expected as a result of the phantom cows not being discovered earlier.”

Scott McDougall

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an experience with a hay feeder that couldn’t handle the job led Jamie Forster to finding the ideal answer to his large square bale feeding out issues.

Mr Forster, with his wife Debbie and their four children, currently milks 350 cows at Cohuna, in northern Victoria. Mr Forster grew up on his parents’ dairy across the road, and left school at 16 to help with the milking. Judy and Kevin are semi-retired and Jamie’s brother Steven now runs that dairy. Mr Forster took over an old dairy on this property and has been there for 15 years.

“I worked on four farms when I was young, including a sheep farm down the road. Working in the Kraft factory at Leitchville for a year convinced me that I wasn’t an indoor person.”

Their property covers 120 hectares (300 acres) with three run-off blocks to run the dry cows and heifers.

The sheds on the place can hold 300 large square bales, so Mr Forster makes round bales and some squares and buys in large squares. He made about 400 round bales last year and 600 the year before. A contractor comes in to do the large square baling – just enough to fill the sheds and Mr Forster does the rest

of the hay and silage.“We had another

brand hay feeder when the drought really hit,” Mr Forster said. “We were buying in cereal hay, which meant 400 bales of 700kg vetch. The hay feeder kept bending with the weight – we ended up having to leave it in the paddock.”

Mr Forster’s father, Kevin, had a second-hand Boomerang bale feeder that he had never used, so he borrowed it and put out the large square bales with no worries. So he bought that one from Kevin.

“We got four years out of it and it

was getting tired. It had put out thou-sands of bales.”

So 18 months ago it was time to invest in a new one. Mr Forster looked around at other brands and then con-tacted Albert Freeman from Eastern Spreaders at Kerang who are the local

dealers for Boomerang.“Albert gave me a good deal on the

other two bale feeders on a new Mark 5 model,” he said. “It was a no-brainer, he was easy to deal with and I was pretty impressed.”

The Boomerang MK 5 bale feeder is designed and manufactured at Colac West in the western district of Victo-ria. It is a self-loading machine that can carry hay or silage. With a two-bale capacity, the Boomerang MK 5 can carry round or big square bales. The flotation tyres come with three-tonne axles and hubs. The floor in the bale chamber prevents leaf loss when feeding is out. The unit is capable of feeding out either side and has the abil-ity to vary the speed, depending on the supply of oil.

The Boomerang is operated by either a Deutz AgriTron 110 or a John Deere 6534 and Mr Forster said that it is easy to operate. “It’s strong, well-built, nothing bends on it. I’ve done heaps of bales. The best thing about it is that you can feed out from both sides with both the rounds and squares and put them under a fence.”

He said that he had good silage last year, and is buying in all the grain he needs. He makes his own pit silage

mainly shaftal, ryegrass and clover. “I bought some silage last year but haven’t needed to open it so far; we will do so in six weeks’ time.”

The dry cows are fed round bales in winter and large squares over summer, plus silage during the day and hay at night. “The Boomerang is good for 4 x 4 silage bales,” Mr Forster said.

They also run a Kubota tractor for silage carting and fertiliser work and recently purchased a Lely disc mower. They also have a Krone disc mower and rake.

In the last six months Mr Forster has got rid of the channels on the place and replaced them with 4.2km of fully-automated, computer-operated 355mm pipelines.

“We can save water by using it more efficiently, grow more grass and it’s a lot easier to manage putting water on at the right time – from wherever I am.

“It gives you more time to do other things. Even when you’re on holidays, you can check the system and arrange watering.

“I’m enjoying dairying now – it looks a lot more positive lately. The dams are full, milk price is good and so the future is looking a lot better than it was.”

28 // tractors & machinery

Boomerang keeps hitting the mark

workiNg cLoTheschris DiNgLe

who: Jamie and Debbie Forster where: Cohuna, Victoria whaT: Boomerang MK5 balefeeder

Jamie Forster with his Boomerang MK 5 bale feeder.

The Boomerang MK 5 bale feeder can carry round or big square bales.

Jamie Forster feeding out hay.

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Long hours no trouble for Schuitemaker loader wagonsag machinery Aus-tralia is the new distribu-tor for the Schuitemaker range of forage harvest-ers, manure spreaders and feed wagons.

Ag Machinery Australia was launched as an agency to import Schuitemaker agricultural machinery late last year by northern Victorian dairy farmers Richard and Mariette Van Dooren.

The Van Doorens run 750 dairy cows on 400ha at Strathmerton in north-ern Victoria.

In 2009, they became the first dairy farmers in Australia to use DeLaval’s voluntary milking system - and have the only robotic system with the cows

based indoors.They are now running

both their dairy farm and their machinery distribu-tion business, as well as contracting for local farm-ers.

Mr Van Dooren has used Schuitemaker equip-ment for years and had two of the multi-purpose Rapide loader wagons at work early this month.

“We are running the wagons at the moment 15 hours a day, five days a week,” Mr Van Dooren said.

“We’re using them to cart silage at the moment for the most part, the rest of the year they are used for feeding cows.”

The Rapide series has

large ground clearance and perfect weight distri-bution. The robust, com-pact construction together with a galvanized and coated body makes the box strong, solid and long lasting.

The star-shaped rotor is 2m wide for all models. The rotor tines are bent and have a width of 20mm. This ensures that even under the most difficult circumstances all types of grass are perfectly cut and loaded.

The Rapide is known for its high compression of the load, the highest of all dual-purpose wagons and pick-up wagons. This high compression is achieved because the

grass is stowed along the slanted RapidStream guid-ing plate.

A 175hp tractor is required to pull the wagons and Mr Van Dooren said it takes 20 litres of fuel per hour on average to operate.

The Van Doorens have a focus on customer ser-vice, ensuring that any replacement parts will be distributed overnight.

“If the machine breaks down, service and parts are now available and for

90% of our customers this is the most important thing.”

Ag Machinery Aus-tralia distributes the entire range of Schuite-maker machinery, includ-ing Calypso and SMS wide spreaders, which are suit-able for spreading stall manure and compost.

They are fitted with vertical distribution beat-ers and can be delivered in 8, 10 and 18 ton vari-ants and in single axle or tandem axle models with a

steel loading floor and gal-vanized side walls as stan-dard.

The manure slide, which is placed in front of the beaters, can also serve as a measuring slide for fine material.

Due to the clever con-struction of the beaters, the Calypso can produce a wide spread and still distribute a fine uniform layer.

For dealers visit www.agmachineryaustralia.com.au

Richard Van Dooren of Ag Machinery with the Schuitemaker loader wagons at work.

1300 630 279www.towandfarm.com

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With the ability to mix and apply nearly every type of fine particle fertilisers, liquid fertilisers, bio fertilisers, humates, animal health products and weed control products- the Tow and Fert is the tool that can save your urea application up to half, with the same plant response.

Don’t be fooled by the size and capability of the Tow and Fert, as it can easily mix 400kg of Urea in just 650 litres of water in 15 mins. With a 20 metre spread, the Tow and Fert can cover 1 ha. in 4 minutes at 12 kmhr.

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tractors & machinery // 31

Small, medium tractors work harder with more comfortneW small and medium-frame tractors from the John Deere 6R series tractor range are now available in Aus-tralia and New Zealand.

Including these, nine models are now available sized 78-154kW (105-210hp). All 6R models offer new levels of power, performance and operator comfort, including improved suspen-sion and cab visibility, more powerful hydraulics and increased lift capaci-ties.

The small frame 6105R, 6115R and 6125R models are equipped with a Stage IIIB 4.5L 4-cylinder John Deere PowerTech Plus engine rated from 78-154kW. The maker’s fuel efficient diesel-only PowerTech engines meet

the latest emission standards. The medium frame 6130R model is pow-ered by a 96kW 4-cylinder engine mounted on a 6-cylinder frame; the other two medium-frame models, the 6140R and 6150R, are powered by Stage IIIB 6.8L 6-cylinder John Deere PowerTech Plus engine rated at 103kW and 110kW, respectively.

These new tractors also have a longer wheelbase to provide improved stability for loader applications. In addition, a higher permissible weight and payload allow bigger and heavier implements to be carried.

An integrated front hitch with a lift capacity of 4000kg and a new front PTO are also available ex-factory for

the first time on 6R series tractors. The front hitch is compatible with

the new John Deere H Series front loaders, designed for maximum vis-ibility and to match the new tyre sizes and tractor chassis dimensions.

Transmission options include the newly designed 24-speed DirectDrive, which combines the handling comfort of a steplessly variable shift transmis-sion (IVT) with the power efficiency of a mechanical unit, but saving fuel – up to 10g/kWh compared to an IVT.

The new 6R ComfortView cab has 20% more space and a similar increase in visibility.

It offers a new level of operator comfort, with features such

as the full-colour GreenStar 3 CommandCenter display with optional touch screen and video capability, integrated climate and radio controls, Bluetooth connectivity with SIM card access and an optional panorama roof. The display is compatible with ISOBUS

and tractor-implement automation (TIA) applications.

Further options include the new adaptive hydropneumatic cab sus-pension (HCS), plus Triple Link Sus-pension (TLS) for the front axle, to provide optimum traction and opera-tor comfort.

farmtech machinery has launched a new silage forage harvester for Australian farmers.

The JF C240, from Brazilian com-pany JF, has a two row corn front and a 2m 5-disc mower for grass silage.

FarmTech managing director, Geoff Modra, regularly visits international agricultural machinery shows, looking for machines to offer Australian farm-ers. Mr Modra visited the JF stand at Agritechnical 18 months ago and was impressed with this semi-mounted for-ager.

Its ability to handle smaller areas efficiently was a big attraction.

“With hourly capacity of up to 50 tonnes it can get the job done at a lower cost per tonne/hectare,” he said.

“The patterned C- section chop-per knives have the ability to stay sharp longer and cut efficiently.”

The sharpening system is built into the machine for easy maintenance. The chop length is easily controlled for the 2m disc mower to 36mm to give the farmer the silage he requires.

The C240 is unlike older foragers, it has no belts or chain drives, and is driven by gear system for reliability.

The 2.0 grass front is quickly changed from a two row corn front giving a truly

multi-purpose forager for farmers and contractors alike.

Mr Modra also visited the JF factory in Brazil, about 200km from Sao Paulo.

He said the factory was state of the art, from the R&D to production sys-tems.

The C240 forager is complimented with a silage bagger. The silage bagging machine compresses the silage, expel-ling the air (the enemy to silage) and giving clean easy to handle silage to spread out.

The bags are similar to the growing popular grain storage bags for on farm storage. The silage bagging system orig-

inated in Argentina and is now used in many countries. Mr Modra said silage in plastic bags give a much higher usable quality.

“Bags are recyclable and it is a ‘pay as you go’ system which is very cost effec-tive in animal feed performance.”Tel. FarmTech on (02) 6024 6800.

Foraging for a better way

John Deere’s new 6R series offer new levels of power.

Phil Hartley with the JF C240 silage forage harvester.

With a height adjustment from 25 to 110mm, the UFO 2400HL also has the convenience of a hydraulic lift operation for speedy work. 2.4m cut.

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The BIG BROTHER to the rest of the UFO mower range. The 3400 Trailed mower, with its 4 heavy duty construction rotors, makes light work under most agricultural conditions. With a 3.4m cut, this mighty mower is packed full of useful features.

Usually: $20,950 + GST NOW: $18,250 + GST

UFO 3400What you see here is the best valued disc mower range on the market today. And that’s according to our RD Disc mower owners. A world renowned cutter bar and a rock solid headstock makes this one-hell-of-a New Zealand made-mower!

RD 2800 (2.8m cut): Usually: $13,995 + GST NOW: $11,895 + GSTRD 3200 (3.2m cut): Usually: $14,995 + GST NOW: $12,749 + GST

RD Disc Mowers

Contact your local Reese Agri Aitchison dealer for details, or free phone 1800 140 196Brendan Prentice 0400 540 300www.reeseagri.com.au



New Krone balers deliver morethe neW Krone Big Pack HighSpeed range of large square balers deliv-ers 20% more throughput, the company says.

The increase that has been made feasible by three major modifica-tions: the addition of a power driven feed roller to the cam less pick up, an increase in throughput capacity of the Variable Fill System (VFS) packer system and an increase in plunger strokes.

The Active Pick which has been chosen as stan-

dard equipment for all Australian Big Pack balers is arranged closer to the packer and rotor cutter to provide a swifter crop transfer.

The new design that features a chain driven feed roller behind the usual crop roller will lead to enormous boost in throughputs, in particu-lar in difficult conditions like extremely dry material or brittle short straw for example.

The Big Pack VFS pre chamber packer system

now has five tine bars versus six tine bars on previous models and an increase in volume of 18% to feed more crops through the machine faster.

The system oper-ates in five stages to feed the material into the pre-chamber where it is compressed before it is allowed to enter the baling chamber.

When the pre-cham-ber is filled with material the new cam-controlled sensing rake is pushed

out of the VFS chamber, a system that ensures that the machine produces uni-form, dense bales, even when dealing with small and narrow swaths.

Due to the higher speed of the packer and to improve durability in this area some modifications have been done to the size of bearings and the cam tracks of the VFS.

The third major modi-fication is to the number of plunger strokes. On the Big Pack 1270, 1290 and 1290 HDP, plunger strokes have been increased by 18% from 38 to 45 strokes per minute.

This also contributes to the 20% more throughput of these balers.

Further upgrades involve a larger diame-ter knotter shaft, which increased in size by 15mm to 55mm, wear plates that are bolted onto the bottom of the bale cham-ber to reduce the cost of wear in this area, and the new colour touch screen monitor that gives the operator a full overview of

machine functions. Due to the very high

bale densities achieved by the Krone balers and in particular the 1290HDP High Density, Austra-lian operators have been asking for scales to mea-sure the weight of each bale.

This feature is standard for the Australian market and is designed with four weight cells that allow the operator to view bale weights on the monitor with an accuracy of +/- 2%.

The twine boxes have also received some nice updates. They now have gas struts that allow oper-ators to swing them up and fix them in their opened position for easy access to the baler for ser-vice and maintenance.

The box is also sealed to keep dust and debris out and away from the twine. LED lights, which are activated when the panels are opened, illumi-nate the area where the twine is threaded into the system.Tel. 1800-334-653.

The new Krone Big Pack HighSpeed range of large square balers deliver 20% more throughput.

The operator can view bale weights on the monitor with an accuracy of +/- 2%.

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tractors & machinery // 33

northern feed Systems launched their new Attrition Disc Mill at Elmore Field Days earlier this month.

Operations manager Ian Yeo said demand was rising for a disc mill of this type that was low maintenance at came at

an affordable price.“It’s a product people

have been looking for at a competitive cost,” Mr Yeo said. “It also has the advantage in that it can be run by petrol motor, diesel or PTO drive.”

The entry level attrition disc mill is $8515

plus GST. Trials have proven it can process two tonnes of wheat per hour, and 1.2t barley/hour. The larger machine, which can run between 6-8t of wheat per hour, retails at $17,150 plus GST.

The Attrition Disc Mill will produce granulated

Durable disc mill at affordable pricefeed with minimal fines, and can process a mix of grains of all types and sizes at the same time.

Mr Yeo said it comfortably processes

small pinched grains and the machine includes a simple coarse/fine adjustment.

“There are no close contact moving parts so

hard foreign objects are unlikely to cause major damage,” he said.

Parts are both highly durable and low cost to replace, Mr Yeo said.

“It is the highest throughput in any disc mill range and is backed up by our support and service.”Tel. (03) 5482 4800.

Ian Yeo with new Attrition Disc Mill.

Strength / Quality / Performance

www.mcintosh.net.nz

For More inForMation contact

titan Series 7.8 - 25m3

The Titan Series Forage Wagons are built for the serious farmer. Heavy-duty 13mm floor and elevator chains and larger diameter sprockets are designed to handle larger and heavier volumes of material with ease. Larger floor and elevator shafts and bigger gearboxes give trouble-free operation and extended service life, with less time needed adjusting chains.

We have the answer! The bale up feeder will save you money. With 5% or less hay loss our feeders pay for themselves.

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in the first makeover of its 7R series tractors since their launch in 2011, John Deere is rolling out five new 7R models from 154-213kW power for 2014.

The new 7R tractors boast up to 14kW more power and more torque than previous models. In line with the company’s dual-power strategy for the Australian and New Zealand marketplace, new 7210R and 7230R models will be available with a US EPA Tier 2 John Deere PowerTech engine, while new 7250R, 7270R and 7290R models will be available with a US EPA Final Tier 4 John Deere Pow-erTech PSS engine.

The PowerTech PSS engine uses John Deere’s efficient selective cat-alytic reduction system and utilises a high-pressure common rail fuel system and series turbochargers to improve total fluid efficiency while effectively reducing emissions. The 7R series tractors’ fuel capaci-ties range from 475-589 L, depend-ing on model and transmission option. Tractors equipped with

a PowerTech PSS engine have a diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) storage capacity of 25.7L.

Transmission options on the new 7R tractors include Com-mandQuad Eco, available on the 7210R and 7230R models, and the new e23 power shift transmission with ‘efficiency manager’, standard on all five 7R models.

The e23 PST has 23 equally spaced forward gears and 11 reverse gears that enable the effi-ciency advantages of a steplessly variable-speed transmission with the smoothness and simplicity of a power shift.

The ‘efficiency manager’ fea-ture optimises fluid economy during field operations and trans-port. The John Deere steplessly variable transmission is also avail-able for all 7R models.

Jarrod McGinnis, division mar-keting manager for John Deere, said the new engine and the trans-mission options help the 7R Series tractors offer greater productivity and value to customers. “These

new machines are more fluid efficient and offer increased power for exceptional engine, hydraulic and PTO performance that many customers want in a row-crop tractor.”

In addition, the new 7R tractors have many features in common with their larger new 8R cous-ins, including the redesigned CommandArm, with improved ergonomics and more intuitive control of major tractor functions such as throttle, Auto-Trac resume button, transmission speed and direction, SCVs, PTO and hitch.

Depending on the model, the CommandArm comes with a 17.7 cm 4100 CommandCenter display or a 25.4 cm 4600 CommandCenter display. Both are AutoTrac capable and feature an easier-to-use oper-ator interface. The Command-

Center puts machine operation information and control at the fin-gertips of the operator.

“With factory-installed John Deere FarmSight compo-nents and other integrated tech-nologies, the 7R tractors deliver a premium operator experience along with superior performance in the field,” said Mr McGinnis.

“The remote machine informa-tion systems provide off-site dealer diagnostic capabilities and help reduce operational costs.”



John Deere has revamped its 7R series tractors.

More power, torque after makeover

Schuitemaker, a world-leading brand in hay, silage, feeding and manure equipment

For more information about the Schuitemaker range contact your local dealer or AG Machinery Australia.

Richard van Dooren- P: 0411 529 531 | E: [email protected] | www.agmachineryaustralia.com.au

Massive stock on spare parts with local warehouse and fast deliveries

Cobram Farm Equipment Pty LtdPh: (03) 5872 1722Northern VIC & Southern NSW

Traf Tractor & Machinery Pty LtdPh: (03) 5633 1588South East VIC

HS WestPh: (03) 5871 1555North East VIC

Greg Allan Farm MachineryPh: (03) 5231 5136South West VIC

Hibbet MachineryPh: (03) 5452 2611North West VIC

Saphir Pasture Harrows 8 m wide

Pump tank wagon that is professional from start to finish.

Heavy duty, smuttier bar and Pasture Harrows 8 m wide, hydraulic fold, all in one. Only 80–120 HP required.

Robusta

Stock available for immediate delivery.Check our website and call us today.

Feedo forage box feedersThe right solution for every farmer Compact and flexible

The Feedo models 80 till 170 come standard with three beaters and the capacity varies from 12–35 m3.

Calypso SpreadersSuitable for spreading manure, compost, lime, gypsum and garden waste, among other things

The Calypso with vertical distribution beaters. 11 and 18 ton in single-axle or tandem-axle models. The manure slide, which is placed in front of the beaters, can also serve as a measuring slide for fine material.

Rapide 520 + 660Trouble-free forage production with the Rapide dual-purpose wagon.

We also supply complete feed mills designed for the small or large dairy farmer so why not start milling your own grain today and benefit from the savings

Need a new pencil or centreless auger we stock a large range of grain augering equipment at great prices

Like Father Like Son

ZINGER

ASI kgP P% Milk kgF F% Rel% Cell Count

Overall Type

301 42 0.23 1129 66 0.26 66 103 106

APR319/58%

JETFINN*


Overall Type

202 36 0.03 1304 37 -0.27 76 106 107

APR242/69%

DELSANTO*


Overall Type

224 17 0.43 -226 60 1.01 90 126 110

APR243/83%

PICOLA


Overall Type

209 22 0.27 307 53 0.57 67 137 104

APR281/58%

ZINGER AND JETFINN> ZINGER is a high Production sire who excels

for Milk Solids for both Protein and Fat. He also offers an Outcross Pedigree making him very easy to use. He is now the number one genomic sire.

> JETFINN continues to be amongst the most popular Genomic Sires.

DELSANTO AND PICOLA > PICOLA is a DELSANTO son from one of

Australia’s best cow families the ‘Perfectors’, along with a high APR he also excels.

> DELSANTO is the King of components.

Genomics - you can use the next generation at the same time as their sires

*Sexed Semen available

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Freecall 1800 039 047 www.genaust.com.au 20130366

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ABV

Documents

Dairy News Australia October 2013