Saputo finds itself in a curious position, having secured a bargain with the purchase of Murray Goulburn, selling off liquid milk facilities, further reducing its footprint by closing factories.
Due to the effect on surrounding communities like Rochester, Finley, Cohuna and Nathalia, suppliers have abandoned the once mighty giant; it is a mere shadow of its former self, earning the title of ‘Milk Price Wooden Spooners’.
Australia has a diminishing milk pool — eight billion litres back from a 12 billion litres peak.
Farmers endured years and years of prices below the cost of production, driving thousands of people out of the industry — the young, vulnerable and the brightest, some of whom are no longer with us after the clawbacks of 2016.
We now have a Dairy Code of Conduct to address this misuse of power.
The current season price of $9.40/kg MS average, or roughly $0.69/litre, is on par with Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Denmark, Ireland, France, etc.
Interestingly, the only country he (Mr Williams) draws comparison with is New Zealand, who export 95 per cent of their produce.
Our Tasman neighbours have endured a world of pain at NZ$8 price this season.
Landowners have slashed costs, reduced staff, diversified, changed industries or sold up as a result — this is the model he would have us follow.
So, is it really that tough in the manufacturing space?
We continue to see your company profits soar, while the person taking all the risk, working seven-days-a-week, is sacrificed.
It is time for the real questions:
Why is processing so extraordinarily inefficient in this country?
Why are you producing goods destined for an already-saturated market?
Why do you think you need to undercut the cheapest wholesaler of dairy goods? Is that a sustainable industry?
Why do you see paying world-parity milk price as an injustice?
All the above-named countries also have to compete with New Zealand.
You are calling for the world’s cheapest milk — sending a message that says, without it you’re not profitable!
We will not subsidise you any longer.
Gayle Clark, Katandra West
Brumbies are not harming the bush
Firstly, I would like to thank Country News for the series of articles on the removal of the Barmah brumbies.
I do have a little to say in regards to some of the points stated by both Parks Victoria and the Goulburn Valley Environment Group (Country News, May 14).
Parks Victoria first.
The horses are blamed for so much damage, but I have been going into the park for years and have seen none.
The tracks left by the horses are just minimal pathways. Compared to the ruts left by the four-wheel drives tearing the tracks up in the wet, the horses tracks are nothing.
I have watched the spread of Paterson’s curse and fireweed take off but no steps made to stop these invasive plants.
The carp and pigs do so much damage to the water and the banks. They are there in huge numbers.
Of course the horses produce dung, but I don't see how it can be said that horse dung harms the native plants. People pay good money to put it on their gardens.
Tourism — those horses were one of the major drawcards for visitors to the park.
There is a sanctuary next to the park — all that had to be done was move the horses from literally one side of a fence to the other, yet you still chose to slaughter them.
Next to GVEG.
How can you say culling the brumbies is "helping end one of the major threats to the health of this internationally significant wetland".
Rotting corpses left in the bush, floating around in the floods and probably some ending up in the river. How can this be good for the environment?
All it is achieving is keeping the pigs, feral cats and dogs well fed.
Many of these shot horses have between three and five bullets, gut shot, neck shot — for so-called professional shooters it a very poor effort.
I have one question for all of you — one of the main reasons you have demanded the culling of the horses is because they destroy "the pristine beauty" of the bush.
The horses have been there for more than 150 years. Have you ever asked yourself why it’s so pristine after all this time if they do so much harm?
Perhaps they are the main contributors to this beauty.
Janine Morffew, Echuca
(Janine is a member of the Barmah Brumby Preservation Group.)
Our government is anti-agriculture
Australian farmers are feeling disillusioned.
I could barely believe it when I heard the politically conservative (in advocacy terms, not party politics) National Farmers’ Federation representatives staged a walkout on Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt’s post-budget breakfast speech.
This level of protest is very unlike NFF, but is one of so many examples of frustration across the farming community.
Perhaps the national feeling was summed up by Western Australia Farmers vice-president Steve McGuire when he said, after the federal budget:
“My wife and I even had that discussion: Do we keep farming because we don't know what to do next? No matter what we say or do, the government might just chop it off. Common sense and good argument obviously has nothing to do with it.”
Unfortunately this is a deceptive government that does not value the contribution agriculture or the farming community in general makes to the nation.
It does not even seem to understand there is a link between farming and the cost of living crisis, with policies that restrict food and fibre production forcing up food prices.
In southern NSW and northern Victoria, farmers are terrified at what the government may do next with the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
Just as Mr McGuire said, it doesn’t matter what farmers do and common-sense plays no role. Decisions are solely based on winning capital city votes.
At present, the government is spending $12 million on a misleading basin plan advertising campaign as it attempts to woo voters with false images and rhetoric.
But it continues to deliberately hide details on water buybacks, which will devastate regional communities, or provide any information on any structural adjustment packages, which suggests they are grossly inadequate.
Murray Watt refused to visit sheep farmers in Western Australia and talk openly with them before introducing his live sheep export ban, and likewise Federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek refuses to visit the areas which will be most affected by her approach to the basin plan.
There are numerous other areas where our Federal Government appears to see farmers and agriculture as the necessary collateral damage to their city-based agenda.
I doubt Australia has ever had a government that is so anti-agriculture.
Anthony Albanese promised to govern for everyone, but it seems his ‘everyone’ does not apply if you live outside a capital city and rely on farming and the economic prosperity it generates.
Shelley Scoullar
Albury, NSW
