Dairy Farmer articles from September 2002

Dairy Farmer archives from September 2002

Call for cut in quotas.(drop in milk quotas would help prices paid to farmers)(Brief Article)
September 20, 2002... Former Irish Farmers Association president and dairy industry commentator Joe Rea has called for a cut in European milk quotas to boost prices paid to farmers. He told a summer dairy industry conference in Ireland that, since many EU member...

COMMENT: Time to stand up and be counted!(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)
September 20, 2002... They tell me there's a bit of a hum in the air over Burton-on-Trent, and it isn't the breweries! Even to the impartial observer the surprise announcement of amelca's demise must beg the question as to how projections could have gotten so badly...

Price drop sparks backlash.(Brief Article)
September 20, 2002... Meadow Foods' (Bodfari) surprise announcement to drop the producer price 1.9ppl has caused an angry backlash from north-west suppliers. According to the membership, the group was notified late July of the price reduction taking many...

Backing farmers.(Brief Article)
September 20, 2002... Scottish NFU is backing dairy farmers in their campaign for fair milk prices. President Jim Walker plans to lead his members on a demonstration on September 19 outside supermarket depots in an attempt to bring home to retailers that dairy...

Cloned gene could reduce mastitis.(Brief Article)
September 20, 2002... Scientists at the US government's Agricultural Research Service claim to have cloned a gene that could help reduce levels of mastitis. They say the gene, for which a patent application has been made, is already available in small...

Express seizes chance.(Express Dairies Ltd. purchases Amelca milk)(Brief Article)
September 20, 2002... Express seized its chance last week and moved in fast to pick up milk from distressed amelca producers in the close-by Ashby area. Within a day of the #20m amelca crash announcement being made, Express was picking up from 20 of the 25 farms...

Buy-up to create TB barrier.(US Department of Agriculture plans spending)(Brief Article)
September 20, 2002... The US Department of Agriculture is to spend more than $40 million over the next two years buying up farms to create a barrier between the milk production areas of southern Texas and Mexico. The aim is to overcome a poor track record in the...

Sainsbury's team goes farming.(Brief Article)(Illustration)
September 20, 2002... Sainsbury's dairy team gets the feel of the job in an exercise to gain a better understanding of the issues, and which is all part of its dairy communications forum set up last year. Picture shows Sainsbury's general manager for dairy Finn...

Direct action: only way to lift prices?(dairy prices need a lift)(Brief Article)
September 20, 2002... Even Yorkshire producer Tim Gibson is getting fed up with dairy companies and the their downward pressure on prices. As a fully paid up member (almost) of the FFA he believes it has done more to try to lift the milk price than the NFU, and that...

Transformed from milk producer to discerning buyer.(Duncan and Sally Leaney give up dairy farming)(Brief Article)
September 20, 2002... It is now two months since Somerset producer Sally Leaney and husband Duncan said goodbye to their cows and entered the strange pc (post-cow) world. Despite the eerie stillness without the cows, Sally is finding there is still plenty to be...

In TB isolation but does anybody care?(backlog in tuberculosis testing)(Brief Article)
September 20, 2002... Warwickshire producer Paul Higgins has been told that TB tests could now take anything up to four months, and he is slowly coming to the conclusion that no one gives a fig about the problem anyway You may remember my TB testing - well the...

Retailer margins talked about are just daft!(milk prices)(Interview)
September 20, 2002... If it is not the processors pushing the milk price down is it the supermarkets? Getting any of the major retailers to sit down and answer questions is like asking for the moon, but here Safeway's head of communications, Dr Kevin Hawkins, talks...

Red tractor set to drive swath through producers.(quality logo of National Dairy Farm Assured Scheme)
September 20, 2002... As NDFAS assessors catch up with auditing farms, many producers are being failed on one particular thing - Herd Health Planning. Crewkerne vet Jonathan Reader explains how farms can satisfy the requirements to allow their produce to carry the...

Scammers get an offer they can't refuse.(milk quota fraud)(Brief Article)
September 20, 2002... The Italian government has ordered an enquiry into allegations of fraud in its milk quota system. Claims of fraud on a massive scale have been used by farmers to justify years of failure to pay superlevy bills. Since quotas were introduced...

Failure to use export quota.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 20, 2002... Despite the pain farmers have faced from low prices EC figures show that not only was the dairy budget under-spent, but Brussels failed to make full use of its World Trade Organisation quotas for dairy product exports. Cheese was the exception,...

Axe looms for Beckett's German ally.(Renate Kunast)(Brief Article)
September 20, 2002... German elections later this month will have a big impact on the future of European agricultural policy, including the likely stance the farm council will adopt on the future of the dairy regime and the mid term review discussions on CAP reform....

Suspicion that milk is used as a carrot.(milk quotas offered to European Union candidate countries)(Brief Article)
September 20, 2002... The European Commission is continuing to claims that enlargement can be achieved by 2004 - but its latest report on the readiness of candidate countries for membership has cast fresh doubts on claims that extending the CAP can be a simple and...

A land where poverty chokes full potential.(Romanian dairy industry)
September 20, 2002... The flight time to Romania from the UK may only be a matter of hours but in farming terms the country is languishing in the history books, ranked by the EU as among the last of its enlargement candidates. Carol McLaren reports on her visit to...

Milk processing facility.(Iasi, Romania)(Brief Article)
September 20, 2002... Mimaela Faraoanu, sales manager of a milk processing facility near Iasi, said this year's drought has worsened the milk supply problem. The facility, 80 per cent owned by farmers, supplies products including yogurts, cream and an impressive...

Romania - facts and figures.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 20, 2002... Location: South-eastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea, between Bulgaria and Ukraine. Climate: temperate; cold, cloudy winters with frequent snow and fog; sunny summers with frequent showers and thunderstorms. Terrain: central...

POTTER'S VIEW: Why do we have the lowest milk prices?(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 20, 2002... Despite last month's attack by two academics on the subject of quotas, Ian Potter comes back fighting and after putting the RPA to rights questions the MDC's milk price enquiry and in particular steering committee membership The serious...

Making the most of low cost wheat.(opportunities for farmers)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 20, 2002... With milk prices on the floor, the glut of low-priced feed wheat on the domestic market offers the option to reduce concentrate usage and cheapen dairy rations this winter. Angela Rhodes reports. Falling cereal prices should knock at least...

Red welly marks are the give-away!(Brief Article)(Editorial)
September 20, 2002... Having just managed to extricate himself from a potentially life- threatening situation with the distaff side, our intrepid hero now sets about their daughters. Whatever next! Roger... stop digging! I was a bit worried about getting all...