Dairy Farmer articles from November 2004

Dairy Farmer archives from November 2004

COMMENT: No win situation.
November 17, 2004... With UK 200ml (6 days) under quota, EU15 production down by nearly 2 per cent, SMP stocks shrinking fast, spot prices riding high and NZ reporting tight supplies, you would think all the ingredients are there for milk prices to soar to dizzy...

Case for legal challenge?
November 17, 2004... DEFRA's implementation of the Mid Term Review has been a disaster for dairy farmers in England, disadvantaging the efficient at the expense of the inefficient. But is what Defra has done such that there is a good case for a legal challenge? ...

FFA calls for 2ppl milk price increase.(Future Farmers of America)(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... Rising spot milk prices and a tightening of supply have led to a call for a 2ppl farmgate price rise from FFA leader David Handley. "Processors have used the law of supply and demand as an excuse to keep prices down," he argues, "but now with...

Milk Link forced to rethink on price cut.(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... A producer backlash has forced the Milk Link board to halve its proposed price cut and increase the amount of capital retention. At a meeting with the member council the board has agreed to reverse its decision to cut the milk price by 0.5ppl...

Wiseman confirms First Milk tender offer.
November 17, 2004... Robert Wiseman Dairies has confirmed that farmer co-op First Milk has made a tender offer for 15% of the company's issued share capital. According to brokers 7.6% is to come from the Wiseman brothers holdings, reducing their overall family...

Dioxin found in Dutch milk.(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... A Dutch dairy farm is at the centre of a dioxin scare after routine milk samples were found to be contaminated with the cancer-causing chemical. The farm has been closed down to milk and livestock sales after dioxin at six times the permitted...

Where there's muck there's gas!(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... Somerset-based company Organic Power Ltd has launched the UK's first biogas powered car. Organic Power's boss Chris Maltin pioneered the development of unleaded petrol and now believes that renewable biogas produced from animal manures and...

NMR director set to retire.(National Milk Records )(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... National Milk Records director and national field manager Frank Armitage has announced his retirement after 30 years with the service. Renowned as a straight talker, Frank has been instrumental in many of the improvements to the service...

Warning: get to know your costs.(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... As times get tighter in the dairy industry the head of Dairy UK, Jim Begg, has warned that farmers and processors will have to put greater focus on their costs. Speaking at a conference in Northern Ireland he said future milk prices...

Cowmen comment: How about a view of what really goes on?
November 17, 2004... As our Yorkshire commentator Tim Gibson looks around at the precarious state of the industry, very few of the players look set to escape his eagle eye. It's four years now since my first column in Dairy Farmer. At that time I wrote about...

Cowmen comment: We're being boiled alive without even knowing it.
November 17, 2004... What with fly strike in the calves, rabbits in the wheat and now Brussels gnawing away at the very soul of existence, Sally Leaney has got plenty to be thinking about. Read on... It has rained all day and the cows are looking very...

Cowmen comment: Are the lights working on your old scraper tractor?
November 17, 2004... A testing question for any busy milk producer, but Paul Higgins is fearful it is just the sort of thing the farm assurance assessors may yet feel they have to add to their seemingly never ending list. Service period begins here on September...

INTERVIEW: Just what is point of farm assurance?(Interview)
November 17, 2004... With a further tightening of the rules this autumn some milk producers are beginning to question the value of farm assurance, especially if the public do not even recognise the significance of the red tractor logo. David Matthews talks to...

EC rejects call for school milk changes.(European Commission)(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... The European Commission has rejected a call from Denmark for changes to the school milk scheme. At farm commissioner Franz Fischler's final farm council Denmark pressed for a new system which would have maximised the EU subsidy for low fat...

Demand set to outstrip world supply.(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... A booming world market for dairy products has been forecast by the German ZMP price reporting agency. It says international trade in dairy products will grow from the current 8 per cent of production to 10 per cent, as demand in developing...

Superlevy bills reach #260m.(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... The EU's over-production of milk in 2003/2004 was 385,000 tonnes - but, without a big production shortfall in France, the situation would have been even worse at almost 550,000 tonnes. This has left member states facing superlevy bills of...

Uphill task for commissioner.(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... It is all change at the top in the European Commission, but new agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel faces an uphill task following her predecessor Franz Fischler. This was not helped by her receiving a lukewarm response from her...

Collective selling to boost prices.(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... Dutch dairy farmers say they believe collective selling can boost milk prices, and they have set up a new Dutch Dairy Board to do so. The aim will be to group milk in regions for sale to processors as a block, and the group says it believes...

MBM missing.(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... A German pressure group has claimed that meat and bonemeal is still finding its way into the food chain. Germany is now the only EU member state with a rising incidence of BSE. At the centre of the allegations are claims that MBM is still...

POTTER'S VIEW: What has Northern Ireland got that we haven't?
November 17, 2004... It's November and the 10th anniversary of deregulation on the mainland. What a decade it has been! I don't intend to wind the clock back as many aspects are best forgotten, but I do marvel at progress in Northern Ireland where their MMB reigned...

BREEDING: Your best buy bull for under #20 per straw.
November 17, 2004... With the autumn breeding season now in full swing, Angela Rhodes takes another look at the value-for-money sector of the semen market to highlight the Best Buys available at under #20 a straw. For the majority of producers, buying high...

WHAT is cross compliance all about and what does it mean?(single farm payment)
November 17, 2004... There has been a lot of talk about the cross compliance aspect of the Single Farm Payment, but what is it and what will it actually mean for milk producers? Derek Gardner, National Dairy Consultant with Promar International, answers some of the...

Extending lactations will lower risks from calving.
November 17, 2004... High yielding cows should not be expected to conform to a rigid 305-day lactation but should instead be fed and managed for an 18-month calving interval, according to Hannah Research Institute director Professor Chris Knight. "The most...

Double time for let-down to avoid damage.
November 17, 2004... If you want to milk cows quickly and produce quality milk you cannot afford to skimp on your milking routine. This was the key message from American veterinary consultant Andrew Johnson who works with herds across the US and abroad. ...

Early mastitis therapy set to give good return.
November 17, 2004... Simultaneous treatment of clinical and subclinical mastitis could have a significant economic benefit if cows are treated in early lactation, according to French veterinary consultant Jean Michel Fabre. Research has shown that cell counts...

Sealant and antibiotic work in tandem.(Institute of Animal Health)(Orbeseal)
November 17, 2004... Combined treatment with dry cow therapy and the intramammary teat sealant Orbeseal can significantly reduce the rate of new dry period infections, according to preliminary data from an Institute of Animal Health study. The 15-month...

Fairy Liquid really does last longer.(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... If you want a cheap, effective alternative to your normal California milk test reagent reach for the Fairy Liquid bottle. The most practical poster tip of the conference came from researchers at Bristol University Vet School who have been...

Cow-side somatic sensor on test.(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... An in-line somatic cell sensor capable of providing real-time results could be commercially available within a year, according to New Zealand company Sensortec. The prototype of the SCC sensor, which uses a sophisticated version of the...

Looking at keeping calves safe from pneumonia.
November 17, 2004... With the onset of the mild, muggy days of autumn now is a crucial time to be on the lookout for pneumonia in young calves. Vet Jereme Darke from the Kingfisher Practice, Somerset, tells us what signs to look out for and the best way to treat...

Keeping your heifers free from lungworm.
November 17, 2004... Incidents of lungworm are increasingly being found in dairy heifers, indicating the lack of establishment of proper protective immunity as youngsters. Gloucestershire vet Chris Watson tells us what we can do to avoid the worst effects of this...

How cation-anion theory applies to lactating cows.
November 17, 2004... There has been quite a lot of talk about cation-anion balances as they apply to dry cows and the prevention of milk fever. Dr Andrew Pine of Premier Nutrition tells us how this can apply equally to lactating cows. Brace yourself as this is...

How to put lactation DCAD into practice.
November 17, 2004... A growing number of GB herds are now exploiting positive DCAD in early lactation under Andrew Pine's direction. One of the earliest pioneers is Norman Weir, manager of the `Sunk Island' Holstein herd for J R Williams and Sons at Daisy Hill Farm...

Beware of mycotoxins if yields drop.
November 17, 2004... The increased use of high dry matter forages coupled with the inclusion of grain harvested under this year's poor conditions means there will be a greater risk of mycotoxin-related health problems this winter. Angela Rhodes finds out more about...

How black dust in maize played havoc with yields.
November 17, 2004... Faced with a dramatic drop in yields of up to 20 litres a cow, Lincolnshire producer Stephen Robinson set about searching for the cause and eventually traced it back to the `black dust' at maize harvest. The 95-cow herd at West Lane Dairy...

How the Orcadians set about bringing BVD to heel.(Bovine Viral Diarrhea)
November 17, 2004... The livestock farmers of Orkney, that cluster of fertile islands off mainland Scotland's north coast, decided in 2001 to rid their herds of costly Bovine Viral Diarrhoea. Claire Powell reports on how they set about the task. Scottish...

Milk prices could be in for stormy winter.
November 17, 2004... You know the feeling as you walk across a stack of bales but stray too close to the edge. The fear is the outside bale might turn over and give way. This probably best describes the edgy feeling surrounding the current milk price...

Milk Link cuts Tuxford & Tebbutt price 0.7ppl.(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... Milk Link has cut its Tuxford & Tebbutt milk price to Melton Mowbray suppliers by 0.7ppl from Oct'04. The cut will be a flat 0.7ppl deducted from the base price to pay a new price of 18.175ppl for a minimum 3.6%b/f & 3% protein. This cut...

Defra farmgate starts to wobble.(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... For the first time in 17 months, the Defra monthly average farmgate milk price shows a decrease for the same month year-on-year, with the average milk price (including retrospective bonuses) for Aug'04 milk supplies at 18.44ppl, down 0.51ppl...

Going into reverse gear.(Meadow Foods )(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... Meadow Foods has cut its direct supply price by 0.5ppl from Oct 04, the last price change being a 0.5ppl increase back in Jan'04. Reduced constituent values of 1.870p per % butterfat and 3.08p per % protein take our price down 0.53ppl to...

Dairy Crest cuts direct supply price by 0.25ppl.(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... Dairy Crest has announced it is to reduce its direct supply price across all liquid contracts by 0.25ppl from Nov'04. The price paid for milk supplied into cheese remains unchanged from May'04. Dairy Crest says that under the circumstances the...

First Milk spot price reaches 4-year high.(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... First Milk's November spot milk auction sold 1m litres for an average price of 23.58ppl, 1.6ppl up on last month's average and the highest average for nearly 4 years since the auction achieved an average price of 27.73ppl in Nov'00. United...

Milk Link wants more money to grow business.(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... Milk Link has confirmed it is to cut its member milk price by 0.5ppl from Oct'04 (its first cut since May'02) but with the money to be retained to grow and develop the business - not, it says, to undermine current market prices. The 0.5ppl will...

Wiseman in talks with co-op.(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... Robert Wiseman has confirmed it is at a preliminary stage of negotiations with First Milk with regards to the farmers' co-operative acquiring a 15% stake in the company. First Milk currently supplies the company with about 40% of its total...

DFB CI producers set for seasonality bonus.(Dairy Farmers of Britain)(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... As demand for Channel Island milk significantly increases in the lead up to Christmas, and with this trend set to continue, DFB's CI producers are to receive a further 1.5ppl seasonality payment for the first 18 days of December. The additional...

Marketing: We must sharpen up sales approach.
November 17, 2004... Liz Broadbent has joined the Milk Development Council as marketing director, fresh from Arla where she was involved in milk branding, marketing and new product development. Like many suppliers dealing with the multiple retailers, she sees...

Cheeses are failing to make the regional link.(Brief Article)
November 17, 2004... Research carried out by the British Cheese Board has shown that most people don't know their Stilton from their Wensleydale! The UK cheese market is worth #1.6bn and Britain sells more than 300,000 tonnes of Cheddar a year. But two-thirds...

GOOD EVANS: Pioneering spirit lives on in the Borderlands!
November 17, 2004... Like most true countrymen, our intrepid hero is chuffed to bits with his new patch of dirt and is flat out sowing wheat for next year's wholecrop. But wait... what's all this about an unexplained water leak and a #2000 bill from the water...