What were the highlights and lowlights for Australian dairy in 2024? The Weekly Times takes a look back at the year that was.
Australian dairy in 2024 swung to the beat of Frank Sinatra’s hit of yesteryear That’s Life.
And what a life it has been in making money from milk this year — just as cranky Frankie warbled back in 1966, farmers were “riding high in April, shot down in May.”
Near-record prices, set at the start of the 2023-24 financial year were paying dividends when the calendar flipped to January 2024, comfortably above $9 per kilo milk solids, with some farmers closer to the $10 per kilo mark.
Naturally, processors expressed their frustration — with the Australian Dairy Products Federation calling for reforms to the mandatory dairy code of conduct.
The ADPF had plenty of examples of factory closures and ownership changes to point to in 2023, and the processor pain spilt over into 2024.
Tasmanian brands Betta Milk and Meander Valley Dairy and famed dessert maker Sara Lee were saved but some weren’t as lucky — the closure by Lactalis of its Echuca factory axed up to 70 jobs.
Australia Day brought into focus Woolworths’ generic cheese brand Hillview using green-and-gold packaging, despite being made in New Zealand.
The ‘Fresh Food People’ stirred up some fresh controversy only months later when they decided to ditch Norco milk from its Sydney stores.
Dairy’s Woolies triple whammy came in September when the supermarket slashed the price of one litre generic milk from $1.60 to $1.55.
It was the first time a supermarket had cut its generic milk prices since the infamous Australia Day dollar a litre slashing in 2011.
While supermarket retail pricing indirectly frustrated farmers, it was the farmgate price from processors by May that cut the deepest.
Unlike previous cycles under the dairy mandatory code, weak GDT returns and a dour domestic market spelled a farmgate fizzer months out from the June 1 deadline.
The feeble farmgate figures remained a constant for the remainder of 2024, with Fonterra only breaking from the pack weeks out from Christmas.
Away from the supply chain, dairy farmers — particularly those in southwest Victoria — faced another set of challenges, this time from Mother Nature and as a by-product, the banking sector.
The green drought was first felt in southwest Victoria and southeast SA but as the months rolled out, other dairy regions were enveloped.
Some tropical November rain aided conditions somewhat but the green drought hangover lingers into 2025 — with high fodder prices an unwelcome Christmas conundrum.
2023 DAIRY FARMER OF THE YEAR
From the emerald turf of the MCG in February to the freshly-cut cornfields of early December, life in the dairy for the Walpole family has been top of the crops.
Winners of The Weekly Times 2023 Dairy Farmer of the Year Award, Kate and Mark Walpole say 2024 has been a prosperous year on their Goulburn Valley farm.
Dairy farmers L-R Beau, Mark, Allan 1yo, Kaylene, Matyka, Lexi 3yo and Zena. Picture: Zoe Phillips
Four of their six adult children work on their Yielima farm, called Westin Run, a short drive north of Nathalia and a stone’s throw from the Murray River.
“We had a few dry months but the rain has been great recently in the lead-up to Christmas,” Kate says. “I know it’s been far drier in other parts of Victoria and NSW, but the weather has been pretty kind to us here.”
Heading towards 3000 head of cattle, the Walpoles have a sizeable milking operation and as a result are on a flat pricing system with their processor Fonterra.
“With the flat price, the (farmgate prices) haven’t been as much of an issue for us,” Kate says.
“We just brought in our corn crop for fodder, and that was good. We’ve tried corn grain for feed for the first time this year, which seems to be working well.”
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