Dairy farmers go from boom to dust
Desperate farmers need urgent action
ONCE a thriving sector involving hundreds of producers in the Far North, the dairy industry has now been weaned back to just 52 operations on the Tablelands. Industry deregulation, a flawed pricing system and an unseasonable dry period has some believing Malanda and Millaa Millaa could be turned into ghost towns. Millaa Millaa dairy farmer Colin Daley (right) says if action isn’t taken in the next few months, the industry “will not be saved and ... every litre of milk consumed in North Queensland will be trucked in”.
ONCE thriving dairy industry on the Atherton Tablelands is on the brink of collapse as desperate farmers reach out to lawmakers to fix a flawed pricing system.
Soaring input costs, a 62.1¢/l farm gate price and an unseasonably dry period has the dairy industry in crisis.
Hope of a mandated 10¢/l milk levy proposed by the Protecting Australian Dairy Bill could bring the industry back from the brink but farmers will now have to wait until March next year after the Bill was passed to a review committee last week.
Third generation Millaa Millaa farmer James Geraghty said he had been forced to take out bank loans to cover outgoing costs just to keep his head above water.
He estimated the farm is losing $60,000 for every one million litres of milk produced.
“What we would like to see is our industry go back to its heyday when we had hundreds of farms,” he said.
“We would like to see our product valued as it should be.”
“And we would like to see a price paid that is sustainable ... that dairy farmers could bring the next generation through on to family farms.”
Mr Geraghty said the levy would make the difference between struggling to make ends meet and operating a viable and sustainable business.
“It will fix the market milk states in Queensland, NSW a part of South Australia and Western Australia,” he said.
“Everyone has to make a quid, we are fully aware of that and are fully supportive of that (but) there is just not enough money coming in.”
Mr Geraghty said milk retailers had to be held accountable for their influence on the profitability of dairy producer businesses currently being paid less than the cost of production.
“The supermarkets have too much power,” he said.
“No government is going to take them on in open warfare because they will lose.
“No government will make them divest because super funds hold shares in Coles and Woolworths.
“If you make Woolworths and Coles divest you will drop the price of their shares.”
North Queensland senator Susan McDonald said supermarket giants needed “to find a moral backbone” ahead of public hearings in Canberra this week to answer claims of paying Queensland farmers less for their milk than what it costs to produce.
“Coles and Woolworths need to do the right thing and end this ridiculous milk price,” she said.
A spokesman for Woolworths directed the Cairns Post to an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission finding in November that found “retail prices did not have an observable direct impact on farm numbers, output or profitability”.
“(However) we’ve been taking steps to support a more sustainable dairy industry while the Federal Government works to deliver the structural reform recommended by the ACCC,” he said.
Coles didn’t respond to questions asked by the Cairns Post.
Everyone has to make a quid, we are ... supportive of that (but) there is just not enough money coming in
MILLAA MILLAA FARMER JAMES GERAGHTY
If something doesn’t happen in the next few months ... you will be trucking in every litre of milk consumed in North Queensland
MILLAA MILLAA FARMER COLIN DALEY