Pay More For Milk, Save Sruggling Dairy Industry

[icyfroth]

Consumers avoiding discounted milk would help save farmers drowning in the latest price crisis, a Victorian dairy farmer says.

Marian McDonald and her husband run a medium-sized dairy farm in Gippsland, Victoria, and are grappling with the implications of a recent milk price slash.

Late last month Murray-Goulburn announced it would cut milk prices for suppliers by about 10 per cent. Fonterra followed suit shortly after.

But Ms McDonald said the support of consumers could help send a message to co-ops and supermarkets that farmers, many who are struggling to survive, deserved more.

She said buying a more expensive milk, even if it was just 20 cents more than a discounted brand, would help end the craze of supermarkets selling at prices unsustainable to farmers.

"One of two things that have really backed me is the support from consumers to pay extra for milk," she told the ABC, holding back tears.

"It's been the supermarkets' argument for so long that 'people are buying the $1 milk [and] if we can supply that and they are happy with that we will continue to do so'."

She said consumer support would also give farmers hope for the future.

"What [consumers would be] doing is sending the message to supermarkets that it is worthwhile putting a sustainable price on milk.

"As much as anything it just speaks to us that people really do value what we do, and they really care ... there is nothing like someone cheering from the sidelines for you," she said.

Ms McDonald said she did not blame consumers "looking for a bargain", but cheap milk could end the industry.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-17/how-consumers-can-help-farmers-during-the-milk-price-crisis/74...

So who are the fat cats lapping up all the profits from the Milk Industry?

[tulip*place]

Dairy Farmers A2 bought on the weekend.  Don't want to see Chinese imported milk in the supermarket, that's for sure.

[lind9650]

I live in Dairy country and can see and hear how our farmers are struggling. I can understand their fear of loosing the life they are used to.

I would not like to be a dairy Farmer. It's hard work seven days a week and unless you can afford to pay a relief milker, there is no holiday for you.

Going only about 50Km from our town, I see all the good farmland has been sold to Developers. Some farmers just gave up and accepted the money to retire instead of working until they dropped dead. Their children saw what was happening and did not want a bar of this kind of struggle, so they left to work in the city for regular wages.

What will happen when all Dairy Farmers sell out? where will we get our dairy products from?

And it's not only the Dairy Farmers that are getting squeezed out of exsistance. Everyone that produces food from the land will slowly disappear.

Think about it. Is it worth having cheap food today and nothing for our children in a few years?

Erica

[amber-eyed-girl]

I understand everything that has been written here, but there are facts that are not said.

There isn't any 1$ milk in my supermarkets.

The cheaper Woolworth brand milk, is 20 cents cheaper than the nearest competitor.

The Woolworths milk, is Victorian milk. Clearly, labelled.

I have read certain things this week on social media-type forums which basically say..."milk from anywhere".

Well, no. Each milk is labelled.

I prefer to buy a milk, that is going to be local. So I want to buy Victorian milk.

That means I have to buy what I see labelled as such. So if I go into Woolworths...guess which milk is clearly labelled.

That's something that needs to be made clear, too. Not buying local milk and leaving it to rot on the shelves sends out a different message to the one people want. It says to Woolworths we aren't interested in locally produced milk and they can go to the farmers and cancel orders altogether...see how it can be counterproductive?

Better to protest by saying, I want local milk, I will buy it, but am prepared to pay a decent price for it. At the checkout, say it. Tell it to the manager...post it online.

Just not buying it can backfire.

Oh, and I check the labels on everything I buy. It's not all about price.

[electric*mayhem*band]

Don't know if it's the same in Oz, but in the UK farmers are always pleading poverty. Yet the ones around here can always manage to change rheir huge four wheel drives every year. You or I couldn't.

[amber-eyed-girl]

It's a different situation here.

Farmers have been price-squeezed a lot in the past few years. Partly due to a price war between the two major supermarkets (Woolworths and Coles).

My concern is if noone buys decent, quality milk then it will disappear off the shelves entirely. Not give the farmers a better price for it.

The implication by a few stories is that there is something somehow wrong with the supermarket-branded milk. There isn't. It's local and tastes great. Fresher quite frankly.

The problem is the price is so low the farmer loses out on a decent living.

[chameleon54]

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@lind9650 wrote:

I live in Dairy country and can see and hear how our farmers are struggling. I can understand their fear of loosing the life they are used to.

I would not like to be a dairy Farmer. It's hard work seven days a week and unless you can afford to pay a relief milker, there is no holiday for you.

Going only about 50Km from our town, I see all the good farmland has been sold to Developers. Some farmers just gave up and accepted the money to retire instead of working until they dropped dead. Their children saw what was happening and did not want a bar of this kind of struggle, so they left to work in the city for regular wages.

What will happen when all Dairy Farmers sell out? where will we get our dairy products from?

The major dairies are already being sold to international buyers. The milk may be produced in your state, but all of the profits are going overseas and labour is supplied by 457 visa workers from the same country. Selling our prime agricultural businesses and shipping ports ( Darwin ) to OS owners is sheer madness.

And it's not only the Dairy Farmers that are getting squeezed out of exsistance. Everyone that produces food from the land will slowly disappear.

I,m an ex broad acre farmer, squeezed off of the land by drought and prices below the cost of production. I have a brother and brother in law, both still farming. They are operating huge multi million dollar enterprises, cropping 9000 and 15000 acres respectively. Neither can afford full time employees and both work 18 hour days, seven days a week during seeding and harvest. They are both using quite old second hand machinery as they simply cant justify buying new equipment. They both produce crops in the seven figure price range and are doing it with clapped out old gear and minimum hired labour. No other medium sized business would accept these conditions.

They earn a reasonable living, but not what you would expect for the business skill, labour and upfront costs that they contribute.  Each individual farmer controls land that would have kept 6-10 families employed 40 years ago. The small rural towns, schools and hospitals are all in severe decline.

I still own around 1000 acres in the area and like many modern farmers I drive in, drive out to check on the livestock and use remote cameras to moniter water points.. I live 250 km. away in a pretty sea side town and run sheep in the near city hills areas. I know a number of other farmers my age who do the same thing ( drive in drive out ) and other families where the wife and kids live near major towns or cities with schools and health services.

The husband has stayed behind and lives on the farm. The families are fragmented as they only see their dad and husband at the weekends during quite times and maybe only once every few weeks during seeding and harvest. .. This further compounds the decline of rural family life as well as their small rural towns, sports clubs, schools etc..

The problems are complex, but one major contributor is consumers reluctance to pay a fair price for food and the supermarket dominence of Coles and Woolworths 

Think about it. Is it worth having cheap food today and nothing for our children in a few years?

Erica

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[*tippy*toes*]

We stopped buying discounted milk a few months ago. We've been getting Pauls Farmhouse Gold. It's just like the milk we used to get in glass bottles way back when....with the cream on top! I discovered a few days ago that we can buy locally source milk, which I'll be buying when I do my shopping next. If you ring the dairy and quote the batch number, they can tell you which cows it came from and even tell you the name of the cow! Yes, all their cows have names. It's the Little Big Dairy Co.

There was a change.org petition started 2 weeks ago by the 16yo daughter of a Victorian dairy farmer. It already has over 150,000 signatures. It has hit the media and has also gained the attention of Barnaby Joyce. It's in regards to Murray-Goulburn and Fonterra slashing prices they are paying the farmers. Joyce is in the process of conducting a full investigation.

I don't think it's a case of stopping buying discounted milk. That milk still had to come from somewhere and it would be a crime to see it just thrown out. They need to bump the prices back up so the farmers end up with more back in their pocket. As long as if they do bump the prices up a bit, the extra goes back to the farmers and not into Coles or Woollies pockets.

I for one don't want to be buying milk that has been imported from China. Who knows what garbage they'll put in it. Time to take a stand for our local guys.

[chameleon54]

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@amber-eyed-girl wrote:

It's a different situation here.

Farmers have been price-squeezed a lot in the past few years. Partly due to a price war between the two major supermarkets (Woolworths and Coles).

My concern is if noone buys decent, quality milk then it will disappear off the shelves entirely. Not give the farmers a better price for it.

The implication by a few stories is that there is something somehow wrong with the supermarket-branded milk. There isn't. It's local and tastes great. Fresher quite frankly.

The problem is the price is so low the farmer loses out on a decent living.

---

As I have mentioned in the past, my teenage daughter is a pretty handy netball player. We drive her to the city centre to play in one of the states premier league clubs. I was shocked to find that of the nine girls in her team, THREE WHERE EX FARM KIDS FROM OUR GENERAL FARM REGION   !!!!!. ........Farming families are already leaving rural areas in droves.

[amber-eyed-girl]

I don't want to buy any food imported from China.

It's disgusting. Heavy metals. Human waste. You name the most disgusting things you can think of and it's in their "food".

Australia still has some of the best produce in the world. Notwithstanding droughts, floods, and farmers being squeezed.

We need to protect it for US. Not the Chinese. Or anyone else. That means not selling off huge tracts of farmland, and being so shortsighted as to pay farmers so little they want out.

I'm waiting for twenty years from now, it's not going to be pretty if nobody takes that seriously now.

So what if the Chinese get upset the government blocks the odd sale. We need to look longterm.

When it's gone, it's gone. They won't be selling it back.

Same goes for Port sales. That's mad. Don't get me started on the insane gas sell-off...

the things that are allowed to happen for the shortterm gain of a few hurt all of us soon enough.