The combination of limited feed due to the widespread dry, crippling power prices and $1 per litre milk have taken a toll despite their best efforts to remain sustainable.
Mr Janke said they had never seen such a desperate shortage of fodder.
“We went through drought here before, we had dry times back before the 2010 rain and we were probably drier in this area then than we are now, but we could source feed,” he said.
“The industry was certainly in a situation where you could spend money to buy the feed; the west wasn’t getting the drought and even over the border you could buy grain.
“It was never as desperate as what we’re going through now.”
The Jankes are currently milking 320 cows and produced 3.5 million litres of milk last financial year, but say they only have enough feed in their silage pits to get them through to October.
“Even with the best of planning and the best of drought management, like anyone on the Downs it’s uncharted waters,” he said.
“We’ve never had these challenges before. We continue on because I say this is not the time to pull out at the bottom, but we don’t know where the bottom is with the way it’s going.”
While they said they could walk away tomorrow, their concern is for the next generation of dairy farmers in Queensland.
“The young ones in the industry are our future and should be able to grow in the industry like we did, but what’s there today is not too encouraging,” he said.
Mr Janke said a price increase to $1.50 per litre at the supermarket should not be a hard ask.
“Thirty cents for the farmers and 10 cents for the processors because even the processors are not making money,” he said.
“The average household uses 10 litres a week, so if it goes up 40 cents a litre, that’s $4 per week.
“Not even the price of a cup of coffee, so you can’t tell me that it’s going to push the cost of living up.”
Mr Janke said politicians, supermarkets, processors and farmers needed to unite to save the Queensland dairy industry.
“I want our Labor government and the LNP to lead and support us in a fair price for our quality milk,” he said.
“Our milk was selling for $1.30 in the year 2000. People forget that it was $1.30 before deregulation and people were buying it and happy.
“The dairy industry is bleeding and we are pleading for help.
“We don’t want a GoFundMe page or donations, we just want you to buy our quality milk at a fair price.”
Unity needed to save the Queensland dairy industry
The Jankes opened their dairy up to government ministers and industry representatives on Thursday to talk about the devastating position the Queensland dairy industry is in.
Shadow agriculture minister Tony Perrett was on hand to hear from an emotional Mr Janke and said government did have a role in supporting the industry.
“I don’t think we’ll ever go back to intervening in respect of regulating prices,” Mr Perrett said.
“And the dairy industry isn’t asking for that. They’re asking for a fair price and I think that fair price needs to be reflected in the supermarkets.”
Queensland Dairyfarmers’ Organisation president Brian Tessmann said this wasn’t a bleeding heart story to save a few dairy farmers.
“Quite apart from all the impacts on local economies that you get from local dairy farmers going out, at a national level we have lost huge amounts of income because we now are a net importer of dairy products,” he said.
“That’s a clear sign that from a national point of view the industry is in trouble and Australia needs to do something about this.”
Mr Tessmann said it was not a matter of just talking about it or feeling sorry for dairy farmers.
“Australia for Australia’s sake needs to sort this out and sort it out really quickly, because it’s an issue that is spread around the country and it’s an issue that will continue around the country,” he said.
Representatives from the Labor government, Woolworths and Coles were invited to attend, but were unable to be there.