AUSTRALIAN dairy farmers should aim to boost national milk production by six billion litres within five years, according to Murray Goulburn.
MG managing director Gary Helou said the industry was facing huge demand from Asia and responding with investment in factory infrastructure. Milk production had to rise to supply the factories.
He said the first 10 years after dairy deregulation was a “lost decade”.
“I think getting to 15 billion litres in five years is not out of the realm,” he said.
“New Zealand is almost at 20 billion litres. “We used to be neck and next with them 10 years ago.”
Rory Macleod, managing director of Freedom Foods, which half-owns Pactum Dairy at Shepparton with Australian Consolidated Milk, agreed the industry needed to increase milk supply rather than dairy companies competing for the same supply.
“The challenge to us in the dairy industry is grow supply,” he said. “We have to start getting 5-10 per cent increases in baseline dairy supply.”
United Dairyfarmers’ of Victoria president Tryan Jones said with the scale of the industry in Victoria, milk production could lift quickly if the market conditions were right.
He said the right conditions included farmers being able “to see consistent farmgate profitability to unlock capital”, and a decline in the price volatility of the past five to 10 years.
ACM managing director Michael Auld said dairy farmers “can’t just turn the tap on”.
“It probably takes farmers 12 months to respond to signals,” Mr Auld said. “If you can send more longer-term signals over two or three years, I think farmers will have more confidence to invest.”
Warrnambool Cheese and Butter chief executive officer David Lord agreed milk production needed to increase to its pre-deregulation level.
Source: Weekly Times