Australian Farmers Under Pressure

By TACON, Terry

NEW ZEALAND dairy farmers can learn a little from their Australian counterparts about water recycling, but that’s about all.

That is the opinion of Tempsky Rd lower- order sharemilker Tammy Rubie, who recently returned from a study tour of dairy farms in the Gippsland area of Victoria as part of a group of seven New Zealanders identified as 2007′s top dairy trainees in a competition run in conjunction with the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards.

Mrs Rubie returned with the view that in just about every other aspect of dairying New Zealanders were ahead of their opposite numbers in Australia, which explained why Kiwis were doing so well over there and why Australian farmers are so keen to employ workers from New Zealand.

The seven members of the group received a blanket offer of a $140,000 manager’s job on a 300-cow farm — no milking involved. All turned it down. One of the reasons was that they had seen too many examples of people under pressure because of drought and other issues.

In the area the group visited one of the problems was a grass grub-type insect called cockchafers that had wiped out what little growth there had been on some farms.

“I can understand why farmers have been committing suicide or walking off farms. At one dairy factory we visited three tanker drivers had quit because they had found farmers hanging in the vat room. There has also been a huge increase in car accidents on long straight roads where there is no logical explanation for them.”

Mrs Rubie said the Australian farmers’ water recycling was excellent, because it had to be.

“They have three-stage rather than two-stage systems and all shed water is recycled and pumped out of the third pond to wash the yards.”

As a first-time visitor to Australian dairy farms, Mrs Rubie didn’t really know what to expect. “A cross between New Zealand dairying and McLeod’s Daughters, I suppose, but it was nothing like that.”

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(c) 2007 Daily News; New Plymouth, New Zealand. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.