Dairy farmers across the Far South Coast are set to suffer even more because of latest low milk price and are asking everyone to support the industry with their buying habits.
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Robyn Lucas and her son Charles run Sherringham Farm at Tilba and like all the dairy farmers are facing new lower than ever prices paid by the buyers of their milk, in their case Bega Cheese.
They are grateful that Bega Cheese has been able to hold its prices above some of the other buyers, but even so they were devastated to hear of the new price announced last week of of $6.08 a kilo of milk solids for NSW farmers.
But what does this actually mean? Well Robyn and Charles explained that this worked out to be 43 cents a litre and given it costs around 42 cents to produce a litre at the best of times, there is hardly any profit.
Multiply that by the million litres they produce each year, and that means they could potentially only make $10,000 as an annual earnings.
“We’re not being paid a decent price for a quality product and this seems to be same for not only the dairy industry, but all agriculture,” Robyn said.
Last year, the price paid by Bega Cheese was $6.38 or 47 cents a litre. Dairy farmers in Victoria and those supplying other buyers have been hit even harder with Murray Goulburn announcing its new price for the year to be $4.31, way below the cost of production.
The Lucases have cut down their herd from 200 to 140 milkers to try and cut costs and even though now these remaining cows are much more productive, it is still going to be a struggle. The new price means an 11 per cent drop in their gross income.
“On a personal level it is so stressful because all you want to do is what you’re good at and produce a quality product,” Mrs Lucas said. “You get up on a cold rainy winter morning at 4am because you love what you do – dairy farming is so different to any other business.”
A big part of the solution, she said, was to educate the public about where their food comes from and how good a quality product can taste and be for their health.
It took 10 litres of milk to produce 1kg of cheese and so with some of the prices of dairy products in the supermarkets, the products were being made at a loss.
The two major supermarkets and their $1 milk were often blamed for the situation, but Robyn and Charles say the situation is more complex. A high Australian dollar in this global market was making life harder for the processors and hence the farmers.
Robyn and Charles do blame the milk processing companies for getting into a bidding war with the supermarkets and undercutting each other. Then there was the global situation with a glut of milk on world markets due to reduced demand from countries such as Russia and China, which was way beyond the control of local dairy farmers.
She went on to say that “the dairy industry and Australian agriculture are in mortal danger and we are in grave danger of the country becoming an importer of food and the government simply doesn’t want to know about it.”
The unsustainable prices being paid to farmers was also having a “big ripple effect” on the whole rural economy as dairy farmers cut back on employment and put off purchases of equipment.
The solution to the problem starts with the average consumer who can make a big difference with their buying power, choosing brand-name and even better local dairy products where possible in the supermarket. This applied to all fresh produce, from bacon to orange juice – buy Australian they urge.
Dairy farmers such as the Lucases would also like to see more action and regulation from the Federal Government to protect the local dairy industry and agriculture in general. She welcomed recent moves to add country-of-origin labelling.
They urged all locals to lobby the politicians to fight for the consumer’s right to buy “clean, green” Australian product. “Otherwise it will all come from China in cans,” Charles said, adding that the same thing could happen to the dairy industry that happened to the Australian car and other manufacturing sectors.
Dairy farmers welcomed the growing movement of farmers markets and consumers going out their way to get local milk and dairy products. “If there is anything positive to come out this, it is being able to educate people about how good quality food tastes and that’s a fantastic thing.”
“Dairy farmers are so grateful and thrilled that the public is really getting behind the fight,” Mrs Lucas said. “People do obviously care about their food and their neighbours on the land. Every single purchase that an individual or family makes, makes a big difference and if we can get everyone on board, it will make things better.”