Who is going to help the Diary Industry??

Here is a topic for IceBlue to give us his slant on the Industry!

Up here in Qld, Dairy farmers around Gympie and Bundaberg are under increased pressure because of the low prices received for their milk.

Now John Howard deregulated the dairy industry and offered incentives for so called inefficient dairy farmers to quit the industry. Pauls was the company where nearly all Qld farmers milk finished up.. They just can't compete when Supermarkets W & C sell their milk at $1 a litre while Pauls is at $1,70. Some of us Queenslanders still buy Pauls milk but alas the demand is weakening as people struggle to make ends meet.

Now John Howard placed a levy of 10cents a litre on milk to pay for the reconstruction scheme..As far as I know that levy is still on and I think it now goes into consolidated revenue.

Now obviously Victoria has the market sown up with W & C sourcing all their cheap milk from that state to sell at all their outlets Australia wide.. They don't have to worry much it seems about transport costs.

OK all is fair with interstate trade (section 92 Aus Constitution) but the danger if ever mad cows disease broke out in Victoria means that there will be no viable dairy industry left in Qld or NSW.

National Party MP Barnby Joyce is calling for urgent action to save the Qld dairy industry..He has stated that he doesn't care about past history of the dairy industry in recent years but something has to be done.. Do we revert to every state supplying their own citizens with their own milk..

They only solution is for the government to regulate a fair price for all farmers at their front gate but that stinks of Socialism.

Maybe the Qld government should reintroduce free milk into all primary schools just as it was in the 1950's. Maybe the Federal government could go halves in paying for it. A Win Win situation for the children and for the farmers.

Now here is an isuue that means something to many country people, lets see if Tony or Kevin raise this issue.

I know Ice Blue is a dairy farmer but I wonder is ther any more SS members who rely on the dairy industry for a living.

Don't expect much reaction to this thread from city members for its good to get you milk cheap but at what price to the future of dairy farmers?

Regards Errol 43

 

I just use the calender on my computer tbh. It would hit the office supplies industry pretty hard though.

 

Are you sure the levy is still in place? I thought it was removed a few years ago (but could be the sugar one I'm thinking of).


Edit: Looked it up. According to DAFF the Dairy Adjustment Levy introduced in 2000 ceased on the 22 of February 2009.

The Dairy Produce Levy provides funding for marketing, research and development and animal health programs (currently levied at 2.9263 c/kg for milkfat and 7.1299 c/kg for protein).

 

If a farmer within 200km of me would sell direct to me, fresh, good stuff, I would buy it. Why don't farmers sell at farmers markets?

 

To help the dairy industry they should also remove the bans on selling raw milk.

 

I dont drink mik anymore because its just crap. The goodness has gone, growig up in NZ milk was 4c for a pint and us kids used to fight for the cream on the top. I was fed cows milk from the day I was born, couldnt get enough of it, but it had to be cold otherwise I'd spit it out.

Now the fucking goverment want to dictate to you what you can and cant do with it. None of the regs are for your health, its all about ensuring the levies and taxes are collected on every drop, so you can pay for the bastards pensions.......

 

What taxes n levy put in dont expects them to take out.
See WA inc. on rego still there until today. They reckon it is still cheap insurances.
Back to the topic. I dont think they cares too much for our regional.

 

I'm lactose intolerant.

..but also diabetic, gluten & salicylate intolerant, have peanut & poultry allergies, carry Q fever, suffer from fructose malabsorption & have pnuemenoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis !

...but I think farmers should get more for their milk. Cheese used to be a luxury good.

 

I don't think tax payers should be bailing out any industry. Be it milk, cars ... or anything else.

Gov bailing out industry causes more problems than it fixes.

If they're not profitable ... they're not profitable. Let them sink.

 

cant agree with that, its the majors that are screwing the farmers and also funding the election campaign

 

Gday Errol, basically in a nut shell, too much Government intervention, Corporate scabs like coles and woolworths, and dairy farmers that are weak as piss and wont stand up to them.
As pointed out gov take their share in levies and taxs, while some levies were dropped the farmer did not see the price of his milk rise.
The corporate scabs want to control the Milk directly, they want farmers selling to them directly, cut out the middle man ( the processors). First drive the milk prices down, approach the farmer and say sell direct to us and we will give you a better price, CONTROL the market then drive prices down again.
Very few farmers have the balls to stand up to all this crap - WHY? Because they are slaves to the banks.
Really if every dairy farmer started putting the milk down the drain (National strike) the public would be screaming in 3 - 5 days. This is the solution - STOP SUPPLY.
The UK farmers are already in the boat where they supply direct to the corporate scabs, getting paid what it costs to produce, from memory they have TWO dairy farms per day going to the wall.
Sad part is, farmers in NSW recently signed up with the scabs thinking its a good thing!
Most of the cheap milk put out by the scabs is rehydrated powder, FULL CREAM milk from Pauls is your best option.
The future for dairy is headed the same way as fruit growers.

 

Another industry with too much rent seeking?

 

Is illegal mate, Gov says fresh milk no good for you!
Dairy Farmer can give you milk but not sell it.

Of course we drink our milk straight from the vat, my young fella will cup his hands and I will milk a cow straight into his hands - he slurps it up while still warm.

 

Where i am they call UHT milk " fresh milk " lol

 

Mate your talking about the days before government came along and screwed the whole industry.
Even when I was young the local farmer still used a horse and cart to deliver our milk DIRECT, that was in the 70's!!!

 

Lol, pissa.

 

While I don't agree with monopolies. A simple fact remains. If more farmers get out of dairy it will reduce supply to a point where majors will either have to pay more or stop selling milk. Or perhaps if they all got together and formed some type of cooperative that set the price of milk.

Using tax dollars to subsidize any industry is a very poor solution.

 

They do at my nearest farmers market. Pure Jersey milk. You can even buy it unhomogenised with the cream on top.

 

4c a pint. How long ago was that?

My guess 40-50 years ago.

 

I was in Tasmania a few years ago, they had a milk there that had the cream on top and tasted the way milk should. Can't remember the name but I think it had a black lid and label. Living in Perth I buy the milk produced in WA, not the interstate. The way the government treats the dairy industry (and others), it looks like they are intentionally trying to make farms go under so they be snapped up by overseas interests.. similar in the way what happened with the beef trade with Indonesia. I use to drink raw goats milk but gave it up after I got severely sick from drinking a bad batch, ate and drank practically nothing for a week and lost close to 12 kilos. About 6 -12 months later the place got shut down by the health department so maybe others got sick also.
The Greens are trying to promote farmers markets so that we can buy fresh fruit and vegetables directly from growers so that we get them cheaper and they get more in their pocket also, I don't think it includes dairy though.