Australian milk prices for bruce centash and who ever else

As centash has shown one of our major supermarket has added 10 cents a liter to it milk. Yay clap hands for them. Dont say anything about 11 years ago when they decided to cut the price to $1 for consumers and guess who took the knife over that. Us the farmers. In Queensland where we farm we get avg 56 cents a liter for our milk. The supermarkets extra 10cents is for the drought. We have a winter and summer growing season so we farm year round not like yous in a mad 6/8 month rush befor the snow turns up. 2018/19 summer crop was a fail. Winter 2018 we never even planted. 17/18 summer was below average and 17 winter was a fail to but we planted 2 months early on cyclone rain and caught a break to get us in front with feed or we would be done milking by now to. In 2018 we got 12 inchs of rain. 2017 was more but fell in big falls outside our planting windows. Our average rain fall is 26 inchs for our area. Every ag industry is hurting now. Feed costs through roof jard time sourceing them. There is talk of barley being imported from canada to fill the hole. We manged to buy some failed summer crops for silage to keep us going for a bit longer. Cost us $20 000 just for seed and chemical to plsnt and none of it got ovrr 2ft high. Only grazed dry cows and young stock on it not worth hay or silage. Add $60 000 for silage brought in on top and no sign of this drought breaking any time soon most dairys been buying feed for 3 out of last 5 yrs. In last 10 yrs queensland has gone from 700 dairy farms to maybe 350 and dropping fast. An extra 10 cents on top of our 56c/L we het payed will not stop the decline its to little to late. No money for genetics only thing a dairy cow is worth now is what an abattors while pay for them hanging on a hook. So eat up at McDonald's and help ya fellow dairy farmer out lol. Everyone is ready to pull the pin and the longrr this dtought goes and more feed costs go up and get harder to surce the more the drop out. Just like in the states lots of rmpty dairys around here in the last 10 yrs and fast becomeing more
 
Thanks very much for the info! That sure is brutal. We were getting about 60 cents Canadian per liter when I hung up the Milkers some 10 years ago. Bruce may be able to give us the current price. Yes, supply manageme t does require that we purchase our market at the tune of some 20 grand per cow, but the price for our milk is determined by the cost of production from the top one third of Ontario producers. We are also blessed with a moderate climate that one can reasonably expect some crop to survive most years. Many consumers want to get rid of the system and pay world price for their dairy products. To them I say then be expected to be paid for your labour at world prices as well....about 2 dollars an hour.

I sincerely hope the future bodes better for you and all Australian farmers. You deserve it.

Thanks again for the update.

Ben
 
Not to sound like a whiner but thats about the long and short of the situation. We are in a usually safe area for rain we have our bad yrs miss a season but always pick up some sort next time round but this is unheard of for us to miss 3 crops in arow. All our grass is eatin bare since we had none grow this yr. We planted on 4 inchs in october and havent had any rain till this weekend and had 2 inchs so far. We are normaly self seficent just buy in meal and grain in the bad yrs when we put all our crops up as hay and silage. We dont push things roll along at 16/20L cows. I have always kept 12/18 months hay/silage infront of us for the bad times as insurance but this drought has changed that now. Not much of a margin between cost of production and what we payed in a reasonable yr. Lot of farms been buying feed for a lot of yrs on and off this is just the last straw for them. Im 3rd generation here now milking cows. Been back home 11 yrs with mum and dad. 4th generation is 2 1/2 if theres not a big shake up in inustry soon i might be the last milker. And from what you guys say on here its no different over there same problems. Least bean farmers will be right in 10 yrs time when everyone milking soybeans for soy milk
 
It?s really not all that much better in Canada. My Dad passed away a little over 7 years ago. My wife and I managed the farm for a year before we bought my mom out. At that time we were getting 78c/litre for our milk. Help was near impossible to find let alone keep as most people don?t like milking cows 7 days a week even with every second weekend off. We decided along with buying her out we?d put in a Delaval robot. It works quite well for the most part. Enter in diafiltered milk. That displaced 30% of our domestic protein and our milk price fell below 70c. In all my years on the farm my parents woukd complain that the price of milk only came up a half a cent in this years price adjustment or isn?t changing this year,it never dropped. The farm had a fair bit of quota debt plus we bought land a few years before we bought,funded my moms retirement added a robot than our milk price took a hit. That went on for 5 years. We?ve had it. We?ve decided to sell our quota while we still can and pay off the farm and go work elsewhere while keeping our land while it?s still an option. I haul manure to a neighbors farm. Not that many years ago another family owned it and had 1200 head of beef. They had hogs and at one time 250 acres of potato?s rotated on 500 owned plus rented land. A few bad years of potatoes cost them most of their land and a few bad years of beef cost them everything else they had but their personal belongings. That?s not going to be me if I have other options. There?s a noticeable push here to scrap supply management. Yes it?s broken and not working like it used to and yes our government is giving our market away to make other countries happy at our expense but the consumer is being duped by the retailers and processors that if supply management goes they will only pay half at the grocery store. We all know that?s a lie. I really don?t know how much longer this downward trend in dairy will continue but many farms are refinanced to the limit and can?t take that much more. I have one neighbor that a year ago couldn?t pay off his previous years fertilizer bill and was at the point of being cut off his feed supply so just switched suppliers and went on an equipment shopping spree. I?m not sure how he pulled that off but we?re not doing that either. No one owes me a living and if I can?t make our farm self supporting I?m out while the getting is good. Call me a quitter or call me smart but I know with 100% certainty my dad would be proud of our decision considering the situation.
 
Every farm is different and every farmer has a different story. I have never been to the other side of the globe, but I get some information from time to time. First thing that I have always understood was in Australia saving water and irrigation of crops is a common practice. Here in Canada, were I live, in South Central Ontario, draining excess water off the field is often needed to grow crops. We have one short growing season, and a very long harsh winter, so most dairy cows are fed stored feed 365 days of the year, and mostly kept in confinement freestall barns during lactation. Very little grazing is practice any more. And we have no such thing as seasonal dairying, farms in Canada must produce a constant supply of milk to the market all the year round. Canada has a small population,roughly 35 million people, spread thinly over one of the largest countries in land mass in the world. And it also has areas with very dry climate, very harsh climate and a very excellent climate for dairy production. Sustainable dairy farming needs are well met in Southern Ontario, which isn?t much different than any of the USA border states, prefect for growing forage crops for dairy cows.
As soon as I read the sign , stating how generous the store was , providing a extra ten cents to help farmers struggling with low prices and drought conditions, I New that it was only a self serving public relations stunt by the retailer, and that they had been turning the screws tighter and tighter on the Australian dairyman ever since deregulation came into effect. There is in my opinion no time soon that Australia will run out of milk, but I will concede that milk may be imported from New Zealand. Or forage crops would have to be grown on irrigated land, which currently grow higher value crops,if the drought continues, and I don?t see that happening, too much $$.
And speaking of dollars, as a Canadian Dairy farmer, I have really no problem with the price which I received for my milk. We have a Jersey herd, with average Butter fat test of 5.5% and last month I was paid .96 cents per litre for our milk. My price is paid out based on components with in the milk, and it is sold into the same market as all other conventional milk produced in Ontario. The price paid out is a blended price , of all the milk sold in Ontario during any give month. So it is not just fluid milk/or town milk, but also reflects the milk that is used in making lower cost industrial products like cheese and Yogurt. I have friends that insist that their Holstein cows are better and more profitable, but wine and cry about only getting..70-.75 cents per litre for the milk which comes off their farm. While I can get .20 cents per litre more. Farmers need to produce the products that the market wants, and the product the processors want is Butter Fat. Farmers tend to be hard headed, and just carry on doing the same thing, and expect to get better returns, but not willing to add any additional value to the milk. There is only one number that matters in dairy, and that number is the difference between the cost of producing milk, and the price you are paid. I can produce milk on my farm with a variable cost of .55 cents per litre. And as I have said, last month I was paid .96 cents. So my profit per litre was.41 cents. If my cost per litre was .55 cents while my pay out was .75 cents, simply said I would show a . 20 cent profit. Supply Management doesn?t guarantee a profit, only a market. If your cost of production is too high, your profit margins will be small. So before anyone wants to jump on me about being born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I started from scratch with not much more than desire to be a dairy farmer. I bought all of the production quota that our farm holds, as well as purchased the 276 acres of very good quality land that we are so fortunate to farm. While I still carry a small debt, much of the debt I carry was created to bring my oldest son into the farm, and will be written away within the next 6 years.
Unlike phillip, I feel that we receive a good price for our milk, and I am satisfied with the returns we get. Only downside I see is the constant demands from other countries around the world that cannot manage to control the gross over supply of milk production that has ruined their farm economy, wanting to dump the surplus produce that they, often times indirectly subsidize their farmers to produce, into our domestic market. And throw us into the abyss , drowning in a sea of unwanted milk. Bruce
 
That?s a very good honest story Bruce,I?m not saying our milk price isn?t fair reasonable or even good especially if your getting .96 it just isn?t working with our own situation anymore. That?s mainly because of debt load and I?m not alone in saying that. If you decided today to retire and told your son you need hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund your retirement and he needed a new barn all at the same time his situation may be quite similar to mine and 8 cents could break the camels back in the timeframe of 5 years.
 
No question Dwayne, you are absolutely correct. My son would be unable to buy my farm out as it stands today, at current market value. But he doesn?t have to buy me out totally, and I don?t need to demand current market value either. I cannot take the money with me when I die, and I don?t have to live like a Lord until that fateful day comes. We just have to manage our assets in a fashion that will provide a comfortable living for his family, and provide a steady income for my wife and I after our working years are through. We have tried to create investments outside the dairy farm to help fuel our retirement.
We still haven?t decided that our dairy farm will continue on , or rather shut down. There is too much work load for one man is our 100 stall tie barn. And hard choices will need to be made. Scale down to what my son can run on his own? Build a new free stall with perhaps VMS, or call it a day. Some changes will come to our farm, but whatever change comes, I still want three hots and a cot, lol. Bruce
 
Well speaking from Other Countries Canada floods the market down here with other cheap things,milk is not on an isolated island by itself.Overall trade in all things need to be
considered at the same time.The only people that benefits from the Canadian dairy cartel are the milk producers while the consumers are getting hosed when milk is far cheaper just a few miles to the South.Funny how everyone loves a Global Economy when its in their favor but hates it when it turns on them.There are places where farming is easier for certain products makes economic sense to produce a product where it can be grown the most easily with a minimum of expense.The milk situation in Canada is a case of the tail wagging the dog,much like soybeans producers do in the
USA, think those days are coming to an end.Free Trade to me is no country charges any duties or tariffs and products flow as freely across country borders as they do from VA to NC down here that is what it should be not one country charging 70% tariff while the other country charges almost nothing for the same product.
 
I really hope you guys are able to forge a way forward that works for everyone and I?m sure you will. My mom isn?t living like a lordess if that?s even a word but she did take enough to create enoug interest revenu to maintain her living without being at any risk of the farm failing which I don?t blame her. Had she wanted even 1/2 of the farms full value we never woukd have bought it out. She?s signed off on her retained interest in the farm and we will be in excellent shape thanks to her and dad we just won?t be milking anymore and that will be ok.
 
Cartel eh? You sound like Maxine Bernier,google him .? Wow you really like to stir the pot lol or can we say pot now? Maybe we?ll call it a cauldron?
 
As a practical matter as long as supermarkets were still being supplied plenty of milk why would they pay more for it? No reason simple Econ 101 there.Economics holds a tough school things change, in your case weather/climate has changed situations change for businesses all the time farming is no different.Sounds like dairy farming in your area just isn't an economic viable thing to do anymore.In that case I'd be looking for alternate enterprises on my farm which I have done several times.That's the great economic danger of going into only 1 thing when it
collapses and is no longer profitable then one is sunk.
 
Actually it fits the word 'cartel' exactly.When a group of producers get together to limit supply and raise prices on a certain item or product.Oil and diamonds come to mind also in a totally free market the prices on those would drop dramatically for consumers.
 
Regrettably Traditonal, once again you truly knew little of what you speak. The price of dairy products in Canada isn?t dramatically different to the consumer than what Americans pay for their dairy products. Once you factor in the exchange on the money, and the fact that the US farm bill gives indirect subsidies to support the US dairy farmers.
 
Then why are you fellows fighting so hard to keep out US milk? Put US milk without import tariffs and Canadian milk side by side on the grocery shelf see what happens.You already know you said as much in your first post.The real deal is you fellows don't want the general public to know what the truth is.
 
I?ll tell you what the truth is,buy back our quota subsidize us like the US and change our dollar and we can produce milk as cheap as you guys can.
 
Why buy into a scam like the quota system? Your internal issues are your problem not ours to solve.Your dollar is low in value for reasons too.High price social programs carry way more costs than face value.No one is against Farm Welfare in the USA more than me BTW.
 
I've got a friend who went down there on one of those farm tour trips. He stayed right on a farm for several days. He was telling about seasonal dairying where most of you sell milk during spring,summer and fall when you have grass and that a few are on what was called "town supply",which meant that they milked in the winter on stored feed and supplied the fluid market in the "off season".

He said the ones on town supply got considerably more for their milk. Is that still the case?
 
You are touched in the head old boy. Why would anyone in the states want to pay taxes to provide funds to help struggling dairy farmers , in your own country, so they can produce cheap milk in a foreign land. Now that is something that I would tax revolt over.
 
Most people don't if you took a poll ,but even crazier is we subsidize grain growers to provide food for the Chinese army and factory workers.That's a real head scratcher but all of it is
headed down the tubes with the National Debt building money will become less and less and the groups with the biggest voting blocks will be the ones the first in line with farmers
being a very small block its very predictable.Economic laws can only be ignored for so long.
 
It?s less than Wisconsin,12 000 dairies roughly 89 cow herd average 65 pounds per cow give or take
 
Read Bruce's reply......US dairy product receive a government subsidy, Canadians do not. We can compete with many markets but it is unfair to expect Canadian dairy farmers to compete against the US Treasury.
Ben
 

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