More wind and patchy rain this week as cooler temperatures and dry soils over the Canterbury area have slowed growth and grasses have rapidly gone to seed.
Rivers in South Canterbury are low, the Opuha irrigation dam is only 56% full, Marlborough aquifers are at a 30yr low but in the southern regions fodder beet seedlings are rotting in the ground from too much rain and cold temperatures.
However in the north soil moisture conditions are good although temperatures are lower than normal but plenty of silage is being harvested.
Peak milk flows are slowly fading and many managers are pre mow grazing to control seedheads and return pastures to a more palatable state.
New seasons replacement calves are being weaned at 80kg and should be mobbed in weight ranges for animal health remedial action and increased numbers of cows processed, shows farmers are quickly culling inefficient cows.
The latest global dairytrade auction results again disappointed with powder prices falling by 5% and are now at the lowest level since 2009, and expectations that China will soon re-enter the market are fading.
Oceania prices followed the auction trends with reductions for powders and lifts for butter and cheese and all dairy farmers will be waiting nervously to early December for Fonterra’s forecast update.
The big upgrade of milk processing capacity at Edendale is on target as the dairy manufacturing sector strives to keep up with the rapid dairy expansion.
Westland adjusted its forecast payout downward by 40c/kg ms to sit at $5.00 to sit closer to bankers predictions and reflect current market weakness for powders.
The visit by China’s leader focused all in the country on the importance of the trade relationship with NZ, and Lincoln University announced a new partnership with the Yili Industrial Group to build a research and development centre that looks to improve processing, manufacturing and quality assurance in dairy.
Yili also announced increased investment into Oceania’s Waimate processing centre that will make it the largest integrated plant in the world covering processing of raw milk, powders, UHT milk and packaging all at the one site.
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3 Comments
Coke in the liquid milk market - something more than UHT:
Our vision for the nutrition beverage business and the milk product that I showed you which is made on a sustainable dairy with fully sustainable high care processes with animals, has a proprietary milk filtering process that allows you to increase protein by 50%, take sugar down by 30%, and have no lactose, and a milk that’s premiumised and taste better and we’ll charge twice as much for it as the milk we used to buying in a jug.
And the test markets have been amazing, and we’ve created a joint venture with a bunch of dairy farmers who are innovative leaders in the dairy industry. So you put that next to Simply and you have a nutrition beverage company with tremendous growth potential.
Now to be clear, we’re going to be investing in the milk business for a while to build the brand so it won’t rain money in the early couple of years. But like Simply, when you do it well it rains money later. And we can deliver with our business portfolio before the milk comes on full profit line.
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