As recently advised by letter, this year elections of Directors are due to be held in three of the co-operative’s five regions.

All active members will be entitled to vote in these elections which will be held by postal ballot commencing in September this year.  The results of these three elections will be announced at the conclusion of the 2019 Annual General Meeting to be held in November this year.

The three regions are:

In accordance with the Rules, the newly elected Directors for each region will be elected for a term of four years expiring at the conclusion of the 2023 Annual General Meeting.

Further information and the appropriate forms including the nomination form and notice of candidature may be obtained by emailing the Co-operative Secretary at mark.kebbell@dfmc.org.au, phoning 0432 046 768  or writing to:

Co-operative Secretary, Dairy Farmers Milk Co-operative Limited

Level 4, 65 Brougham Street, Geelong, Vic 3220

Whether it’s extended dry conditions or floods, farmers continually face challenges that affect their businesses. Key to seeing tough times through is keeping your mind and body fit so that you can plan, prepare, manage and cope with any situation that may arise.

DFMC’s Executive Officer, Mark Kebbell, is urging members to be responsible and proactive about their health .

“Climatic events like drought add a lot of pressure to farm management and sometimes mental health can be put on the backburner while the immediate threats to business are handled,” said Mark. “But at the end of the day there is no dairy and no business without a healthy, fit and able dairy farmer.

“I want to encourage our members to look at some of the expert advice and useful resources that are available to help you look after yourself and, in doing so, look after your business.”

The National Centre for Farmer Health (NCFH) has a range of resources that assist farmers in managing their physical and mental health. Here is their list of tips to ‘Mind Your Mind’ as published in their ‘Managing Health on the Farm’ booklet:

• Keep active – Regular exercise can boost your self-esteem and can help you concentrate, sleep, and look and feel better.
• Eat well – What we eat may affect how we feel. Your brain needs a mix of nutrients. In order to stay healthy and function well, just like the other organs in your body. A diet that’s good for your physical health is also good for your mental health.
• Get enough sleep – When you’re a busy worker on the land, life is hectic. We don’t give our bodies as much rest as they need to fully function. Pretty soon we find ourselves running on empty. Sleep is not only good for the body, but it is also good for the mind. A well-rested body and mind can accomplish great things.
• Drink sensibly – We often drink alcohol to change our mood. Drinking is not a good way to manage difficult feelings. Stay within the recommended daily alcohol limits.
• Talk about your feelings – Talking about your feelings can help you stay in good mental health and deal with times when you feel troubled.
• Keep in touch – Strong family ties and supportive friends can help you deal with the stresses of life.
• Ask for help – None of us are superhuman. We all sometimes get tired or overwhelmed by how we feel or when things don’t go to plan.
• Take a break – A change of scene or a change of pace is good for your mental health. It could be a five-minute pause from cleaning or driving the tractor, or a half-hour lunch break at work. A few minutes can be enough to de-stress.
• Do something you’re good at – What do you love doing? What activities can you lose yourself in? What did you enjoy doing in the past? Remind yourself that you are fabulous – Don’t let deadlines get you down. Remind yourself of all the things you have accomplished and don’t get caught up in problems or the things that were/are out of your control.

Also available is the Lion Dairy Pride Farmer Support Program, which offers free confidential counselling to you and your families. This can be accessed 24/7 by calling 1300 687 327.

Members may also be interested in the following:

• Stress and farming – coping tips
• NCFH Health and Lifestyle Assessments
• ifarmwell
• Farm safety windmill
• Stress tool
• Safety centre
• From Inside the Farm Gate

Reference

Phillips, T., Hatherell, T., & Brumby, S. (2018). Managing Health on the Farm. National Centre for Farmer Health, Western District Health Service, Hamilton.

The drought conditions suffered by suppliers in many regions have been, and continue to be, very trying. Lion Dairy & Drinks introduced a temporary wholesale price increase on 1, 2 & 3 litre fresh white milk and with the support of participating retailers in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland created the Be True Blue Farmer Drought Fund. All fund proceeds have been distributed to Lion Dairy & Drinks dairy suppliers through DFMC or directly to farmers in drought affected NSW, South East Queensland and Northern Victoria. 

DFMC chairman Andrew Burnett joined with Lion Dairy & Drinks Agricultural Procurement Director Murray Jeffrey and another LDD dairy supplier to form the Fund’s Oversight Committee. The Committee met monthly to ensure the accuracy, independent assessment and transparency in the payment process. Ernst & Young were also appointed as the independent auditors of the Fund.

The program has come to an end, with the last fund payment made on 15 February 2019.

“I can’t thank Lion enough for the program, the money was a real help to farming cash flows,” Andrew said.

“The fund has distributed just under $3.5 million, which is clearly significant.”

DFMC is conscious that many farmers are still facing very tough weather conditions.

Winners of DFMC’s National Milk Quality Awards were announced at our AGM and convention in November. The awards, held in honour of long-serving Far North Queensland Farm Services Manager Ian Stewart, are now in their 18th year.

DFMC believes that farms providing milk of exceptional quality should be recognised as the ‘cream of the crop’. A full list of regional award winners is below. To qualify for the awards, farmers must have NOT received any demerit points for the year, must have supplied milk for the full twelve months of the 2017/18 financial year and be current members of the co-operative.

For the second year running, we congratulate Kaid and Jo Hawken from Leitchville in Northern Victoria for winning the National Milk Quality Award. Supplying three million litres of milk at a 4.41% fat and 3.53% protein with a 72,000 somatic cell count (SCC) is an exceptional effort.

Far North Queensland

1. Laceview Pty Ltd
2. P & VA English
3. KF & SC Collins
4. J & S Geraghty
5. MB Daley Pty Ltd

South East Queensland

1. DA & CG Vonhoff
2. MC & JM MacDonald
3. Crouch Farming
4. RL & SL Skyring
5. ME IW & WD Pukallus

New South Wales

1. Beaulands Pty Ltd
2. WG & AJ Sherborne
3. Jim Strong
4. MacArthur Stanham Holdings P/L
5. The Gee Partnership

South Australia

1. Jared & Megan King
2. The Bartlett Family Trust
3. Blinkbonnie (SA) Pty Ltd
4. JR & JP Fisher

Victoria

1. GR & JR Hawken Pty Ltd
2. BD & KL Mitchell
3. JC & NT Smith
4. Northvic Farms
5. JH & BA Dealy

Congratulations also to suppliers from both the Northern and Southern regions who have achieved fantastic bulk milk cell count (BMCC) averages for the October/November period.

2018 milk quality awards

After DFMC’s convention, 14 DFMC suppliers headed to Launceston where the post-convention tour commenced with some beautiful scenery on the way to Lion’s state-of-the-art The Heritage speciality cheese manufacturing hub in Burnie.

DFMC suppliers sporting the brand new hats.

Led by Lion’s Tasmanian Farm Services Officer, Alistair Shepard, the group was given a detailed tour of the plant – which is the largest speciality cheese production facility in the Southern Hemisphere – and was able to meet master cheese maker Ueli Berger. Ueli is responsible for the 11,000 tonnes of brie and camembert produced each year.

The 150-million-dollar redevelopment of the Burnie plant has seen a large focus on robotic production, which Ueli credits to making a more consistent and higher quality product. However, Ueli emphasised that the human workforce is still vitally important in ensuring quality.

The tour was also lucky enough to visit Garry and Bev Carpenters’ robotic milking operation.

Built in an old hops processing shed, the eight-box robotic dairy milks a herd of 500 cows and was an interesting example of how new technology can be incorporated with existing infrastructure.

Also interesting was the ownership structure of the operation, with the Carpenters leasing the property from a Singaporean businessman but being responsible for implementing the infrastructure improvements.

The next morning saw the DFMC tour head to Quamby Brook near Deloraine, where the Dornauf family operate a 350-cow farm that features the world’s first fully automatic milking rotary dairy (AMR).

While participants watched on from the viewing room overlooking the dairy, owner Nick Dornauf provided insight into the development and ongoing operation of the system.

The world’s first commercial Automatic Milking Rotary (AMR) dairy.

One of the more fascinating aspects of the facility was that, when maintenance of the robots is required, the dairy can be operated manually to avoid excessive disruption to cow milking patterns.

Lunch was at another Dornauf-owned operation – The Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm – although Nick’s confession that he prefers to eat in his tractor cabs certainly raised some eyebrows!

Any doubts about the establishment were quickly erased as the tour group were treated to one of the best meals experienced for the week, with the raspberry sundaes proving a particular favourite.

The Dornaufs operate five dairies in the area, milking around 2200 cows. In May this year the Dornaufs commissioned a new one-person 60-unit rotary on their 600-cow Moltema property, at an investment cost of $1.7 million.

Featuring a robotic arm teat sprayer, the state-of-the-art installation greatly impressed the tour group, with nothing overlooked in its design and construction.

Nick explained that although the family was happy with their automated rotary, the decision not to build another was based on management capacity due to geographic considerations, with the Moltema property not well suited to automation.

DFMC and Lion invited members to attend one of the following events in their region during November & December:

• Crestmead, Brisbane: Wednesday 21 December, Kensington Tavern
• Malanda: Thursday 22 December, Malanda RSL
• Sunshine Coast / Gympie: Thursday 6 December, Gympie RSL
• Harrisville: Thursday 6 December, McInnes farm for a BBQ
• Oakey: Friday 7 December, Oakley RSL
• NSW South Coast: Tuesday 11 December, Kangaroo Valley Country Club
• NSW Central West: Wednesday 12 December, Orange Ex services club
• Hunter Valley: Thursday 13 December, Muswellbrook, Balmoral House
• NE Victoria: Thursday  13 December, King River Café, Oxley

Some pictures from our Christmas event in Echuca earlier this month, with DFMC and Lion suppliers from the Northern Victoria region.

Merry Christmas from DFMC

We would like to wish all of our members a very merry Christmas and thank you for your work this year.

Thank you also to the DFMC & Lion suppliers who attended each Christmas event this month. It was great to catch up with you all and we look forward to working with you in the coming year!

DFMC Chair Andrew Burnett represented members at a roundtable meeting of dairy leaders held in Brisbane on 8 October.

Participants at the dairy roundtable meeting, 8 October 2018 (Photo: Joel Fitzgibbon MP, Facebook page).

Hosted by Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry the Hon. Joel Fitzgibbon MP, the roundtable sought to gather industry input on the ACCC dairy inquiry report and the proposed mandatory code of conduct.

All the major processors, including Lion Dairy & Drinks, and major retailers were present as was Senator Kim Carr Shadow Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, and Queensland Senator Chris Ketter, Chair of the Economics References Committee.

“It’s important for DFMC to work with both sides of politics in a bipartisan manner,” said Andrew. “We wanted to be present at the roundtable to ensure our farmers were represented and their perspective shared.

“The main messages I communicated were the value of collective bargaining groups – such as DFMC – but that collective bargaining groups alone were not enough.

“The current market limits the capacity of farmers to pass their production costs fairly and reasonably up the supply chain, leaving otherwise viable, efficient and productive farmers in a challenging business situation.”

DMFC hopes to continue conversations with politicians interested in supporting the long-term viability and sustainability of Australia’s dairy industry.