10c/L is 1.4c for farmers
WHEN Coles announced it would increase its own brand milk price by 10c, farmers questioned how much of that money they would see at the farm gate.
In a statement Coles said it would “work with dairy processors to ensure that the benefit of this retail price increase will go directly to the dairy farmers who supply Coles brand milk to our customers.”
Norco currently holds the contract to supply Coles’ milk and 38 per cent of Norco’s total supply goes to Coles branded milk.
Norco said the profits from the extra 10c/L from Coles would be distributed to all Norco suppliers, meaning Norco farmers would see an extra 1.4c/L at the farm gate.
In March, Norco announced a 6.5c/L pay increase for members, meaning Norco farmers will receive an extra 7.9c/L in total from April 1 until June 30.
Allan Bellingham, 71, has been a dairy farmer all his life.
He said his Greenmount, Queensland, farm had been supplying Norco for about a decade.
Mr Bellingham said the extra 7.9c/L wasn’t enough to be able to compete with high fuel, grain, and electricity prices, but every little bit helped.
“We feel that we need to pick up about another 20-25c/L to make the farm profitable like it was prior to 2000 before deregulation came in,” he said.
“Expenses seem to be going up and up but our milk prices aren’t going up. But I feel that it all has to help.
“I feel that the supermarkets – it’s not only milk but vegetables and beef – the prices are really dictated to us, they’re not what we have to get (to be profitable).
“They put a price on an article in the supermarket and we have to pay it. But they dictate to us the price they want to pay.”
Mr Bellingham said the main change needed to save the dairy industry was to receive a fair price comparable to the expenses paid to produce milk.
“The extra 7.9c will bring us up close to 60c a litre,” he said. “But that’s only for three months.
“There wouldn’t be much difference over and above what we were getting 10 years ago.
“Also we’re not getting the same quality of feed because of the drought, and so the cows aren’t in as good condition which means they’re not producing as much milk.”
Mr Bellingham runs the dairy with his wife Janette and son Owen, over 1214ha with 405ha of cultivation. They also run beef cattle.
“When we started to head into the dry we had 600 head and now we’re closer to 300,” Mr Bellingham said.
“On the home farm we have forward-sold a lot of our beef cattle to try and keep the money coming in to buy hay. We spent towards $200,000 on buying hay.
“We have come to the stage in the past six weeks that we cannot afford to buy any more hay.”
Mr Bellingham said if they couldn’t get a loan from the bank, they feared they may have to exit the dairy industry.
“We have a son who has wanted to do dairying since his school years,” he said.
“He still wants to carry on dairying, but he’s in the same predicament as us.”