Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Calf milk powder shortage dire

Neal Wallace
Calf rearers battling a shortage of milk powder are unlikely to get a reprieve this season with a major retailer warning product delays could continue for another four weeks.
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As if that wasn’t enough, farmers report the price of calf milk replacer, or what some are calling white gold, has increased in recent weeks from $53 for a 20kg bag to $75.

Farmlands chief executive Peter Reidie said his company was not taking any new orders for calf milk replacer (CMR) because suppliers had advised they could not supply any product.

“We have been updated by one of our major suppliers that the issue is significantly more serious than first forecast and delays on product could be up to four weeks.”

The shortage was being felt in both NZ and Australia.

Both Farmlands and Farm Source said demand was double that of last year.

Farm Source director Jason Minkhorst said the extra demand for CMR was driven by more bull calves being reared but also because powder was a cheaper option for dairy farmers to feed their replacement calves than liquid milk.

“To help meet the unprecedented demand all of Fonterra’s CMR production has been diverted into the local market and we have also made food grade whole milk powder available in Farm Source as a calf milk replacer.”

The issue appears to be disproportionately impacting on smaller-scale rearers.

Established Waikato operators like Helen Pidduck and Mark Bocock reported not having any problems.

Pidduck, who reared 5000 calves, said her supplier warned of the pending shortage and, like Bocock who raised 4500 calves, had sufficient CMR for the season.

But a South Island rearer said he was surviving on one or two bags of powder sourced daily.

He had weaned calves early and for those too young, had started using lamb rearing milk powder at a cost of about $100 a bag though it was less nutritious for calves.

But he had no choice.

“There is nothing, there is no milk powder,” he said.

The farmer said at the start of the season he tried to help a CMR retailer satisfy its customer demand by not taking his full pre-placed order but that gesture had now backfired.

He was especially annoyed at the lack of information from that retailer about what stock was available, saying the lack of certainty made planning impossible and forced him to look everywhere for CMR.

“I just kept getting fobbed off.”

Farmlands, Farm Source and Beef + Lamb NZ were all recommending rearers try to source liquid milk and to weigh their calves and, where they could, increase the availability of meal to reduce CMR demand.

The farmer said he approached several dairy farmers for liquid milk and all declined to supply it.

B+LNZ said that to start reducing milk demand, calves should be eating a minimum of 1kg per head per day of a quality calf meal and should be at least 85kg liveweight.

Powder had been offered for sale on internet retail sites with a South Island vender selling one tonne for $4600, which was removed from the site within hours of being placed, and there were other sales of between six and 40 bags for $60 to $120 a bag.

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