Dairy Farmer articles from January 2003

Dairy Farmer archives from January 2003

Move to extend quotas.(European Commission's agricultural agenda)(Brief Article)
January 23, 2003... The European Commission has confirmed that it wants to extend the Agenda 2000 approach of support price cuts and compensation for at least two years after the dairy reform deal is due to end. This would guarantee a minimum five-year future...

COMMENT: Teetering on the brink.(United Milk in Westbury)
January 23, 2003... Not enough milk to guarantee throughput, not enough throughput to guarantee profit and not enough profit to guarantee milk. Caught in this ever-tightening circle, the Westbury boil finally came to a head this month with the surprise...

Critical time for Westbury.(United Milk )
January 23, 2003... The newly-appointed United Milk chairman moved to quash speculation this week that the future of the Westbury plant was in jeopardy, but did not deny that the next two weeks would be critical. "We haven't finalised it yet, but we have...

Fertility boost.(Genus Breeding)(Brief Article)
January 23, 2003... Genus Breeding has launched a new Fertility Plus range of `three in one' AI products designed to improve conception rates and reduce calving interval. Straws from this range will each contain semen from three sires selected using a patented...

Wholecrop day.(Calendar)
January 23, 2003... Calling all wholecrop enthusiasts: don't forget the MGA wholecrop day (in conjunction with MDC and HSBC) at Harper Adams on February 5. Topics include Andrew Shakeshaft's pioneering approach to wholecrop beans for lifting the home grown protein...

Milk boss to quit.(Dairy Farmers of Britain)(Brief Article)
January 23, 2003... Dairy Farmers of Britain has announced that Chris Bird plans to stand down from his position as CEO of the co-op this year. As we go to press no successor has been named and DFOB stresses that Mr Bird's plans to step down at some stage were...

First semen exported to US for two years.(Brief Article)
January 23, 2003... After almost two years, semen exports have been resumed to North America with both Cogent and Genus Breeding sending their first consignments to the US this month. The door to the American and Canadian markets has been firmly locked since...

Dawning of designer milk age.(dairy industry forecast)(Brief Article)
January 23, 2003... In a series of forecasts on what will happen to the dairy industry in the next 50 years the appropriately-named Lawrence Creamer of the New Zealand dairy co-operative Fonterra says the age of designer milk will soon be here. According to...

Concern over export stance.(Irish Dairy Board )(Brief Article)
January 23, 2003... The Irish Dairy Board says that whether 2003 proves a better year for dairy farmers than last year depends on the approach adopted by the European Commission towards market support. In its forecasts for the new year the Board, which has a...

Top-seller Hugo's milestone.(Holstein-Friesian reaches 1 million insemination mark)(Brief Article)
January 23, 2003... New Zealand Holstein-Friesian sire SRB Collins Royal Hugo has become the youngest AI bull to pass the 1 million insemination mark at the age of just seven. Nicknamed `The King' by owners Livestock Improvement, Hugo has consistently been a...

Heifer-taming robot ready for challenge.
January 23, 2003... Apart from being on standby duty with Farmers For Action, Tim Gibson is busy with a whole host of winter jobs and with ever inventive mind has found a somewhat novel way of keeping warm. Read on... Today I've spent the whole day trying to...

Seale-Hayne move is thin end of wedge.(changes in farm life)
January 23, 2003... As a former Seale-Hayne student Sally Leaney is livid about proposals to "relocate" the well-respected college and wonders where it will all end. In the meantime she has other things to worry about, like getting the latest machinery purchase to...

Wheat deal to arrest early protein decline.(missives from the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
January 23, 2003... Despite what George Dubya is alleged to have said (`The problem with the French is that they don't have a word for entrepreneur'), our Stratford-upon-Avon cowman has found an enterprising way of dealing with the cascade of DEFRA letters and...

Rollers start to turn on EU reform mangle.(dairy industry production quotas)(Interview)
January 23, 2003... With swingeing intervention price cuts proposed to accommodate WTO aspirations, the big question is: Will alternative support mechanisms be sufficient to keep the industry afloat in a market generating insufficient returns? David Matthews talks...

Select sires carefully to avoid CVM defects.(Complex Vertebral Malformation )
January 23, 2003... The genetic defect CVM was identified in the Holstein population over two years ago, yet many producers still seem unaware of the implications of using CVM carrier sires. Angela Rhodes looks at how CVM status affects herd breeding decisions....

Quotas: What the Thomsen case will mean to you!(Column)
January 23, 2003... Ian Potter on the winners - and casualties - of the Thomsen case and how producers should plan ahead in the light of current proposals. Well, fancy the Thomsen case implications on Non Producing Quota Holders coming as a shock! And, believe...

Anger at move to slash refunds.(Brief Article)
January 23, 2003... Copyright: CMP Information Ltd. Europe has made a dramatic offer to the World Trade Organization to cut export refunds and import tariffs. If this becomes the basis of a future WTO deal, it could have a big impact on the dairy sector, which...

Charity raps dairy regime.(Oxfam)(Brief Article)
January 23, 2003... Oxfam has published a harshly critical report on the EU dairy regime, accusing the Commission of having in place market mechanisms that destroy the economic hopes of farmers in developing countries, while at the same time failing to protect...

European Commission manages to keep lid on quotas for 10.
January 23, 2003... The European Commission has managed to achieve a deal on enlargement with only minor concessions on milk quotas. This is good news for farmers in the EU 15, who had long feared that in the final deal Brussels officials would give way to...

Short-term optimism in forecast for the dairy market.(European Commission report)(cheese consumption up, butter production to fall)(Brief Article)
January 23, 2003... The European Commission has unveiled optimistic short-term market forecasts for dairy products. As part of its outlook for agricultural markets from 2002 to 2009, it says that in the medium term it expects an increase in cheese consumption...

No wish to return to all-year calving.(producer Robert Craig's operation)
January 23, 2003... Switching to a spring calving system was both a financial and a lifestyle decision for Cumbrian producer Robert Craig. Even with price penalties likely for seasonal producers, he tells Angela Rhodes why there will be no going back to year-round...

Yields rocket as grazing is reduced.(home-grown forages favored)(Illustration)
January 23, 2003... A move to greater home-grown forages with less reliance on unpredictable grass growth has sent yields soaring on the Roworths' farm in the Dove Valley, Derbyshire, as Roger Cheshire reports. Even as the forager moved in to harvest the early...

Mastitis - making the right decision.(lactation disorder)
January 23, 2003... As an increasing number of mastitis cases fail to respond to conventional `three tube therapy', specialist cattle vet Andrew Biggs looks at the options to improve the cure rate. Probably the question I get asked with increasing regularity...

Johne's disease is tough nut to crack.(bacteria can cause chronic disease in cattle)
January 23, 2003... Johne's Disease (paratuberculosis) may be subclinically present on many farms in the UK, and has grown in importance lately because of possible links to Crohn's disease in humans. Somerset vet Jonathan Reader looks at the problems of diagnosis...

Staff slashed by half at Dairy Council.(Brief Article)
January 23, 2003... The end of December saw a halving of staff at the Dairy Council following cuts in funding which come into action from April this year. Those leaving include the education manager who worked closely with schools, a nutritionist and the...

Table cheese exports keep on growing.(Brief Article)
January 23, 2003... Latest figures from Food from Britain for the first seven months of 2002 show that exports of dairy products are still well down on pre-FMD levels. Dairy exports were #1.5m under 2001 levels for the January to July period. Despite this,...

Ilchester shows way in speciality overseas sales.(cheese exports)
January 23, 2003... Last month the MDC commissioned Food From Britain to look at the potential for our dairy products in overseas markets. This comes in the wake of declining exports in the sector over the past few years. But there are some great success...

Slurry cover saves space and money.
January 23, 2003... Covers on slurry stores are common in other parts of Europe but, despite our relatively high rainfall, they have not really caught on here, according to ADAS... Yet, that is! Development work by ADAS suggests that fitting a cover to a...

Easy to trip up over energy terminology.(supplementary feeds)
January 23, 2003... Investing in additional energy is essential for most dairy producers this winter in order to balance problematic grass silages and capitalise on genetic potential. However, according to Mike Rogers of Volac International, producers must not...

Pivot steers are all the rage.(telehandlers)
January 23, 2003... It is no secret that there are plenty of farms out there that would normally have updated their essential machinery a couple of years ago, but have inevitably run slap bang into the cash barrier. Despite this, telehandler sales went up a...

Small machines for tight spaces.(telehandlers)
January 23, 2003... In the race to produce machines that allow heavier weights to be lifted to greater heights it could be argued that telehandler manufacturers have forgotten about the guy at the smaller end of the market who needs a machine capable of operating...

Rigid models are still the mainstay.(articulated telehandlers)(Buyers Guide)
January 23, 2003... While sales of articulated telehandlers might be on the increase, rigid versions still account for the lion's share of new telehandler sales. The telehandler has become an indispensable year-round tool on many dairy farms. In fact, the...

Rising sales.(Claas UK)(Brief Article)
January 23, 2003... Generally tractor sales outnumber telehandler sales by 4 to 1, according to Simon Weeks of Claas UK. "This means that with a tractor market of 12,000 units the telehandler market ought to account for 3000 machines. We seem to be getting...

Boom arm suspension smooths ride.(JCB telehandlers )(Brief Article)
January 23, 2003... A boom suspension system available on a number of JCB telehandlers has proved so popular that it is now being offered as an option on two further telehandler models - the 526S and 528S. Called the Smooth Ride System (SRS), the patented...

Reducing risk of radiator blockage.(Claas UK's Targo K and C Series telehandlers )(Brief Article)
January 23, 2003... The ability to clean the cooling system at the press of a button is a feature of the latest specification Targo K and C Series telehandlers from Claas UK Ltd. Called the Claas Self Cleaning System (SCS), it consists of a reversible fan...

Budget-beating bargains.(telehandlers from Manufarm)(Brief Article)
January 23, 2003... Although French-firm Manufarm does not yet have a UK importer, it is worth noting that the firm's range of telehandlers (safety frame only) is at least 20% cheaper than anything else on the market. It needs stressing that these really are...

Redesign for new model range.(telehandlers)(Brief Article)
January 23, 2003... Faresin has just launched three brand new telehandler models. The new versions replace all existing models. The three, the 7.30 (7m, 3 tonnes), 7.35 (7m, 3.5 tonnes) and 9.30 (9m, 3 tonnes), boast new exterior styling and boom design. All three...

Fitted linkage rival to tractor.(Merlo's Multifarmer telehandler)(Brief Article)
January 23, 2003... Merlo's Multifarmer telehandler, which is fitted with a rear linkage and PTO, attracted a huge amount of interest at the Smithfield Show recently. According to the firm's Peter Grant, customers had to queue to take a closer look at the machine....

The case of Billy and the 20-day rule.(farming life)
January 23, 2003... Imagine the scene. Our intrepid three-pointer is proceeding with caution and overtakes... yes overtakes... the forementioned Billy wondering innocently to himself if said Billy is on parade every week how the blinkin' heck does he circumvent...