Dairy confidence remains high despite challenges

It’s an exciting time to consider a career in agriculture, in particular the dairy industry, according to speakers at the recent Western Dairy Business Breakfast held on Thursday 21 July at Abbey Beach Resort in Busselton.

A record audience of 110 people were in attendance including The Hon. Nola Marino MP, Libby Mettam MLA, The Hon. Dr Steve Thomas MLC, Busselton Mayor Cr. Grant Henley and South West Development Commission Chair, Nick Belyea.

Dairy Australia Industry Insights and Analysis Manager, John Droppert, acknowledged that although there is global instability, farmer confidence is growing incrementally with current strong milk prices.

“Our research shows nine out of 10 farmers were expecting to make a profit in financial year 2021/22,” Mr Droppert said.

Planfarm Managing Director, Graeme McConnell believes agriculture is one of the most exciting industries to consider entering.

“We need to encourage young people to get into agriculture,” he said. “It’s a rewarding career and business opportunity. Our top quartile of benchmarked farms are achieving long-term returns on capital of well over 15 per cent per annum when you include only a small allocation to land value change.”

Later in the afternoon, Western Dairy in collaboration with the WA Farmers Dairy Council, hosted an information session on Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in response to the recent outbreaks in Indonesia.

130 farmers and service providers attended the FMD information session to listen to speakers including Smart Cow consultant, Dr Dario Nandapi and FarmWest’s Genetics and Technical Advisor, Michael Rose. Having visited Nepal in 2018 during its FMD outbreak as part of an industry preparedness program, their discussion centred on confidently recognising FMD in your livestock and effective biosecurity measures.

Western Dairy Chair, Robin Lammie, was pleased with the turnout at both the Business Breakfast and FMD information session.

“Julianne Hill and her team did a fantastic job of coordinating our largest Business Breakfast to date,” Mr Lammie said. “The FMD session was a timely last-minute addition that we opened to all farmers and was incredibly beneficial in educating the broader farming community.”