Friday, March 29, 2024

THE BRAIDED TRAIL: Thriving dairy markets’ challenges remain

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Global dairy markets continue to grow despite negative sentiment in some quarters. The Climate Change Commission (CCC) expects fewer cows to be balanced by more milk per cow. Man-made ‘udder factories’ are yet to emerge.
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The combined effect of the three latest global dairy auctions has seen US dollar (USD) prices for dairy rise by 11% since Christmas. A farm gate payment above NZ$7 for each kilogram of milksolids (MS) of fat, plus protein for the dairy year ending in May, now looks close to baked in.

This means that for a second year, farm gate prices will exceed $7. This will be the first time that prices have stayed above $7 per kg MS for two consecutive years.

It will also mean that five years have passed since the two bad years of 2015 and 2016. The bad years were largely driven by EU internal quota removals and a consequent surge in EU production.

During the latest five-year period, New Zealand farm gate prices have been over $6 per kg MS every year. Compared to previous times, and in the absence of disruptors, pricing volatility has been much reduced.

Surely it is time for those who have been saying that dairy farming is an industry of the past rather than the future to think again. The messages from the market are that there is actually increasing global demand for dairy. There is also no big secret as to why this is occurring.

In the case of NZ, the biggest driver of what happens is demand from the citizens of China. Currently, approximately 65% of product sold on the Global Dairy Trade (GDT) auction platform goes to China.

For those who say it is terrible that we are so dependent on China, it’s important to understand that the marketing destination decisions are not made by NZ. It is the Chinese companies who are buying NZ products while sitting in their offices in China and placing their bids online.  Most of NZ’s dairy products are still sold as commodities that become ingredients in processed foods. There are good reasons why this situation exists given the seasonality of NZ dairy. Eighty percent of the product comes from Fonterra, and Fonterra has found the hard way where its skillset lies.

There are many in our community who think that synthetic milks will take over within the next 10 to 15 years. I doubt that greatly.

To start with, the plant milks are nothing like the animal milks. Plant milks do not build bonny children. Rice milk and oat milk are inherently low in protein. Soy milk can be high in protein, but many of us are cautious about the health issues of a soy-based milk.

As for lab-constructed milks that mimic animal milks, they have huge challenges to overcome. There are good reasons why animal milk contains both casein and whey proteins. 

Digging deeper, there are good reasons why animal milk contains all of alpha, beta and gamma caseins, and there are also good reasons why there is a multiplicity of whey proteins. There is also the multiplicity of fatty acids. Nature does not produce such complex products by chance.

Even when science solves all of those problems with a manufacturing structure that mimics a real udder, there will still need to be an energy-capture mechanism, be that wind, solar or other mechanism. There will also need to be an energy transfer system, presumably electricity, that brings this energy to the udder factory. It won’t come cheap.

Despite all of those positives, there are still plenty of challenges for dairy in NZ. The first big one is nitrogen leaching. The second is phosphorus runoff plus winter pugging and associated animal welfare. The third is greenhouse gases.

I reckon we already have solutions to the first two within reach, although in saying that I acknowledge that I am outside the mainstream of industry thinking.

I am on record as saying that the future of dairying in NZ will include the use of composting mootels for late-autumn and through winter, where the cows spend much of each day in the mootel defecating and peeing into the bedding.

It might sound strange to the traditional Kiwi way of thinking, but the reality is that composting technology is now available, such that the cows can remain warm, clean and dry with the liquid evaporating away through the roof vents. There is no smell in a properly functioning open-sided composting mootel.

The cows can still go out to graze every day for a few hours as long as they then come back into the mootel to pee, poop and rest. However, in real wet weather, it is best that they are fed hay, silage or other materials within the mootel.

The concept is relatively new and we still have much to learn. But it definitely works as long as things are done correctly. Currently, I have a project funded by AgMARDT to bring together what we already know, and also what we now need to learn, as the concept spreads out across NZ.

From what I can see currently, the economics of the mootel system are good, but for some farmers the issue of finance might be constraining. We also have more work to do on bedding systems and making sure that sufficient sawdust, wood shavings and wood chips can be made available.

The other big issue is greenhouse gases, and that issue is surely not going to go away. The best we can hope for is that the debate is based on scientific principles and logic rather than assertions and emotions.

The good news is that the composting mootel concept is also likely to bring benefits in terms of both methane and nitrous oxide emissions. However, research is going to be needed to document what we currently think happens in the system.

The bad news is that there is still a lot of ignorance in urban NZ as to the extent to which the NZ economy is underpinned by export agriculture.

The recent report by the CCC is going to ramp up climate-related action. The Government is clear in its resolve. I will have more to say about the CCC report at another time. Here, I will restrict myself to some dairy specifics.

The CCC expects that cow numbers will reduce by around 15% by 2030, but provides no specific policy recommendations to make this happen. Rather, the commission sees this happening independent of climate change policies. The commission thinks it will be a consequence of freshwater regulations aimed at reducing nitrogen leaching and phosphorus runoff.

Although cow numbers are expected to drop, there is recognition that dairy is important to the economy. Accordingly, the commission does not expect national dairy production to drop significantly. Rather, it will be less cows but more milk per cow.

The commission thinks that increased production per cow can come from low input systems. At best, this will be challenging. It will require high energy feeds.

The one certainty is that there will be ‘black swan’ events that change many things. As Dwight Eisenhower said a long time ago, “plans are nothing, but planning is everything”. In the meantime, there is a pathway that leads into the maze.

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Keith Woodford was Professor of Farm Management and Agribusiness at Lincoln University for 15 years through to 2015. He is now Principal Consultant at AgriFood Systems Ltd. He can be contacted at kbwoodford@gmail.com Previous articles can be found at https://keithwoodford.wordpress.com

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