Water issues are being highlighted by the press, with accusations many irrigators are breaching their volume constraints and still some have yet to install water meters.
Cow wintering is progressing well under these dry ground conditions, as present volumes of feed look adequate to reach targeted body condition scores.
More cow deaths have plagued Southland as fodder beet which has now grown to 20% of the brassica diet, has caused sudden death for a small percentage of animals who are poorly transitioned on this quality feed.
Early herds up north will be planning Magnesium applications 2-3 weeks before calving as good winter grass growth is being seen with milder than normal temperatures for this time of year.
This seasons NZ milk production appears to be back 1.7%, and with an expected 4% less cows, a fall of at least double that is forecast for next year.
Last week’s global dairy trade auction result was stable, but included another 4.5% fall for main product whole milk powder, and reinforced the weak standing of the global dairy market.
A2 Milk Australia have upgraded their profit forecasts and announced plans to increase returns and report waiting lists from farmers wanting to supply, and some NZ farmers will be wondering if they let this opportunity slip through their fingers.
Reports from Fieldays week were surprisingly up beat on the mood of the rural economy, with previous years dairy spending replaced by the other more buoyant sectors.
Dairy advisers report a new resolve amongst operators who are fine tuning their systems to farm with much lower costs and changing the focus from production to profit.
Lincoln University achieves big corporate funding support for its Ashley Dene farm systems study, which will include a project involving the dairy, livestock and arable sectors.
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And the report is not good. In the voice of number one buyer....
Current Vice Minister of Agriculture Yu Kang agreed that improvement of product safety was the core objective in establishment of policy support and supervision systems. He said the production model had been improved with great increases in milk per cow. Yu recited the supply side structural reform and competitiveness mantras. The Vice Minister urged listeners to maintain their confidence and insisted the industry should be guided by consumer demand. The Chinese market for milk appears to have reached a saturation point, with milk-dumping and excess supply. But in the long run, the Vice Minister assured industry participants that consumption would grow along with income and urbanization.
http://dimsums.blogspot.com.au/2016/06/china-dairy-structural-adjustmen…
Communist party officials adopted a somber tone at a China dairy industry association meeting held earlier this month at a national dairy expo in Qingdao. They described the industry as facing "the most difficult stage since the melamine adulteration incident in 2008." Looking ahead, however, the officials expressed confidence that the discipline of vicious market competition is producing a core of lean, mean companies that will ensure a brighter future for the industry.
Wish we were making it up...
http://www.cav.net.cn/wap/index.php?moduleid=21&itemid=4372
Via phone translation. .......
The current situation is really grim dairy to what extent, president of the China Dairy Industry Association, Gao Hongbin said: At present, China's dairy industry is a development stage since the infant milk powder incident most difficult. Prominent difficulties are threefold: First, the lowest milk. Currently large farms raw milk price fell by 10%, small-scale farming community (field) raw milk price fell by 15%. The second is difficult to sell milk. By downward pressure on consumption, raw milk dairy industry limited income, limited yield of about 10% of the total production of fresh milk, some large farming enterprises because of sales difficulties dusting, dusting the total number of accounts for raw milk 5%. Third, the big loss. According to monitoring, dairy farming loss rate of 50%, and the loss continues to spread. Three difficulties, the largest and most important difficulty is difficult to sell milk......
China is facing a heath crisis, a crisis of obesity and diabetes, their appetite for western foods is coming back to haunt them.
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/201…
http://www.asianscientist.com/2014/09/health/chinas-worrying-diabetes-e…
Rock meet hardplace. In a no.1 buyer, no. 2 buyer kinda way...
Mr Putin met the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, on Saturday. The two leaders promised ever-closer cooperation and oversaw a series of deals in the face of growing tensions with the West.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/25/vladimir-putin-slams-david-c…
In what was Putin's fourth trip to China since Xi became President in 2013, the two men stressed their shared outlook which mirrors the countries' converging trade, investment and geopolitical interests.
"Russia and China stick to points of view which are very close to each other or are almost the same in the international arena," Putin said.
The Russian leader added that the two had discussed "strengthening together the fight against international terrorism", the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula, Syria, and stability in the South China Sea.
The problem for Putin is that trade between Rissia and China is actually declining. He is in a weak position. And its not getting any better for him with China.
Russia still was the second biggest market for dairy products in the world and it's gone.
Russian Dairy Imports
According to USDA FAS, Russia is the second largest dairy importing nation in the world, trailing only China. Russia is the world’s largest importer of butter and cheese, while also finishing in the top five importing nations for whole milk powder (WMP) and nonfat dry milk (NFDM). Russia’s dominance in these import markets is immense, accounting for nearly half of the world’s butter imports and nearly a third of global cheese imports in 2013.
EU cheese exports to Russia represent 33% of the EU’s total cheese exports, and EU butterfat exports to Russia account for 32% of the EU’s total butter exports.
http://www.agweb.com/article/implications-of-the-russian-dairy-import-b…
The only market that can soak up surplus EU production is China and they are going head to head with us.
https://secure.attenbabler.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Chi…
David, I'm in Cornwall. I walk up to the Gribben every day to stretch my legs. I walk past beautiful cows with calves at foot, feed up to their stomachs, sheep the same with great big fat lambs.
All being sold under the Cornwall beef and lamb label and in this case also organic.
When I look around home, I have a stream that is so polluted it can no longer sustain life, I have a council still issuing 10 year consents to huge new feedpads causing the trouble. We have Techno systems where bulls are farmed in what amounts to pretty horrible conditions especially compared to here, and we have lamb traders carrying ram lambs for a year to sell into the 'quality' UK X-mas market.
We have had growth in dairy at all costs and we have water aquifer degradation and pollution issues as well as cost issues.
For all the Uk's problems the country side is beautiful, farmers still complain mind you, mostly the weather which is understandable.
Look how the "Big 4" Aussie banks in NZ sweep the dairy farmer debt issue under the carpet ....as compared to across the ditch ....http://www.smh.com.au/business/comment-and-analysis/banks-on-high-alert… .....and lil' NZ is mentioned a few times in there as well.
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