The 38-point list dairy will take to Canberra ahead of the election
COURTING CANBERRA: ADF strategy and policy director Craig Hough has released a 38-point list the peak advocacy body will present to politicians ahead of the federal election.
Australia's peak advocacy body for dairy farmers has released the wish list it will present to politicians in the run up to next year's federal election.
It's a long, 38-item, list and Australian Dairy Farmers' policy and strategy director Craig Hough said every single one was important and would boost members' bottom lines.
The big ticket items, he said, included the workforce strategy to help overcome labour shortages as well as climate change adaptation and mitigation.
Still, it was clear both he and ADF chief executive David Inall had a favourite: making sure the elderly get enough dairy in their diet.
"A new big ticket priority would be the fractures research and prescribing minimum standards in aged care around nutritional standards," Mr Hough said.
"That's a demand-side intervention but it plays into the issue around malnutrition."
He said research showing the risk of bone fractures could be reduced with dairy consumption, while deficiencies in the diets of aged care residents had been identified by the Royal Commission.
The finding made this, Mr Hough said, the perfect time for the federal government to develop national mandatory minimal nutritional standards for food provision in residential aged care.
The long-running campaign to stave off European claims that would prevent Australian dairy manufacturers using common dairy food names like Gruyere, on one hand while on the other, demand the word "milk" be reserved for dairy only, would continue.
"ADF is calling on politicians to address misleading product labelling and marketing, including from plant-based alternatives to dairy, as well as trade barriers and supply chain constraints," Mr Hough said.
Another delicate topic on the ADF election list concerns investment in research and development.
Pointing to flatlined productivity over the last decade, the peak body was an increase in agricultural R&D funds, but Mr Hough said it was not suggesting an increase in the farm levy.
Mr Inall said dairy farmers seemed content with Dairy Australia's work on genetics but ADF would seek more input on DA's direction.
"It's going to be a bigger project for us next year," he said.
DA had invited ADF to have "wider and deeper" discussions about its five strategic plans, which would begin in January.
To grow jobs and liveability in regional areas, the ADF will ask for $300 million in funding for the National Agriculture Workforce Strategy, which would include agriculture in the school curriculum as well as improving training opportunities.
It also wants government to encourage more exploration and development of fertiliser production in Australia.
Environmental strategies include investing in the recommendations of the Dairy Industry Adaptation Pathways and Northeast Dairy Climate Futures projects; implementing the recommendations of the Productivity Commission's evaluation of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan; and providing a second round of the Energy Efficient Communities Program - Dairy Farming Grants.
Mr Inall said ADF would meet with key representatives of all the major political parties in 2022.
ADF hoped to enlist the state dairy organisations and their members in canvassing politicians, too.
"There's nothing more important than boots on the ground and farmers going into electoral offices out in their country towns," Mr Inall said.
As well as releasing the comprehensive election policy statement, the ADF would produce flyers and talking points for farmers keen to lobby their local members of parliament.
Source: Marian Macdonald, Queensland Country Life, 22 December 2021
Work begins for eastAUSmilk
Merged advocacy body eastAUSmilk began operation on Wednesday, promising a new era of direct representation for NSW and Queensland dairy farmers.
I am honoured to have been elected as inaugural chair and I look forward to working with the other members of the board and staff of eastAUSmilk to achieve a positive outcome for dairy producers in coming weeks, months and years.
The new industry body aimed to represent dairy producers from southern NSW to the tip of Queensland.
The significance of eastAUSmilk will be its strength in numbers and a unity of purpose that will be underpinned by the new organisation while bringing into play the best of the QDO and NSW's Dairy Connect Farmers' Group.
There are many issues needing to be addressed.
We must ensure that when increases in dairy prices occurs, such as that recently announced by the supermarkets for home-brand milk, that a part of that increase will be passed down the dairy value chain to ensure a win-win for all those involved in the dairy process.
Supermarket customers have shown a strong willingness to support dairy farmers due to the high nutritional produce that dairy farmers supply to their processor but they need to be assured that when they pay that extra price at the supermarket checkout, the dairy farmer is receiving a fair share of that increased price.
eastAUSmilk's stronger cross-state representation would allow it to advocate more strongly to government, stakeholders and other interest groups about the importance of the dairy industry.
Other directors on the eastAUSmilk board are James Geraghty, Gary Wenzel, Waylon Barron, Ruth Kydd and Graham Forbes.
I am proud to have Graham Forbes, a dairy farmer from Gloucester, NSW, as the vice-chair and I look forward to working with all of the board members.
Matt Trace – eastAUSmilk President
Dairy industry looking much more positive after years of tough times
After a devastating decade in which 8,296 farmers abandoned Australia's dairy industry, the future is finally looking more positive, thanks to better weather and higher milk prices.
Key points:
For the first time in years the dairy outlook is positive
Wade Johnston has started his own dairy farm
His 72-year-old father Stan Johnston has re-entered dairying after 35 years
For the first in years, the prospect of starting a dairy business could stack up.
Wade and Courtney Johnston took the leap, buying their first farm at Bollier in Queensland's Mary Valley. Dairying is in his blood.
"I'd have to agree there's not many of us who are putting their hands up to begin (a dairy), especially from scratch too, so we're awfully proud," Mr Johnston said.
The couple has worked with a tight budget, running a herd of 42 Illawarra milking cows and a single side milking set-up they built themselves in a rustic old barn.
"The banks said 'no' every time I went to them, so we really had to budget hard, Mr Johnston said.
"Courtney did some cementing.
"We just used everything we could that was already here," Mr Johnston said.
"Our plan is just to be slow and steady and not be in heaps and heaps of debt. We just don't want that stress."
Wade and Courtney Johnston's property is on land once resumed for the failed Traveston dam. They feed their growing family from a thriving vegetable patch.
"We're doing our very best to be self-sufficient. We've got the chickens giving us eggs, and we always have the cows milking, and I make yoghurt and cheese," Ms Johnston said.
"I'm an ex-musical theatre performer, so this is very different, but I love helping where I can."
At nearby Kenilworth, Wade's 72-year-old father, Stan, has re-entered the industry after an absence of 35 years on land with more than four kilometres of Mary River frontage.
"I get up at half-past three, have some cornflakes, come down to the new dairy," Mr Johnston said.
"We have cut the farm in half. Half will be horses [Mr Johnston founded Craiglea racing stud and agistment], and half will be dairy."
He has taken on great genetics in Illawarra cows from his 81-year-old sibling, who still regularly comes to help milk.
"My brother Jock, he just loves his cows, so he moved all his herd here; otherwise, he would have had to sell them," Mr Johnston said.
Outgoing Queensland Dairy Farmers Organisation (QDO) president Brian Tessman said anyone looking at a dairy enterprise in Queensland would have to say that right now, it "actually looks reasonable".
"I think the industry is on a bit of an upturn as far as returns to farms are concerned, and certainly in Queensland and New South Wales. I think the returns are certainly better," Mr Tessman said.
After 11 years in the top job, he is proud to have successfully fought for the end of dollar-a-litre milk and the introduction of the mandatory Dairy Code of Conduct which requires processors to publish the price they will pay for fresh milk on the first of July.
"The game is a bit better but there are still people leaving the industry," Mr Tessman said.
"They are basically on a conveyor that was set up to three years ago when things really got just too tough with the drought and higher feed prices, so those people will still be leaving, and they will still probably outnumber the ones coming in."
The QDO and New South Wales-based Dairy Connect advocacy group have merged to form eastAUSmilk, focused on stopping the decline of the fresh milk industry.
Australia has 4,600 licensed dairies, a 9 per cent drop on last year — with 307 in Queensland, a 6 per cent decline on last year.
In recent days, Woolworths, Coles and Aldi lifted the retail price of their homebrand milk to $1.30 a litre.