State of Play: The Road to Recovery

When weather events strike, often what’s left in the destructive path is not only a clean-up but a community coming together to get businesses back up and running. During the February and March 2022 floods, the entire dairy industry rallied together to support the farming communities who were impacted – from Northern NSW, Darling Downs, and the South Coast of NSW, to Gympie region, and many other regions across SE Qld and NSW.

Here, Lactalis’ National Milk Supply Team talk to the current state of play for farms in the affected communities…

1) How were farmers impacted? 

Lactalis had approximately six farmers who were significantly affected by the floods and associated weather. We also had several others who were partially affected or impacted indirectly – for example some farms may not have been impacted but roads to access the farm were inaccessible meaning milk collections could not be made.

Some of the seriously affected farmers had damage to not only their dairy operation, but also their personal dwellings and other possessions. Many farmers had not seen a weather event of this scale and magnitude ever before, and the effects have been extremely wide reaching. It is fair to say that the impact of this weather event has been very significant, and while some farmers are showing great resilience and striving to recover, in some instances, a full recovery may not be possible.

2) How about livestock? 

Lactalis farms overall have been lucky in that there have been only minimal losses of cows. However these type of events still have a long lasting impact on a farming operation. Dairy cows do not like stressed environments and the health and welfare of a cow is critical to it being able to produce good quantities of milk. One of the lingering issues after a flood is that cows could suffer from mastitis and many cows have been very stressed during this time which is also impacting farming operations greatly.

3) How has milk supply been impacted?

Milk supply has been impacted significantly by these events. It varies quite considerably across the regions and we are still seeing milk supply being impacted. We anticipate that milk supply will remain affected in certain regions for some time to come.

4) What is the role of our National Milk Supply Team during a weather event such as this? 

Immediately upon the notification of the rising waters, our field officers (who are located in the regions) met with Dairy Australia. All processors and farmers reported on the status of each farm.

Having identified concerns, a coordinated plan was put in place. Part of this plan included daily catch ups for the purpose of support and monitoring. It also allowed for Lactalis to assist other processors in circumstances where they were affected by rising waters.

 

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