Dairy farmers exit industry in droves, factories close as reliance on imported milk products grows

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Dairy Farming News

Dairy,Dairy Imports,Milk

Jamie Forster has received excellent farm gate prices for milk in recent years, but he is still giving up dairy farming — and he's not alone. It comes as Australian milk production shrinks to its lowest level in 30 years and butter and cheese imports soar.

Jamie Forster may have received "exceptionally good" farm gate milk prices over the last three years, but he is still giving up dairy farming."And you're dealing with the environment, which you can't control."Last year in Victoria, Australia's biggest milk producing state, 8 per cent of its dairy farmers quit the business.He said none of his four children wanted to take on the dairy farm at Cohuna in north-east Victoria.

With the federal government reviving water buybacks under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, Mr Forster is worried about the next dry spell."A lot of older ones are just hanging in there." Mr Free said farmers were still wary and it was becoming hard to attract the next generation to the industry.Jobs go as Echuca dairy factory shuttered"Costs have skyrocketed, land prices have doubled in some areas, so the return on the effort and the investment is just not there."

"We're seeing the Australian dairy industry go through a significant period of transformation," he said.Mr Harvey said a stable milk pool was essential for the manufacturing sector, and numerous expensive factories in Victoria were capable of processing much larger milk volumes to compete with imports.

As well as new sheds, in the past five years the Moscript family has bought more land and nearly doubled their herd to 550 cows.

 

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