Thread: Last Dairy farm in Biggenden closes down

We have never bought any home brand products for this reason. We need to back our farmers . Lets hope the .10cents per lit dose get to the farmers in full but I guess the gov will want there cut as well so farmer won't get the full .10 cents.

$1 milk can't be sustained. We deliberately buy other milk.

I do not buy un branded milk and try to pick the ones I know come from the former dairy farmer co ops. I do recall my grandfather having a dairy farm 1970s which morphed from that to sheep, cattle and cropping when the POMs stopped buying all our milk ( I do not blame them for buying French or German.... honestly- History of EU if you like) 1973 killed a lot of dairy farms.

From a purely economic perspective I assume the good farmers will not only survive but also expand stronger than before due to the sad failures of the less efficient farms which close. Go back even pre 1973 in farming and the solder settler blocks and the amalgamation of them but the efficient business/farmer moved a lot of almost subsistence farmers off the land.

Its sad but a fact that frictional unemployment also occurs at an industry level.

Yes, very sad Dairy Farmers are being paid at best cost price for their product and a lot at below cost. I too don't buy budget milk but most seem to when you see them at the fridges.

Our local Coles 80% for Coles brand 20% for the rest & quite often you have to find some to restock the non coles brand . Woolworth on the other hand about 50% there brand & 50 % the rest & shelves always are well stocked.

What a bastard of an industry to be in. Seven days a week dawn to dark, up to your hips in mud and manure and the Colesworths force the price of your product down below cost of production. Add to that the govt. interference and pork barrelling that sacrificed the NSW and Qld. dairy industries to save the bankrupt Victorian processors.

. Add to that the govt. interference and pork barrelling that sacrificed the NSW and Qld. dairy industries to save the bankrupt Victorian processors.

while I agree it is a hell of a job,there are many farmers doing well.
the DEREGULATION in the 2000s was to get rid of pork
barreling and was to make the economy more efficient. Farmers were given hundreds of thousands to get big or get out.
i think many comments here are not fully informed. Why did the bank foreclose on the farmer. Did he borrow too much at the wrong time? We do not know from the typically slanted ABC report.
Farmers get world price for processing milk and the Victorians can survive on that which is less than NSW and QLD farmers get for liquid milk.

regards Philip A

Small farms are pretty much a thing of the past, At least here in WA it is.
Most of the farms (wheat and Sheep) were about 4,000 acres and that used to be enough to keep a family employed and prosperous But Now the farms are MUCH bigger with much more land needed to become prosperous again.
I imagine that the same would apply to the small dairy farms that are now failing, Its "Progress" unfortunately.