Dairy Plan Consultation Closing Soon

EastAUSmilk has been out and about talking with industry stakeholders about proposals to be included in Queensland’s first ever Dairy Plan. These proposals can be downloaded from the eastAUSmilk website.

One on one meetings have been held with some stakeholders such as processors, and more are to come.

District meetings have been held in Malanda, Milla Milla, Oakey, Woodford, and Kandanga, with the final meeting scheduled for Monday 14 October at Beaudesert RSL, at 6.30pm.

Anyone who wants to provide feedback and hasn’t been able to get to any of these meetings – e.g. dairy farmers around Rockhampton – can find a link on the eastAUSmilk website for online feedback. They can also send eastAUSmilk an email to be connected to a Zoom hookup.

The Zoom hookup will be at 6.30pm on Tuesday 15 October, but anyone who wants to participate must email eastAUSmilk in advance so they can be sent an invitation.

Feedback so far has been quite varied, ranging from the suggestion that there’s not enough incentives in the proposal for uptake by some farmers, to strong support. Many dairy farmers have said some of the proposals need more detail before they are strong enough.

Many of the proposals in the plan will require support from the Queensland government, and Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, the current Minister Mark Furner, and the Shadow Minister Tony Perrett have been kept thoroughly in the loop and given every opportunity to advise of any problems with the draft proposals.

For much of this year, an Advisory Group consisting of eastAUSmilk (leading the project), Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Bega, Norco, Lactalis, DFMC, and SubTropical Dairy have been working to identify proposals to:

•                 grow the milk pool,

•                 build the economic viability of dairy farming,

•                 facilitate uptake of productivity and efficiency improvements, and

•                 build industry and community confidence in the future of the industry.

The Advisory Group proposes that the plan aim at a prosperous, vibrant, and resilient Queensland dairy industry, which has halted the decline in milk production, and is growing to produce at least 300 million litres or more of white milk per year, with flatter supply, by 2032.

Once this final round of consultation is finished, the Advisory Group will consider how best to reflect that feedback in the plan, work out some more details of how the various proposals can best be implemented, and produce a final plan. The plan will lay out some of the first steps for implementing it, as well as for monitoring and managing implementation.

Mike Smith, eastAUSmilk Government Relations Manager