{"id":13300,"date":"2014-12-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-11T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.farmersweekly.co.nz\/milkflow-falling-rapidly\/"},"modified":"2014-12-12T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-12-11T11:00:00","slug":"milkflow-falling-rapidly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmersweekly.co.nz\/news\/milkflow-falling-rapidly\/","title":{"rendered":"Milkflow falling rapidly"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> < 1<\/span> minute<\/span><\/span>

\u201cIt was a great start to the spring and that\u2019s low cost milk to produce,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we\u2019re seeing that come back rapidly on a week by week basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t wish drought on anyone but believed milk supply would drop back at an even more rapid rate over January, February and March.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A dry patch anywhere in the country would see dairy farmers return to more traditional farming practices, using hay and silage made onfarm and not looking to buy in supplements as they did last year.<\/p>\n

Wilson said farmers were good business people and had seen the opportunity to fully feed their cows to make the most of last season\u2019s high milk payout.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But with high stocking rates and a much lower payout in view farmers were already culling more heavily and reducing their use of supplements.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to stay on the grass curve but there\u2019s always the temptation to push production,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It was critical to maintain New Zealand\u2019s low-cost production advantage because consumer demand was holding at similar levels to those seen in recent years, which he saw as a reason for optimism.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fonterra\u2019s strategy put it in a good position to take advantage of that thirst for milk despite the difficult position dairy farmers found themselves in for the short term.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a bubble of milk on the world market and that\u2019s very unfortunate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a very strong co-operative but we\u2019re being deeply buffeted by global dairy prices.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fonterra’s milkflows are running more than 3% ahead of last season but chairman John Wilson says he will be surprised if they reach the 2013-14 level.\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":13301,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t