Dairy Farmer articles from July 2005

Dairy Farmer archives from July 2005

COMMENT: Cold winds from Latvia.(agricultural industry forecast)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2005... Well who would have thought it. Less than a couple of weeks ago our fellow EU brethren were voting "no" to what seemed on the face of it an innocent enough treaty. But cue rebate-abolishing president Chirac, and suddenly the whole thing...

In brief: Jill Eisberg resigns.(Dairy Council)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2005... After five years in the post, Jill Eisberg has resigned from her position as chief executive of the Dairy Council to move back to the north-east. During the past five years she has generated a new strategic business plan for the organisation...

In brief: Milk-Rite offer.(Brief Article)
July 7, 2005... Milking machine liner manufacturer, Milk-Rite, has announced a three- month `two for the price of one' offer on all DeLaval-equivalent liners from its 88-strong range. The offer is applicable to all Milk-Rite liners which are alternatives to...

FFA ready to turn up heat as Arla digs in.(National FFA Organization)
July 7, 2005... FFA leader David Handley has declared war on Arla Foods UK following a breakdown in talks over the company's proposed 0.35ppl price cut and has given the company till the end of June to reinstate the price cut before its retailer customers are...

Fines on illegal immigrant employment.
July 7, 2005... Farmers could soon face swingeing fines if they employ illegal immigrant labour even if they do so unknowingly. The Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill presented to the House of Commons last week includes a clause which proposes a...

Proposed milk pricing model.
July 7, 2005... A new fledgling milk pricing concept floated this week could turn UK milk price determination on its head by ensuring the price is set on the basis of the most valuable milk markets rather than on the least valuable commodity markets. The...

Entry Level goes monthly.(Entry Level Environmental Stewardship scheme)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2005... The rules governing applications to join the Entry Level Environmental Stewardship scheme have been altered to allow farmers and landowners to apply on a monthly rather than quarterly basis. This means that applicants who miss the August 1...

Milk Link to ask for extra cash from membership.(Brief Article)
July 7, 2005... Dairy co-op Milk Link has announced that it will be approaching its members to ask for an additional 1ppl capital contribution as part of its plans to refinance the business. Producers who have just taken a substantial cut in milk price and...

The benefits of dairy products.
July 7, 2005... The Northwest Food Alliance has teamed up with a number of key industry bodies to promote the benefits of dairy products across UK Co-op stores. From now until July Dr Nigel Carter, chairman of the British Dental Health Foundation, will be...

TB vaccine for badgers.(Tuberculosis )(Brief Article)
July 7, 2005... Defra has announced plans to start a TB vaccine field trial next spring in the south-west of England. The government will be committing just over #1m a year for the next three years to the study which will gather safety data and attempt to...

Cowman comment: Well, food does come from Tesco, doesn't it?
July 7, 2005... This month our Yorkshire correspondent Tim Gibson is not only fearful of his farm assurance visits and the hoops he may be asked to jump through, but more than a little concerned that agriculture may have been pitched headlong into the horse...

Cowmen comment: And I was thinking the CAP had already been reformed.
July 7, 2005... Fresh back from a break to France, our south-west correspondent Sally Leaney is surprised by Tony Blair's eagerness to throw the whole CAP back into the moulding furnace, especially just when she had got used to the SFP form. June sunshine...

Cowman comment: Why I am standing back from sushi bar.
July 7, 2005... Despite a rush of calvings, our Stratford-upon-Avon correspondent still finds time to head off to London, albeit some 17 years since his last visit. Will it be habit forming? I am writing this as we are just getting back into the swing of...

Interview: Arla answers back over latest pricing debacle.(Chief Peter Walker )(Interview)
July 7, 2005... With spring supply short it looked for some time that the industry was set on a steady course, until that is Arla, somewhat controversially, rocked the boat. David Matthews talks to Arla's milk buying chief Peter Walker about what happened and...

Potter's View: Heads down as fan blades hit more than just air.
July 7, 2005... Phew! Well the response to last month's Arla announcement has stirred the old hornets nest well and truly and brick bats have been flying in all directions. Ian Potter reaches for his hard hat. Last month's article mentioned the name of...

EU News: Further cuts on cards.(European Union)
July 7, 2005... While the debate on the future of the EU budget may be on hold, dairy farmers still face cuts to their single farm payments after 2007. This is because the original budget made no provision for the cost of enlargement into Romania and Bulgaria,...

EU News: French find going is tough.(European Union)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2005... Despite their reputation for negotiating muscle, French farmers have had to accept another cut in milk prices. The latest deal covers April to June, and the producer price will be cut by #3.50 per thousand litres. This is twice the price cut...

EU News: Dutch airline goes organic.(European Union)(KLM Royal Dutch Airlines)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2005... Fly with the Dutch airline KLM and you will now be eating organic, at least so far as the milk on flights is concerned. The airline has committed itself to serving only organic milk on flights out of Amsterdam. This follows government pressure...

EU News: Commissioner Boel set to narrow price gap.(European Union)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2005... EU farm commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel is prepared to tough it out over cuts in dairy support prices. Despite pressure from the European farm lobby organisation COPA, dairy processors and a number of farm ministers, she has made clear that...

EU News: Fight for milk price.(european union)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2005... Farmers in nine European countries have come together to fight for a minimum milk price of 40 cents per kg - around 26 pence a litre. The countries involved are Germany, France, Belgium, Denmark, Austria, Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland and...

EU News: Arla looks to tighten spend even further.(European Union)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2005... Farmers are well used to battling with Arla over milk prices, but they are not the only suppliers in the firing line. Like the major supermarkets, the company now has a global policy of reducing its number of suppliers with a target of cutting...

Breeding: Reaping the benefit of planned breeding.(Predicted Transmitting Abilities)(Profitable Life Index)(somatic cell count)
July 7, 2005... Do you know your PLIs from your PTAs? Or are you, like many producers, turned off by the acronyms and the jargon? Angela Rhodes looks at the financial benefits of genetic improvement and previews a new MDC guide which provides a practical basis...

Conference: Mycotoxin threat to herd health.
July 7, 2005... Dairy cow nutrition is increasingly focusing on fine-tuning diets and meeting the micronutrient demands of higher yielding cows. Angela Rhodes reports on the latest developments discussed at this year's Alltech Feed Symposium in Kentucky. ...

Conference: Selenium essential for better immunity.(Sel Plex)
July 7, 2005... Current feed recommendations are thought to be selling the modern dairy cow short on a number of essential micronutrients and as a result may be compromising their health and productivity. Of particular concern is selenium, whose value as an...

Conference: Yeast helps protect calves from bacteria.(Mannan oligosaccharides)
July 7, 2005... The benefits of feeding yeast supplements as rumen modifiers is an accepted practice on many dairy units. But it seems certain components of yeast cells can also have a beneficial effect on calf performance and immunity to bacterial and viral...

Conference: Urea prill gets plastic coating.
July 7, 2005... Among the developments unveiled at the conference was a new urea-based slow release nitrogen product Optigen 1200. Normal food grade urea is a relatively cheap source of non-protein nitrogen but it is toxic to dairy cows at feed rates above...

Tractors: Power transmission moves to next level.(Ares)(MF Dyna-6)(XTX tractor)
July 7, 2005... Copyright: CMP Information Ltd. New transmission technology features prominently in most of the tractor launches so far this year. Steven Vale takes a closer look at what innovations manufacturers like Claas, MF and McCormick have come up...

Tractors: Kubota.(M 105S tractor)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2005... Boasting an output of 105hp, the M 105S is Kubota's first 100hp+ tractor. Powered by a four-cylinder 3.8-litre Euro 2 Kubota engine, it generates 93hp at the PTO. Standard transmission is a 16-speed version, although it is possible to increase...

Tractors: MF.(MF new 4400 series tracor)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2005... If you are in the market for a new 74 to 98hp livestock tractor then you might like to know that MF recently phased out its 4300 series in favour of new 4400 series models. Designed for customers looking for a basic mechanical tractor,...

Tractors: Landini.(Landini S.p.A.)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2005... There is no shortage of new tractor models from Landini this year. The list includes the three-model Alpine series, the compact dimensions of which make them particularly suited to hill farming. Offering outputs of 67hp, 76hp and 82hp, there is...

Tractors: Valtra.
July 7, 2005... The use of exhaust brake technology to slow the speed of the vehicle without the need to depress the standard service brakes has become popular in the commercial vehicle sector. Valtra is the first to develop a system for tractors. Called...

Tractors - In brief: Case IH.(Brief Article)
July 7, 2005... The Fast Steer steering aid originally launched on New Holland TSA tractors is now available on Case-IH MXU tractors. Called Turn-Assist, it uses a smaller steering wheel inside the main one and once pressed down allows the front wheels to...

Letter: Big changes during dry period.(Letter to the Editor)
July 7, 2005... From: Duncan Rose, chief technical officer, Pye Bibby Agriculture. I read with interest and some concern Prof Beever's article in last month's Dairy Farmer regarding the feeding of high levels of straw to cows in the dry period. ...

Letter: Don't forget Friesians.(Letter to the Editor)
July 7, 2005... From: Mary Mead, Holt Farms, Blagdon, Nr Bristol, Somerset. I am sorry to have to take issue again on breeding matters, and Angela Rhodes' article about the Test Day Model and specifically the fertility index. She says this is only...

Letter: What about hygiene rules?(Letter to the Editor)
July 7, 2005... From: Tom Hosking, Wootton Grounds Farm, Lower Road, Ford, Aylesbury. I was very interested in the article about the dairy in Wales with an outdoor rotary parlour. Could we have a piece in a future issue of Dairy Farmer informing us how...

Milk Link claims spring price is up on last year!
July 7, 2005... Milk Link claims that due to the flattened supply profile this spring, it will have paid out a substantially higher average milk price to members for April and May compared with the same months last year. The average weighted milk price...

Heler quick to respond to cheese initiative.(Brief Article)
July 7, 2005... Having cut the milk price to its direct suppliers by 0.6ppl from Jun'05, Joseph Heler has responded quickly increasing the price by 0.5ppl from the middle of June as a result of the retail initiative on cheese from one of the company's major...

Wiseman suspends expansion bonus in Aberdeen.(Robert Wiseman Dairies)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2005... Due to the recent Asda contract loss in Scotland and with Morrisons from Oct'05, Robert Wiseman says it has been left with no alternative but to notify suppliers in Aberdeen that the existing incentive bonus for increasing milk supply (now in...

United's auction down 0.7ppl.(United Dairy Farmers Inc)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2005... United Dairy Farmers' milk auction in June sold 46mltrs (contracts starting July 1) for an average price of 19.67ppl, 0.67ppl down compared with June last year (when 47mltrs averaged 20.34ppl) but 0.21ppl up on last month's average of 19.46ppl....

First Milk cancels auction.
July 7, 2005... First Milk has cancelled its 1mltr milk auction this month (for July deliveries) due to the lack of milk supplies, the consecutive month the co-op has decided not to hold its auction. Milk supply is reported tight nationally, coming off the...

DC increase on milk for cheese.(Dairy Crest Ltd.)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2005... Dairy Crest has confirmed there will be a price increase paid to suppliers of milk for cheese from July 1. However, the exact amount will be agreed with Dairy Crest Direct and First Milk early in July. While the company has confirmed it will...

Golden Vale up 0.1ppl for May.(butterfat from 2.3p to 2.314p)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2005... Following its 0.3ppl increase for April'05, Golden Vale has found a further 0.1ppl for May'05 supplies. Increasing the butterfat payment from 2.3p to 2.314p per % takes our standard price up to 19.89ppl and 19.14ppl on level and seasonal supply...

Farm gate price tracking last year.
July 7, 2005... The provisional DEFRA average UK farm gate milk price for April'05 of 17.69ppl remains steady compared with last year. Being only a fraction down on the April'04 average of 17.72ppl, the average was still 0.84ppl up on the April'03 average of...

Good Evans: It's all there bar the double white lines.
July 7, 2005... Although Roger Evans hates spraying off his wheat crop to create footpaths, he's now found a novel way of really taking on the intricacies of the Highway Code and giving his ramblers a motorway experience. An important part of the changes...