The effects of this drought will be ongoing, including the effects of herd rebuilds and cash flow.
But besides in-drought payments, temporary increases to milk prices, charity, or waiving fees, shouldn’t we also be looking at fairness in the market?
The 10 cents a litre price increases is too little too late for many dairy farmers, with several already having made the decision to sell their herds.
The prices they’ve been paid just haven’t been a fair return, but it’s not all just about money. Getting hold of the right sort of fodder has also been tricky.
That includes sectors such as bee keeping. Bees need to graze too, and with the ordinary season we’re in, one of their usual forages at this time of year, white box, is not flowering.
Also, the reduction in flowering canola through drought and baling for hay has meant less crop on which the bees can forage.
So, apiarists are having to put their bees on agistment away from where they’d normally range.
The rent on their usual sites remains if they are to retain those locations, so the government’s decision to waive those fees will be a huge help – saving tens of thousands of dollars for some.
But it’s no guarantee the bees will survive, and it’s only a short term reprieve. Keeping bees fed costs money.
Meanwhile, the 10c/L milk price increase only regains a fraction of the value lost in the supermarkets’ dairy price wars, as they reluctantly budge on their price. They still have the industry by the short and curlies.
The 10c/L is just to let dairy farmers survive, and barely. If supermarkets were genuine about supporting their supplier base, the farmers wouldn’t be bearing the brunt of their campaigns .
And if government wanted to genuinely support farmers, rather than tinkering around the edges with things like the Farm Household Allowance review, for which there won’t be any recommendations released until well into 2019, it should look at improving competition laws and negotiating powers of producers.
If producers were able to negotiate a fair price – be it with almond orchards for their bees, or supermarkets for their end product – they’d be in a better position coming into droughts and there would be less need for the eleventh-hour rent cuts and tokenistic 10c/L price increases from supermarkets.