On 9/2/06 14:21, "Lou Cook" <cooklou@pacific.net.au> wrote:
> Hello Vaughan et. al.,
> Jokes aside :) it has been interesting to note other peoples ideas about
> life and dairying in particular.
> It seems I live in a different world or have different philosophical
> beliefs.
> The answers coming through could be generally described as "work harder and
> become more efficient" when I am (and most of the farmers around here)
> looking for more leisure time ... surely that is what "labour saving
> devices" should allow!
I agree, but in New Zealand anyway, all groups (teachers, lawyers, nurses,
farmers, etc.) are having to work harder because they want two cars per
family, modern kitchens, TVıs, swimming pools, holiday homes and holidays
overseas, plus more.
If you go back to a coal oven, no TV, few clothes, etc., 100 cows will give
you a good living, but you wonıt get your children to farm and you wonıt
sell your farm for the millions they are fetching here now. That is why New
Zealand dairy farmers are buying in Australia.
> I live in the Murray Valley irrigation area and have farmed and worked here
> since 1950. The original Soldier Settler farms were droughtproof but not
> inflation proof. The Settlers were set up with long term, low interest loans
> which allowed them to farm in the best possible manner and they did, too.
> Probably their greatest collective achievement being the ongoing development
> of Murray-Goulburn Dairy Co-op.
> Can you imagine how farmers would progress today if they had access to long
> term (55 years) low interest loans (2.5% interest plus 1% sinking fund =
> 3.5%). Please don't tell me to move into the real world ... FINANCE is man
> made and MANIPULATED to the detriment of not only farmers but any small
> business, the environment and anything that impinges on it.
>
> I see "over supply and glut" in a starving world as "under consumption and
> poor distribution" and the suggestion that producers should, as follows
>>>> THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION YOU SHOULD HAVE ASKED IS HOW TO COMBINE AND
> GET THE MILK PRICE UP? Do you mean form a "cartel" ... which is illegal in
> Australia!
Are your petrol prices the same between companies or cheaper from the big
companies that must have lower costs?
Iıll bet that, like here, there are cartels galore in Australia, but Iım not
suggesting cartels, but planned marketing.
If all the Australian dairy co-ops combined into one co-op that would not be
a cartel. The meat abattoirs could do the same.
Our payout figures per kg milk solids from 1990 are -
2.55 3.45 3.74 3.39 3.50 4.10 3.69 3.51 3.63 3.75
5.00 5.00 5.3 4.25 4.59 (last season). Next season will be
lower.
Town supply (liquid milk) producers get the same (about 30 cents a litre
now) but it sells for $1.50 or more in the stores. If the dairy co-op owns
the milk until the consumer the farmer gets the profit.
Deregulation in the UK wrecked the dairy farmers and the same is happening
here. There used to be just the NZ Dairy Board. Now there are a dozen co-ops
because farmers broke away thinking they could do better, but they are not
and overall they never will.
Our stupid government rules states that Fonterra which was the NZDB has to
supply other co-ops that start so one has started in the prime milk
producing area. If this continues Fonterra will end up with only the
suppliers in the outskirts on the east and west coasts from where transport
costs are three or more times higher. Payouts to those will decrease.
The new co-op makes cheese so will compete with Fonterra so price to farmers
will drop. Surprise, surprise. Iım glad my money is in retail stores where
the rent goes up annually.
> The Goulburn-Murray Valley is or was, the foodbowl of Australia now we have
> many orchardists, dairy farmers, vegetable growers and graziers all
> experiencing difficulties through loss of overseas markets and competition
> from overseas.
> Question; Why should New Zealand apples be dumped in Goulburn Valley (should
> read Australian) shops to undercut local growers with the attendant risk of
> disease import? It's not just apples, dairy produce, frozen vegetables and
> much else is on the list.
Your subsidised car plants put ours out of business and your white goods are
now doing the same simply because you have a home market ten times ours.
China is making it worse than ever with sweated child labour working on dirt
floors in lean-to shacks with none of the conditions that our employers have
to provide.
If apple growers from afar can ³undercut² yours then yours are inefficient
or too small.
You chose the wrong example with apples. Australia has banned ours for 70
years and now even under our free trade agreement. You claimed ours have
fire blight, but Australia has had it for decades, and it doesnıt spread on
fruit.
> Australian farmers are also burdened with bureaucratic red tape and added
> costs
So are we.
>which are impossible to pass on because farmers are price takers
> rather than price setters. As for political action from dairyfarmers ... if
> all the dairyfarmers in Australia were in the one electorate they still
> would not have the voting strength to worry the sitting member.
>
> Sure, we have paper millionaires around here but they work like hell
If you asked them you might find that they enjoy it. Iıve never worked in
all my life. I milked for five years and got tired of it so engaged a
sharemilker and bought more land, developed it, did contracting and in
winter manufactured farm machinery I invented and built herringbones. I got
tired of that so got companies making them under licence and retired to
town. After two years got tired of that so helped the manufacturers sell the
gear they were making for me, including at the Australian National Field
Days at Orange, NSW, then helped start the New Zealand Agricultural Fieldays
and managed it. After ten year got tired of that and joined Gallagher as
marketing manager for five years, got tired of being overseas for nearly
half the year so joined DeLaval and after ten years went back to
agricultural consulting and writing agricultural articles. Now at 74 Iım
finding some things work so spend more time playing the organ and
gardening.
>just to
> maintain it and the smallest reduction in milk prices would very soon change
> that... much of the innovation today is driven by the primitive urge for
> survival rather than cultural enhancement.
>
> I will finish here but if ever you had the time I could tell you first hand
> how farmers made a good living off 47 cows, farms had two years supply of
> hay on hand, there was little abuse of the environment through water use,
> stable family relationships were the norm and business in rural towns
> flourished with little difficulty of fielding a football or tennis team on
> Saturday and churches had large congregations on Sunday..
> In other words it was "Heaven on Earth" which is not the case today ....
> can't we learn anything from history?
> Regards,
> Lou.
There is only one thing that man learns from history, that is that man
doesnıt learn from history.
New Zealand was the same when I arrived here in 1954 and I wrote and told my
parents in S Africa that it is heaven on earth, but I would not go back to
that level of farming, in fact I led the area out of it by building
herringbones in 1959 and mechanisation. I designed and built spinner drain
diggers that allowed me to clean the 17 km of drains on our 89 ha farm in
three days sitting on a 65 hp tractor. In 1954 I had cleaned drains on farms
I worked on by hand. Stuff that.
Weıd also like to go back to the no crime and plenty of integrity, but
Americanisms and TV have changed that - unfortunately.
See above - If you go back to a coal oven, no TV, etc., 100 cows today will
more than sustain you.
The Amish in USA are spreading by taking up run down bankrupt farms and
farming very successfully and comfortably like you refer to, while USA
farmers are going broke by the thousand. The last figures I saw were dairy
farmers leaving at 800 a month. It used to be 1,000 a month, but fewer are
left now so the percentage leaving is about the same.
Read The Untold Story of Milk by Ron Schmid, ND. 2003. ISBN 0-9670897-4-3
www.NewTrendsPublishing.com USA.
It is an excellent book on milk consumption throughout the world. It
emphasises the benefits of raw milk from pasture and gives facts galore.
If you canıt get your industry organised then get organic prices for your
milk. USA is crying out for it. Fonterra is paying premium prices for it to
export.
Best wishes,
Vaughan Jones
Hamilton
New Zealand
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