Dairy Australia 2022 annual meeting: Ups and downs of dairy dollars

Milk production is down due to floods but the value of dairy is up, Dairy Australia has revealed.

Floods across south-east Australia are set to further shrink the nation’s milk pool, Dairy Australia’s chairman says.

But James Mann said conversely, the value at the farmgate had soared in 2022, with record prices paid to primary producers at the start of the 2022-23 financial year.

The Mount Gambier region farmer gave one of the keynote speeches at Dairy Australia’s annual general meeting, held online today.

“This year we’ve seen high farmgate prices and stiff competition between processors for a shrinking domestic milk pool,” Mr Mann said.

“Milk production last financial year was down slightly to 8.6 billion litres, but the value of

farmgate milk production increased to 4.9 billion dollars.

“These are positive signals for our industry, and something we should all be proud of.

“However, there have been challenges. Many dairy farmers have been affected by floods.

“The flood situation continues to evolve.”

Mr Mann acknowledged the service of Paul Wood and Josephine Rozman, who retired from the DA board.

He also noted the resignation of fellow board member Russell Abotomey, who is scheduled to finish his service next month.

Dairy Australia chief David Nation. Picture: ANDY ROGERS

Dairy Australia chief executive David Nation said one of DA’s 2022 highlights was work to improve practical training on artificial insemination.

“(AI training) was a growing industry problem because of the expense and challenges of practical training,” he said.

“In response, Dairy Australia brought the key players together, including the herd

improvement industry.

“We updated all of the training materials, were successful in obtaining government

grants to support this, and built new delivery models with TAFE institutes across the

country.”