Last chance to be Legendairy

Communities across Australia’s eight dairy regions now have extra time to nominate their towns to become Australia’s “legendairy” capital for 2017, with nominations extended to April 28.

Dairy Australia is calling on everyone from community leaders to councils, dairy farmers and schools to nominate their town for the prestigious title by sharing stories about what makes their town “legendairy.”

The Legendairy Capital program, run by Dairy Australia, celebrates regional communities by supporting community initiatives and highlighting how dairy farmers contribute to their town, industry and the Australian economy.

Australia’s dairy regions - including Gippsland, south west Victoria, the Murray region, Tasmania, New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia and the Subtropical region - are invited to nominate their town for the prestigious title by sharing stories about what makes their town “legendairy.”

One finalist from each of the eight regions will receive $2500 to invest in a community project, and one of those towns will then go on to secure the coveted title of Australia’s Legendairy Capital 2017, receiving an additional grant of $7500.

Nominations will be judged based on the criteria outlined below. Helpful tips for each nomination can be found in the nomination checklist.

Social capital: the town’s ability to foster positive community spirit and community connectedness;

Innovation and resilience: the town’s success in overcoming challenges and embracing opportunities; and,

The Project idea: how the town would benefit from the nominated community project.

Nominations for the regional finalists will be judged by an independent panel of representatives from State Dairy Farmer Organisations across Australia.

Judges will visit all finalist towns to see their legendairy spirit in action, and reporting back to the national judging committee.

The national Legendairy Capital will then be selected by a judging panel from Dairy Australia and Australian Dairyfarmers.

Online nomination forms are available at legendairy.com.au/capital

An outbreak of milk fever or hypocalcaemia may only become apparent by the confronting sight of dead and dying sheep.

Hypocalcaemia, or milk fever, is a deficiency of calcium in the blood.

It usually occurs in mature, fat ewes during the last six weeks of pregnancy or the first 10 days after lambing, although other classes of sheep may also be affected.

Milk fever often follows a stressful event, such as shearing, crutching, transportation, driving, yarding, fasting or inclement weather. Milk fever usually occurs on either rapidly growing pasture, lush pasture, green cereal crops, when feeding grain, or on pasture that has oxalate containing plants such as sorrel and soursob.

A sheep affected by milk fever will initially stagger and have muscle tremors, after which become weak, slip into a coma and die quite rapidly within four to six hours.

During a post-mortem, there is little evidence to be seen in a sheep that has died from milk fever.

Cases of milk fever are often confused with, or misdiagnosed with pregnancy toxaemia or twin lamb disease. Milk fever characteristics include: a rapid onset; affected sheep remain alert; death occurs quickly; a large number of cases may occur at the one time; cases occur on lush feed rather than lack of feed; and, a good response to the appropriate treatment.

Sheep affected with milk fever should be treated as a matter of urgency with calcium/magnesium solution (often known as 4 in 1) given under the skin.

Calcium/magnesium solution is readily available from a veterinary practice or rural merchandiser.

Cases may be prevented by adding a calcium supplement if feeding grain, or by giving dry roughage to sheep on lush feed.